# Body twitching, fast heartbeat?



## pani (Dec 27, 2013)

Hello everyone!

Felix has been quite energetic tonight, running around the living room and binkying up and down. However just a few moments ago while he was lying down next to his frozen water bottle, I noticed he was doing some large full body twitches. They weren't occurring very frequently - probably only once every 20-30 seconds. He'd twitch, get up and run around a little, maybe do a binky, lie down again and rest a few seconds before beginning again. 

He appears to have stopped now and is just lying still against his bottle, but I've noticed his heart is beating very fast. As far as I can remember he's always had quite a fast heartbeat, but it also seems a bit heavier as it's moving his ears back and forth pretty quickly tonight, almost like they're shaking.

Am I just overreacting? I'm keeping an eye on him and the twitching has stopped now, and he seemed completely happy even while it was happening.


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## pani (Dec 27, 2013)

As an update, he's no longer twitching and his heartbeat doesn't seem especially fast.


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## JBun (Dec 27, 2013)

Could the twitching you are seeing be hiccups? Hiccups look like that, and the rabbit will be looking and acting normal in every other way.

The fast breathing and ears shaking, could be due to your rabbit being hot and trying to cool down. Rabbits will breath faster to help try and cool their bodies down. With it being summer where you are, that is something you want to keep a close eye on, to make sure your bun doesn't get overheated.


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## lovelops (Dec 27, 2013)

pani said:


> As an update, he's no longer twitching and his heartbeat doesn't seem especially fast.



Has Felix done this before due to heat? Or was it hiccups? Or dreaming? I've had to wake up Lady before because I saw her eyes half closed when she was napping (she sleeps mostly with her eyes half open) and twitching and breathing fast and then she started moving her paws and I knew she was having a bad dream or a dream that was not really good and woke her up. 

Is this the first time this has happened?


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## pani (Dec 28, 2013)

JBun said:


> Could the twitching you are seeing be hiccups? Hiccups look like that, and the rabbit will be looking and acting normal in every other way.
> 
> The fast breathing and ears shaking, could be due to your rabbit being hot and trying to cool down. Rabbits will breath faster to help try and cool their bodies down. With it being summer where you are, that is something you want to keep a close eye on, to make sure your bun doesn't get overheated.


They looked quite a bit bigger than hiccups. That was my first thought, so I Googled it and saw some videos of buns with hiccups. Theirs were much quicker and smaller. The twitches Felix was doing were full body twitches that almost jerked him back a few centimetres, and I couldn't hear any noise.



lovelops said:


> Has Felix done this before due to heat? Or was it hiccups? Or dreaming? I've had to wake up Lady before because I saw her eyes half closed when she was napping (she sleeps mostly with her eyes half open) and twitching and breathing fast and then she started moving her paws and I knew she was having a bad dream or a dream that was not really good and woke her up.
> 
> Is this the first time this has happened?


He hasn't done it before, or since - I guess he could have been dreaming, but it was odd that he would twitch once, run around for a bit, then lie down and twitch again after a few seconds. He sleeps with his eyes either fully open or only a little bit closed, so it can be tough to tell if he's asleep or awake right now!


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