Rabbit far too hot

[Hedgehog80]

We have a lovely rabbit, 3 yrs old, a Rex rabbit.

He was an indoor bunny but since April has been outside in a huge hutch (double the size of previous indoor cage) and he has a lovely big run he goes in every day.
He was overweight but since moving outside he's lost a lot but still within healthy range

He has been far too hot the last few day, even in the shade he's panting and looks dishevelled (?sweaty) and lying on his side. Come evening time he perks up as it's cooler but I'm worried about him in the day

Is there anything else apart from keeping him in the shade that we can do to keep him comfortable in this heat?

I don't have experience with rabbits but do with Guinea Pigs but a couple of things that may be worth trying are filling plastic bottles with water and freezing them and then placing them in the hutch for bunny to lie against not sure if you may have to wrap an old tea towel round it? Do you have or can you get a ceramic floor tile to put in the hutch it may be cooler than straw or shavings to lie on. I know with Guinea Pigs the advice was that if you think they are suffering from heat stroke to wrap them in a damp towel and then get them to a vet asap. Anyway hopefully some experienced bunny owners will be along with great advice soon, hope bunny gets on OK.

Poor Lad, I worry about our Super Furries (we have guinea pigs though, not rabbits)

Has he got unlimited access to his run? They are more active dawn and dusk. If he has a shaded area he'll take himself there by choice.

Can you put his run where he can get a breeze through (our pigs have a fan in their Pighouse and we can take the windows out to give a breeze. Window frames are reinforced with mesh+wire+bars )

Has he got a water bottle in the run? Does he drink at all?

I bought some of those flat chiller packs (about the size of a paperback book) which I can wrap in newspaper for my pigs to sit on, and I've got some leftover ceramic floortiles that can go on the floor. (Again with newspaper they don't like flat shiney ground)
You can freeze water in 2litre soft drink bottles and put them on their side.

And hay - I'm reducing the hay bedding now and giving hay in a big container (wire mesh basket type) with cardboard shredding for bedding.

Is he on his own? Rabbits should be with rabbits. Even more so if he's outside. Can you get him a spayed female?
Is he neutered?

These past couple of days are just the start, it will get hotter and more intense. The ground gets like concrete here (Essex) and I worry about the state of the grass after our pigs have mown it.

Cross Post with MyGirl ( I am a slow typer )

Brilliant idea about frozen water bottles/freezer packs wrapped in a towel I will do that for him tomorrow

He only goes in run early morn/evening as we are out all day and lots of foxes round here and also a neighbours dog sometimes gets in to our garden so it doesn't seem safe but he gets about 4 hours a day in it. Water in there too

He is neutered but I thought if we introduced another rabbit he would fight it? I didn't want to stress him out

If he overheats you can wet his ears slightly, they will be the hottest part of his body and is the only way rabbits can loose heat.

You can cover the hutch with a towel to keep the direct heat off of him or bring him in during the hottest part of the day.

Please make sure your rabbit is vaccinated against myxi and vhd, it's one injection and worth it.

Yes he's had his vaccinations and has a health check when has nails clipped. He's not overweight anymore luckily !

Get hold of something like Rearguard (I washed our two female guineas this weekend, their bums were a bit grubby, our neutered boar has been courting . Female guineas pee backwards so they can spurn his advances but they get a bit sticky and I don't want them attracting flies)
Thankfully I can tell when they're in season and it's literally a day for them.

I bought them FlyGuard but discovered it's Ivermectin which they have in their Xeno drops.

WRT a mate, a Rabbit Rescue would give you all the advice about pairing up (I could advice you how to match guineas but that's no use for you )