18/08/2025
🚨 Emergency Hospital Visit – Hershey 🚨
Over the weekend, Hershey gave us quite the scare. His foster mom had just given him and Patty their evening pellets before bed when Patty suddenly began to chase him. In that startled moment, Hershey must have inhaled while chewing — and accidentally aspirated pellets into his airway.
What happened next was terrifying:
🐇 He immediately began struggling to breathe, with large amounts of pellet-filled mucous coming from his nose.
🐇 He even began open-mouth breathing for a short period — a very serious sign in rabbits.
🐇 When he returned to nasal breathing, his breathing still sounded labored and unwell.
Hershey’s foster, Kit, acted incredibly quickly. Thinking on her feet, she cleared Hershey’s airway by suctioning his nose with her mouth to help him breathe again (A good reminder for all bunny parents to keep a baby nose aspirator in your rabbit first aid kit for emergencies like this.)
Unfortunately, OVH was not seeing rabbits that night. Thankfully, OAESH was able to take Hershey in right away. By the time he arrived, he was cold and stressed. He spent time warming up in an oxygen cage, received an injection to calm his breathing, and was closely monitored. After a few hours, he started to act more like himself again and was sent home on antibiotics to prevent infection from the aspiration.
💜 We are so relieved Hershey is okay, but this was an extremely stressful moment for both his foster family and myself — especially as I was several hours outside of the city camping and could only help over the phone. I am so thankful to Kit for her calm, compassionate care of both Hershey and Patty during this emergency.
🙏 How you can help: Hershey’s emergency bill totaled $480.77. As emergency clinics require immediate payment, I had to cover the cost on my personal credit card. Our funds are already very low, as recent fundraisers have gone directly to outstanding vet bills, so we would deeply appreciate any donations towards Hershey’s care.
➡️ Donations can be made by e-transfer to: [email protected]
We have more fundraising on the way, including an original artwork sale by Janet Beath and our Fall Online Auction — but in the meantime, every contribution towards Hershey’s bill makes a huge difference.
Thank you, as always, for standing with us in these moments of need. Your support is what allows us to keep helping rabbits like Hershey. 💕
📷 For educational purposes, I’ll post a photo of Hershey’s face at the time of aspiration in the comments — so rabbit parents know what signs to look for if something like this ever happens.
