I had planned a photo session this afternoon with Freckles the bunny so I could do a post about her turning 7 years old this month, but in the midst of trimming her nails and brushing her coat out, this happened and these photos are way cuter than any I took in the back yard.

Freckles has always been a very laid-back bunny and at 7 she is even more so. Nothing bothers her, nothing freaks her out and that probably explains why she’s always been so healthy. (Knock wood!) Bunnies are prone to stress, of course, and that stress leads to all sorts of health problems.

Anyway… trimming her nails is easy; I just roll her into an almost ball on my lap, facing away from me, and trim away.

After the nail trimming was done, I turned her around in my lap to face me and worked the magic of the bunny whisperer. This mostly consists of rubbing the fur on her belly.

As she relaxes, I gently run my hand over her face and draw her ears behind her. This really, really relaxes her and I don’t have to hold her at all.

Her front paws go up in the air with her back legs in a perfect imitation of a dead bunny. She’ll stay like this forever too, so long as I stroke her face every now and again.

Freckles also likes to sleep this way sometimes, causing untold numbers of near heart-attacks in those not familiar with the *dead-lop-flop*.

Rabbit experts will tell you that there is no magic in this gentling of a bunny. We call it *trancing* and it’s probably based on an instinctual response to being grabbed by a predator. Some people use this trick to trim nails or give meds, but I don’t trust it enough because the bunny can wake up in a flash and twist off your lap and hurt itself. Freckles is the only bunny here I’m able to trance, even though I never need to.

What about your buns? Can you hypnotize them – do you need to?

Most housebunny owners are somewhat obsessive about bunny-poop. People surfing the internet looking for pictures of rabbit poop bring a lot of traffic by this blog. So I thought I’d repost this one from a coupe years ago.

Unless a rabbit has a physical problem, oftentimes the cause of less-than-perfect-pooties is a lack of fiber in the diet or too much starch. Rabbits need huge amounts of hay and very little of the other stuff that people like to feed bunnies. If there is a problem, you’ll notice your bunnies’ pooties getting smaller and smaller. It’s all about knowing what’s *normal* for a particular bunny. The photo at left shows a sample from the bunnies that live here. The pooties on the right are from the Flemmies and are marble-sized. All the way on the left are the pooties of a bunny that isn’t a good hay eater and it shows in her poops. A rabbit that eats a lot of very high-fiber hay, like oat hay, will have beautiful, light-colored flakey pooties. (Oh gosh, listen to me! – I am not obsessive!)

Many people who haven’t encountered a rabbit, outside of a backyard hutch rabbit, are surprised to learn that they can be litter-trained. In fact, most rabbits will train themselves to use a box, so long as you put the box where they want it. My bunny Dora was difficult in this regard, because she refused to use the litterboxes that were in her cage. She “held it” overnight and darted out of her cage to the corner litterbox first thing in the morning. She did the same thing while I was at work. Why she had this peculiar habit I don’t know, but she was proof positive that rabbits are “clean” animals. It’s the way that most people keep them that makes many think otherwise.

An important part of training a rabbit to use a litterbox is to set up the box in such a way that a bunny will like to go there. It has to be cleaned regularly. I set mine up with a pelleted-wood product for litter and fill it to the brim with hay. The bunnies will munch hay and poop at the same time. Most bunnies here also seem to find their box to be a convenient place for a nap or a snuggle-session. You can see Boomer and Cricket in one of their boxes with barely an inch to spare!

If you’re really interested in learning more about bunny poop, a good article (with photos!) is available here.

Okay bunny people… I need a pep talk or a kick in the butt or something, please.

Missy… she’s 7 years old now… youngish for a bunny, but she’s been sick for so long. For at least 3 years I’ve been trying to manage this respiratory infection she has – Pseudomonas – if you care to read about how impossible it is to get rid of. I did the antibiotics (oral and injectable) but saw little long-term benefit. I tried nebulizing her with little result. So I settled for managing it with long-term Baytril. The last six months or so it’s not been managed well at all. The discharge from her nose and eyes is constant; to the point that I can’t keep up with it and most of the fur from one side of her face is always in the middle of falling off and regrowing. Not comfortable or pleasant-looking.

The last two months or so she’s not been grooming herself at all. Her face is so tender that I almost don’t dare touch it. I have to clean her ears for her. She’s not able to manage a litter box anymore so I moved her into a hay-filled cage. A desperate act, that, for me. Things just keep getting worse… her bottom is a mess, despite what I can do in that regard. A full in-the-sink-bath (another desperate act) didn’t help. She’s almost lost use of her back legs and can’t get out of her own way. Very sad.

But… she still loves her hay and salads. And perks up to be petted and fussed over. I’m just feeling like I’m not taking care of her properly, like she’s beyond getting better and will only continue to get worse. Until it’s just all sadness and being uncomfortable, you know?

I don’t know that I have it in me to put her to sleep, but it’s so hard to watch this happening and feel like there isn’t anything I or my vet can do. I think I know what I need to do; I just don’t quite have the courage yet.