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Original poster

Are our rabbits ill?

25 replies

Blu · 19/07/2007 14:25

They like to spend the night on top of a set of shelves in the shed they live in, but hop down diring the day and postter about in thier outside run.

Today, they have sat gluimly together on the top shelf.

Are they ill? I ran out of Excel pellets for dwarf rabbits and gave them (as an emergency) Excel 'ordinary' pellets. They do look different, and i don't think the rabbits have eaten them.

eeek!

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Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 14:26

Also - I doused them with 'rearguard' on Sunday and it said that might affect thier appetite for 24 hours -they were fine yesterday.

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southeastastra · 19/07/2007 14:26

what's rearguard? is it for flystrike?

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 14:27

yes - it was a prescription fly-strike preventative from the vet. They haven't had fly strike.

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southeastastra · 19/07/2007 14:31

was it expensive? i didn't realise you could get this for them, it's probably what's making them off colour

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 14:34

Yes! It cost £15!

I have seen some stuff in the pet shop that cost about £9, though.

Would it take from Sunday until today to make them off colour?

I should call the vet, shouldn't I?

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southeastastra · 19/07/2007 14:37

probably best to call the vet for advice if you can. though the heat yesterday made my rabbits quite sleepy during the day.

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 14:51

Unlikely that heat is a problem here...I will get their usual pellets, call the vet...aaargh - have more than enough to do, why did we get rabbits.
oh well - they are v sweet.

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Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 14:52

And, thank you, southeastastra.

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southeastastra · 19/07/2007 14:53

that's ok, it's reminded me to check out my rabbits rear ends!

batters · 19/07/2007 15:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 17:55

OK, crisis averted.

They are not ill, they were stuck.

Damn bunnies.
My Mum is looking after DS while I am at work and rang me to say they are still sitting in the old grill pan they have chosen as a bed and looking off colour and have not been down all day. It is quite high up - the third shelf of an IKEA storage shelf - 5' high, maybe, but they regularly climb up and leap down.

Do I dashed home, prepared to take them to the vets - and just as an experiment, lifted them down. One immediately had a long drink and the other dived into the bowl of new pellets which I had colllected from the pet shop on the way home.

Obvioulsy hungry and thirsty, and now they are hopping about as usual.

Don't know why they have both sudenly lost the ability to get down.

Batters - R's dd is moving into our house for 3 weeks, on rabbit duty etc - I'm sure your dd could pop round and look after them when she feels like it. I'll call you.

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Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 17:56

and...yes, how awful to have to pay £100 for a CAT....think of the handbag you could have had.

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SpiderBaby · 19/07/2007 17:58

I am sorry but I amreally laughing that they were stuck and not ill

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 18:30

yes...and my staff will be ROFL as I ran out of the office saying 'have to go...our rabbits are dying'!

I am a very inexperienced rabbit owner.

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SpiderBaby · 19/07/2007 19:26

LOL. It is really funny Blu!

SpiderBaby · 19/07/2007 19:26

I can imagine them sitting opn the top tier looking at you thinking and saying to one another "when is this bloodyb woman going to get us down fgs" "we are going to diiiiee"

PotatoOfDoom · 19/07/2007 19:29

IME Rabbits aren't the most intelligent of critters

southeastastra · 19/07/2007 20:17

they were stuck? maybe they saw a mouse

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 21:45

I did wonder if they were traumatised by a rat.

I have now moved the grill pan down to the middle shelf - and one rabbit was sitting in it when I locked them up a moment ago.

The other was....back on the top shelf.
I have lifted her down for my own peace of mind.

Intelligent they are not!

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southeastastra · 19/07/2007 21:54

aw no they're just scatty and nervous

you don't have trouble with foxes do you?

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 22:02

Foxes patrol the wall around our garden like hungry sentries. But I have only ever seen one fox jump down into the garden, and it was a young one which was panicking and trying to get out again.

The rabbits live in the shed, with a hatch (like a small cat flap) out into a run. I was so anxious that foxes would get into the run (which has fox-proof wire) that I have dug a layer of chicken wire under the rabbits turf, and pegged the run down with tent pegs so that a fox couldn't turn it over! (it is bolted to the shed, too)

But we have had a rat problem and I wondered whether a rat had scared them.

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southeastastra · 19/07/2007 22:08

something must have scared them, they freeze (silly creatures) and remain in one place when scared don't they.

sounds like you have made a lovely home for them.

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 22:19

Aha - I wonder if that is what happened? Maybe a fox or cat - or even a squirrel - looked at them in a menacing way yesterday evening, and they were too afraid to come down all day. I did wonder how they both simutaneously lost the ability to leap down. And they did seem very nervous and scatty when I put them back on the floor.

I lock the cat-flap at night so that they are secure in the shed - but it was quite late when I locked it last night and they were already on the shelf.

Yes, they have the run of the whole shed - which has been cleared for them, and has a log cabin, a fold-out warren and some plant pots to hide in - and a big outdoor run. And I'm still thinking of creating a warren-style circuit of drainpipes round the garden for them to run through.

But DP won't hear of it

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southeastastra · 19/07/2007 22:22

mine are menaced by slugs atm.

i have a run for my rabbits but when i put them in it they just sit there. they're so unfit. i would love the space to build them a warren type thing.

Original poster
Blu · 19/07/2007 22:37

Slugs? LOL!
Ours are Netherland Dwarfs and very fit and lean - they stretch flex and do look like fit little beasts!

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