A question from Travis J. in Long Island, NY:
Q: I have a 5 year old Dwarf Rabbit. She is in great health- she is spayed, has a healthy diet and goes in regularly for check ups with her exceptional vet. Every so often, usually after jumping out of the cage and running around a bit, when she sits down or relaxes for a moment- she begins to twitch (her entire body). It looks similar to when someone has the hiccups. Its usually about 10 twitches lasting about 15 seconds. If I walk to her and pet her during the twitches, she stops twitching. Sometimes she will continue twitching the moment I take my hand off of her. Have you ever heard of this?
A: You correctly identified this weird twitching behavior as hiccups, although it is strange because when a hiccuping rabbit is touched, she does stop twitching (suggesting the behavior is voluntary to a certain degree). It can be scary to see, especially the first few times, because it looks somewhat painful or like a seizure, but it's just regular old hiccups.
As usual, make sure your rabbit is eating and drinking normally, in case the hiccups are being caused by disturbances in the GI tract. Other than that, it's most likely nothing to be worried about!
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8 comments:
Thank you! We had the same question about our new dwarf rabbit.
oh I had no idea that rabbits have hiccups, this ins f¡very informative thank you so much, Now I ca identify when my rabbit have hiccups and I guess he does have, I have noticed a similar behavior
So glad I found this post/blog! I've had 3 rabbits in my past. My boyfriend and I just adopted a baby rabbit from a bad situation, 4 months old now! She did the hiccup thing, I panicked since I had never seen any of my previous bunnies do anything like that! Glad it's nothing serious!
My rabbits hiccup all the time at first i was wondering if it was anything serious like a seizure but im so glad they are ok.
My rabbit was acting funny and I was quite worried thought maybe was seizures but was glad to that was hiccups,I also checked you tube and some videos on there are exactly how she acts,thank god for sites like this :)
Is it possible for a bun bun to have the hiccups but have only his head twitch? I've read multiple things that say when a rabbit hiccups the whole body will twitch. I think my bun had a couple hiccups tonight, but only his head was twitching. He appeared to be normal after his little spell.
My rabbits hiccups lasted more than just a few; is this normal?
My rabbit has been hiccuping for more than 1 day, should I be worried?
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