4 month old is worrying me! (kind of panicking)

[mommaofmany]

I have one rabbit in the house, ( my first baby). He is 4 months old now and while his energy is normal I am noticing racing heart beat, panting and running nose, and lots of cecals. We upped his hay, and started putting less in his bowl pellets wise.

He has been panting for a few days, and he has always been a "lazy" bun, ( holland lop) he likes to just stretch out. Today I realized that his cage was shaking slightly he was either panting so much or his heart was racing. I took him out and his behavior is normal, running around, exploring, wanting affection, and I noticed between his nose and mouth are wet.

Now I am worried. Any ideas???

 

[squidpop]

I don't know but is the room very warm? I know sometimes my young ones get the zoomies, bursts of energy run around really fast, binky and then look panty and hot, could it be that?

 

[MaggieJ]

I haven't had many health problems with my rabbits, but I'd be concerned if one of mine showed those symptoms.

Squidpop is right that you can get wet mouth and nose from excessive heat, but often if the rabbit is in heat distress it will sit with its head tilted up to help it breathe. Is the ventilation in the room good? You don't give us much detail about the rabbit's environment.

Rabbits do have a fast heart rate, but I am assuming that you mean it is faster than normal. I'd be wondering about a respiratory infection.... but as I said, my experience with rabbit illness is minimal, so I hope someone else will chime in on this soon.

 

[LPH_NY]

Could something or someone in the house have scared the rabbit? I used to keep my first buck in the house to give him lots of social time, but as he got older, even normal things, like the cat and dogs that he was used to and the sudden movements from the kids, loud music, fans, etc. started to really freak him out. His breathing would become very labored-looking and his heart would race. I found that I was unable to keep him calm after a certain point... or even help calm him down after something startled him, and that was when he moved outside permanently. He never acted stressed outside, but on the few occasions I brought him back in, he was kind of in a hopeless state of physical panic.

Maybe try putting the rabbit in a dark and quiet place and check on it after an hour or so to see if it has relaxed.

 

[mommaofmany]

He has a big ferret cage, with a loft area. If he is in social distress it is only from not enough petting/ attention. He rushes the side of the cage as I walk past. We let him out and he explores or comes and cuddles. His nose is dry today, maybe sloppy water bottle skills. He still makes the planting/ congested nose though. My house is pretty consistently at 70.