Signs Your Pet Rabbit is Sick

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Sarah and this is Halibut, and I am one of the exotic technicians here at Extra Care Animal Hospital, and on behalf of Expert Village.com, I am going to provide you with some helpful information on owning a rabbit. You might be wondering how you will know when your rabbit is sick. If you rabbit does anything that causes you any worry, you should definitely take him or her to a qualified rabbit veterinarian. Rabbits will sometimes hide signs of illness until they are feeling very sick. One very important thing is that rabbits should always be eating and always be defecating. They move through large amounts of plant matter, so when they stop eating, they go into something called GI stasis or gastrointestinal stasis. All that plant material that they eat stops moving. It makes gas buildup, which makes the rabbit even more uncomfortable, so it is very important that if you ever see that your rabbit isn’t eating or defecating… Sometimes with cats and dogs they can feel a little off for a day or so; dogs might skip a meal, cats might skip a meal. It’s not really a big deal with those guys, but in rabbits, if they don’t eat for even 6 or 12 hours, it can be very dangerous for them. Other things that you may see with your bunny is coughing or sneezing, discharge from the nose or eyes. It is important that if there is any medical issue going on that you get them to a veterinarian’s office as soon as possible. If you would like more information about our animal hospital, you can visit our website at www.extracareanimalhospital.net."