Question
Trancing a rabbit (See How do I trance my rabbit?) is used as a method for controlling the pet while doing some grooming to scent glands and toenails. I have received some questions about possible, long term cumulative negative effects, and I am looking for answers that document long term negative impacts to the rabbit.
Answer
Trancing is, for those unaware, the use of the natural fear state of prey animals to go into a near death-like state in order to convince predators that they are dead and should stop being attacked. This is called tonic immobility or TI for short. The immediate side-effects of coming out of TI include things like increased respiration, heart rate, and plasma corticosterone (a steroid found in many animals).
So, if you consider that that basic situation is that the rabbit has been put into a state of extreme fear and that the response after release is to escape and hide which, after all, is the purpose of TI in the first place, then the significant impact would be to its trust in humans and its willingness to engage in their surroundings. The impact would only get worse the more frequently the rabbit is tranced and when tranced for long periods of time.
In effect, the long term negative is to make the rabbit generally regular feel fear and anxiety in an environment that they can't get out of. The health impacts of that can include:
- Sudden death as a result of increased arterial hypertension, hypotension, and heart failure from increased adrenaline in the system. Basically, the rabbit might not actually trance at some point, they might actually die. Essentially scared to death.
- Exertional myopathy which is basically a muscle disease that can become acute through repeated stress and fear. There's a lot of potential problems that can result as a consequence of that as the linked abstract discusses.
- Immediate injury as a result of escaping from the situation post trance. The rabbit is in fear, its reactions will not be normal.
In general, I would resort to trancing in only absolute necessity and avoid using it in a regular fashion if it all possible.
Answered By - Joanne C