Can't explain sudden death of 2-month-old rabbits

[Tracy S]

Hi everyone, I'm new to raising rabbits and am raising my first litter of kits to slaughter weight. They are New Zealands, 8 kits, have been weaned for several weeks. Since being weaned, their diet has consisted of alfalfa pellets, dandelions, plantain, raspberry leaves, radish greens, kale. and timothy hay. They have constant access to salt and mineral wheels, which they don't seem very interested in. I've been keeping them all in a single large cage suspended from underneath a deck. They've been thriving, absolutely no sign of illness, until this morning when I noticed two of the eight not coming to greet me as they normally do when I arrive with food. They appeared lethargic and were uninterested in food. I brought them inside and tried to give them water from a small straw. Their condition continued to deteriorate rapidly and they started to show signs of distress and loss of muscle control - both were dead within two hours.

One of the rabbits had feces stuck to it's bottom, the other did not. The only thing I could see potentially causing a sudden negative state in rabbits is heat, as we're in South Carolina, but the temps have not gotten above the mid-80s in the last couple of weeks and the area where the rabbits are kept is very shady and much cooler than the rest of the yard. The only other major change recently is we had about 4 solid days of rain, unusual for this time of year, but that ended several days ago.

The remaining six kits appear to be as healthy as can be. I am terrified that whatever killed these two kits could affect the others - I would appreciate any suggestions from experienced rabbit handlers or vets as to what may have caused or contributed to this...

Thanks in advance,

Tracy

 

[cheepo]

I am very sorry for your loss...
and really shouldn't comment because I don't know much about raising rabits...but the first thing that springs to my mind..
is pesticide poisoning..

 

[pinkfox]

i had a rash of unexplained losses in may that realy threw me off so i feel for you.

in my case i THINK the culprit was bad water bottles, the bottles were forming vacumes and not allowing any water flow..rabbits cannot live long without water in general an not enough water will contriribute t the other BIG killer of rabbits...blockages. (i almost lost my little holland buck to an upset tummy)
given you said one had poop stuck to its but my first through would be something dietary (this could be something as simple as eating too much, rabbits have realy sensitive igestive systems)
not drinking enough, followed by parisites would be my other 2 guesses...

but sometimes rabbits cna just go down hill for seemingly no reason and the only way to realy tell is to necropsy (and even then you may not find any symptoms or cause)

*hugs*
its so frustrating to loose them for seemingly no reason.

 

[Tracy S]

I appreciate the quick responses...

In my case, the water bottle has luckily not had any issues dispensing water...and these little guys go through a LOT of water.

In regards to the possibility of pesticides, we don't use any pesticides anywhere on our property (as evidenced by our bumper crop of dandelions) and there is a buffer of 20-25 feet between where the rabbit cages are and our neighbor's fences - I (perhaps naively) believe that any pesticides my neighbors might use would not be able to reach the rabbits (I've never seen them spray anything). HOWEVER, I did just find out that the apple peels which another neighbor gave me for rabbit treats are not organic as she stated they were - I had only given them to the kits one time and then stuck them in the freezer to give out sparingly as bunny popsicles. I looked this morning at the bag and found produce stickers on some of the peels which prove they were conventionally raised. It's been about a week since I fed the kits a peel or two each - I don't know if pesticide from the peels might take a week to manifest, or perhaps the peels caused a blockage?

 

[terri9630]

My guess is that it was a combination of heat and humidity. Rabbits just don't handle it well. I've lost several on days that I didn't think were hot but looking back they were also humid days.

 

[DianeS]

Heat could definately do it, and so could blockages. Those tend to be the culprits of mystery deaths. Since you're prepping to butcher anyway, I'd suggest you practice on those two, and see if you can see anything inside. A blockage would be visible, if you find one it would answer your question.

Sorry for your loss. Rabbits are surprisingly fragile creatures.

 

[Team Chaos]

I have never raised rabbits, but when I read the "4 days of rain" I thought I'd ask about Coccidiosis. If we get a lot of rain and some of my chickens take ill, you can almost bet that'll be the cause. I hope every one else stays healthy!

 

[Tracy S]

Thanks everyone...

You know the thought crossed my mind to butcher them just for practice, but I was (and still am) leery of opening up an animal that died of a mystery illness...pity, that hopefully would have shown blockage. Coccidiosis I was unfamiliar with and will read up, thanks for that suggestion. Should I worry about garden beds I've put rabbit poop into if coccidiosis is potentially present? I've been using the heck out of the poop, it's worth more to me than the rabbits' meat...

The thing that bothered me more than losing the animals was that they were obviously in pain at the end...if I see any of the others appearing the same in the near future, do you think I should just go ahead and put them out of their misery?

 

[pinkfox]

if they were obviously in pain Blockage would then be the most likely culprit

I would try and make it an at least once daily thing to feel the abdomens, rabbits should generally always have pellets in thier intestines so its VERY normal to feel little lumps and bumps in the tmmy/groin area, but their shouldnt be any large clusters or "traffic blocks"(where it feels like the pellets are realy close togehter) and if you feel anytinglike that (or the buns start exhibiting symptoms like going off food, or grinding the teeth, dose with mineral oil, about 1/2 a cc twice a day orally for 2-3 days. if it is a blockage hopefully its a small one and the mineral oil will lubricate it and get it moved...

generally i dont euthanize rabbits unless there showing serious pain symptoms for more than 6 hours and nothng ive done has seemed to help...generally when a rabbit starts showing symptoms of pain...its not got long left.

 

[the funny farm6]

you might look up entritis in bunnies
general signs are blotted bellies, grinding teeth, not eating, hunched up...

treatment:

you will need:
1)Neomycin sulfate (marketed as goat scours meds)
2)bounce back (should be in the same area as the above)
3) suringes
4)infant gas drops
5) plain yogurt
6) carrot or mixed vegies baby food

remove all food, or in your case the effected babies.
provide hay and old fashened oats ( the kind you would get at the store for yourself)
mix 1/2 tsp neomycin sulfate and 1T bounce back and 4 oz water. siringe feed as much of that as they will take.
then 1cc of the infant gas drops.
followed by yougurt

this is day 1
do 2X per day for 5 days to 1 week.
after the first day start adding a siringe of the baby food

push the bounce back several times a day (1 tablespoon to a cup of water)

not sure if this is what your bunnies had but you can look it up and keep an eye out for it. i had babies come down with this last summer and i only lost 1 of 5 that came down with it.