An update on Junior.

An update on my boy

Junior has been without choke episode since 4th January. I was starting to leave him longer and longer with hay but lockdown has set us back to square one in that respect.

My return to work has been delayed because of covid. I have called the dog walkers/pet sitters in the area and nobody will come and see him while I’m at work I’ll need to decide what to do about that before I go back.

I have been been observing him closely the last wee while and have become more and more convinced that all his issues are neurological. One thing in particular convinced me. They have a ferplast cage in their shed. They’ve always had it attached to a pen and after they moved out to the shed I put it out in the hope it would make them a bit more settled (and stop the weeing everywhere!). Their water bowl is down the side of the cage, between the cage and the shed but with plenty space to manoeuvre. The other day, they were side by side drinking when I called them for a treat. Molly was on his right hand side and came to me immediately. Junior turned left, right up against the cage and remained there, front legs in motion with his head pressed up against the cage until I picked him up. It was the strangest thing. He didn’t attempt to stop “walking” and didn’t attempt to turn round the other way.
This was one of his off days. He’d been a bit weird the whole day. Wouldn’t periscope, flicking his ears around and just generally slow and quiet.

Aside from this odd day, I have noticed a remarkable change in him the last 2 weeks. He’s brighter eyed, he’s following me to the shed door when I leave and occasionally even runs to the door to greet me. He’s gone up and down the stairs in the shed for food. He’ll usually wait for me to lift him up/down.

I still have concerns in that he drinks like a fish whenever he eats and he is *so* loud when drinking. I can hear him outside the shed.

The peeing is also still an issue but I’m beginning to think Molly is actually the main culprit. You know when you just know who’s doing what?

I’m not kidding myself that he’s never going to have one of these episodes again but this might be as good as things are going to get for him.

I apologise for the essay!

It is good the choking episodes have calmed down.

There is something definitely going on there. But the question is has the choking caused an issue ( lack of oxygen to brain) or has the issue caused the choking episodes??

Could he possibly have had a seizure without anyone knowing( I'm not that clues up on rabbits and seizure) ???

Xxx

I clean forgot I posted this 


I wonder if he had one true choke and from there on it has been panic at the slightest thing. I don’t know if I’ve ever said this here but I’ve learned that I can snap him out of these episode by waving food under his nose. It’s so weird!!


Junior has always been odd. I always thought he was just quirky but I now wonder if it runs deeper than that. 


Just a few examples. He lived in this house for 7 years and only ever went up and down one side of the stairs. And I tried to get him to use the other side!  He tugs on his toe nails for extended periods. He completely zones out sometimes. He bites and bites and bites the water bowl. Over and over and over. Always has done. 


These are a few examples of his behaviour his entire life but there’s something new I’ve noticed. When I’m out feeding them before bed, I hand feed them pellets. So often, he’ll go to the shadow of my hand before he comes to my actual hand with the food in it!


When I showed the vet a video of one of his episodes they were certain no seizure but that’s not to say it’s never happened.


Unfortunately I think there are questions about Junior we will never know the answer too