Seizure? Bunny spazz out? Strange behavior.

[Sycamore27]

A few nights ago we were sitting watching TV, the rabbit cage is in the corner of the livingroom and out of no where one of the girls started spazzing out. She was jumping around the cage like crazy, then kind of jumping straight up and down in place hitting the top of the cage, then back and forth off the walls again. She continued this complete freak out for a good solid minute, long enough for me to get up and go over and my BF to comment that she may have just broken her neck and we may have to dispatch her.

When she stopped she fell out on her side up against a corner of the cage with her nose through the wire on the side. She was breathing really heavily and her eyes were huge. She wasn't very responsive for a few minutes and didn't move a muscle. I was deciding if I should give her a chance to recover or pull her out right then when she started to move her front legs a bit and moved the front half of her body into a semi-sitting position. Her back legs stayed laid out limp for another minute before she sat all of the way up. She sat strangely, kind of bunched up with her head hanging a bit in front of her for a few minutes, and clear snot/liquid was running out of her nose while she was sitting like that.

I put in fresh feed and water to get the other rabbit in the cage to give her space and after a bit she was hopping around though her back legs seemed a bit stiff and unsteady. Then she started eating and by the time our movie was over she was more of less back to normal. By the next morning she was perfectly fine.

Now a couple days later you can't tell anything ever happened.

This same doe will occasionally run around the cage in an excited/playful spazz out for a minute and then act as if nothing happened, she never seemed to be in distress before this and never seemed to do it in this sort of panicked way. The other doe just thumps at her whenever she does it, and thumped when she had her little episode too but didn't seem too upset by it overall.

Anyone seen something like that before? Or have an idea of what happened?

Thanks,
Jessie

 

[geebee]

It sounds like an epileptic seizure to me. I have dealt with both human and dog epilepsy ( had a border collie who was epileptic). I would definitely have the vet check her out. They can do a blood test to see what may have caused it, and then determine what medication she may need.

 

[Bunnylady]

There is a seizure disorder in rabbits, but it is most often seen in Lionheads.

 

[Sycamore27]

These are Am Chins, they may or may not have SF mixed in a few generations back (that is I know one of them definitely does and not sure about the other).

I'll keep a close eye on them and see if this happens again. These are meat rabbit breeders, still only about four months old, so if she is epileptic I'll probably remove her from our breeding program.

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[Sycamore27]

Well, I have definitely confirmed epilepsy. Witnessed two fits within a few minutes of each other yesterday morning.

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Awww! Poor bunny!
Thats too bad, I probably would remove her from the breeding program as well!!!