Bobby Had A Fit Today :-(

It hasn't been the best of days; Bobby had a fit today.

It was a bit of a shock.  We had my parents over for the day and following a little Spring jaunt we came back to the house and went to visit the piggies and buns up in their bedroom.  My Mum and Dad loves seeing them so we had some fun with the piggy brothers; Scooby, Stewie and Timmy running about playing together.

Then we noticed Bobby behaving really strangely in her cage.  Her body was almost contorted and she had her head tucked weirdly underneath her; I couldn't figure out what she was doing.  I lifted her out of the cage immediately and knew something was wrong.  Normally she'd have struggled herself free or at least made some sort of verbal in-compliance.  When I held her on my knelt lap I realised she was having some sort of a seizure.  Her feet were moving erratically and her head was skewiff, her nose and mouth looking very wet.  I could only think she'd caught something off us from being outside, perhaps having an allergic reaction.  I felt her dewlap and to me is felt strange, like it was filled with fluid or ballooned, which fueled my worry that she was experiencing a bad reaction to something.  I tried to calm Bobby by gently stroking her and talking to her while my other half, Sean, rang our vet, Stanhope Park Veterinary Hospital in Darlington.  They said to go straight down when he told them what had just happened.

I was so upset even when she stopped fitting because she wasn't herself; she felt hot, especially her ears, and her breathing was rapid.  She kept yawning in her carry box on the way to the vets which is always a sign of Bobby getting stressed.  I just tried to reassure her by stroking her in her box on my lap.

When we got to the vets I was surprised by how full the waiting room was, I don't think I'd ever seen it so busy before which was just typical.  We found somewhere to sit and waited to be called.  I was really concerned that Bobby was in distress and was in total disbelief as we watched other people's appointments being taken.  It appeared Bobby wasn't being treated as an emergency, when in the past at previous vet practices we'd have been called straight into a consultation room right away.  Why on earth routine appointments and pet collections were more important is beyond me.

When we were finally called it was a vet nurse who initially assessed Bobby, for the vet to follow in shortly after.  She couldn't give a reason why Bobby had a fit, adding that we couldn't know whether she may have had seizures before this occasion.  The vet said it can be a sign of diabetes and so took a small sample of blood taken from Bobby's ear.  It showed normal results.  I asked about the strange feeling in the dewlap too but that apparently was normal as well.

We mentioned again that Bobby is in the PDSAs Pet Fit Club and that she's been on a new diet of Excel Light Nuggets.  The vet popped Bobby on the scales (which again read as 2.41kg) and said that Bobby is an extremely fat rabbit, also asking is she's been spayed.  Bobby hasn't been spayed because of the risk of an operation while over weight, which was actually the same vet's recommendation a while ago.  We know Bobby is heavier than she ought to be which is why we're doing all we can to get her more active.  It doesn't help to have your own vet say that getting an overweight rabbit down to size is virtually impossible because 'they're not like wild rabbits'.  If we abide by that attitude we all may as well give up now.

So as it stands we don't know why Bobby had a fit, and it's extremely worrying not knowing.  I've never experienced it before so it's an awful shock to see your pet reacting in such a violent way.  If anyone has a rabbit, or indeed any pet, who has had seizures I would be really keen to hear from you.  I just hope Bobby doesn't have any more of them.

Becky x