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Sudden death in rabbits

H

halfpenny

Wise Old Thumper
Hi,
just wondered if anybody else had any experience of sudden deaths in bunnies. We lost 2 last year, overnight, with no apparent problems before hand. Both were youngish, neutred males- Scotty was 1 (died in Feb) and Fudge was 2 years old( died in Dec.). They were both paired off with a girl and living very happily. At bedtime they were fed and watered as usual, both went into their food as usual, but we found them dead next morning, looking like they had fallen asleep. We were gutted and beat ourselves up incase we had missed something, checked the bodies fully, but nothing.
When we spoke to the vets, they said they have no idea how common it might be, purely because they don't see the animals as a patient- they haven't been ill and quite often they won't be told its dead, never mind how it died.
I think guinea pigs are prone to heart attack and wondered if this might be possible in rabbits as well.
Any ideas?
 
were they vaccinated??

you cant really tell how they died without a post morterm. someone with more experience should come along....
 
I am sorry for your losses :cry:
Where the boys related?
Could there have been a predator (Fox) about. A Bun can die of fright as a result of a predator.

As has been mentioned without a PM the cause of death cant be determined. And sometimes even a PM does not give conclusive answers.

:cry:

Janex
 
I think e-cuniculi can cause sudden death as well as a multitude of other symptoms, but in general rabbits are delicate - heart disease, liver disease, and maybe for all we know there are variants of VHD virus, or maybe some rabbits don't respond well to the vaccine or something like that - Without a post mortem there's no way of knowing :(
 
My vet once mentioned that she thought that some of the rabbits found 'dead overnight' - especially ones that had just reached FULL adulthood (ie fully grown and 'filled out') were heart deaths - where there was an inherent or genetic defect of some kind. She said this as we had just had a GA death due to previously unknowable defect of some kind - Maybe she was just being kind (saying that he would have died at c1-2yrs anyway) but maybe it is true???
 
I lost Dylan on 1st October last year. When i opened the buns at 7:00am he was fine, when i went to let him out at 1 for a run round he was just laying there and couldnt put any pressure on his legs and just slumped back down again.

I rushed him to the vets and the vet gave us a solution to feed him every half hour but within 2 hours he had died. I think he might have had a heart defect. He was fully vaccinated and his brother was with him at the time.
 
The boys were not related, although they were both rescues and were thin when they came to me at about 2 months old. We still have Scotty's 2 brothers and Fudge's mum, who all appear well.
All our rabbits come in at night to a set of kennels with hutches, mainly because we have so many foxes and badgers around here.
I think I know our rabbits fairly well and feel/ hope I would notice if something was wrong, especially as we'd had them from babies.
 
yeah we lost our beloved mitzi 5years ago at easter time i was on hols mum fed him and let him out of his hutch with rosie to okay put them back in when she went out for hour then when she got home to let them back out found poor mitzi just lying there with rosie by his side nudging him:cry::cry::cry:
 
Sorry to hear about everybody else's losses, hearing its happened to a few people makes me wonder how common it really is.
 
I lost Honeyblossom on Sunday:( She was approx 16 months old and lived with her mum and 2 sisters. They were all happy eating their veg in the morning sun and when I went to feed them again early evening, Blossom had died and was lying in the hutch.
 
sudden death in rabbits

I lost my very first french lop girl Martha who i had bought from a pet shop/show breeder:cry:to sudden death:cry:she was fine when i left her at about 11.30pm. when i went into my shed in the morning she was dead (wedged down the back of a hutch) it was a terrible shock and i rushed her to the vets for a PM:shock:which came back that she had died of pneumonia:cry:
My vet said that a large number of sudden deaths are due to this as it can infect and kill a perfectly healthy bun in an hour:cry:
 
We lost Muffin yesterday to sudden death. PM has identified a heart problem. Poor little guy wasn't even 2 years old and had only had his new wife since November. She is lost without him and as much as I am grieving I will be looking for a new husbun for her shortly.
 
I had three buns die a sudden death all very close to each other. The first one i thought she had broken her neck seems it was wedged inbetween some stuff in her shed. But when the next one died i phoned the vets and they told me to get their VHD jabs asap and keep them in quarantine for a while, so i did but then i lost anotehr bun. luckily the remaining buns are all happy and healthy.
I bought a young buck from a college a while ago and due to poor breeding he had a weak heart- the fire works killed him a week later :(
 
i have sadly lost 2 rabbits suddenly without signs first was Honey alive before i went to work dead when i came back i have suspicisions of an internal abcess but without proof i am unable to blame that. then there was Rolo a little babe i hand reared with his sister his sister died due to a blockage i found Rolo dead 2 weeks later with no signs :( when it comes to sudden death i genrally believe its from something internally as rabbit are good at hiding pain/illness :(
 
worrie me so much that that is going to happen to mine :(:(

every morning if i cnt see them as i go into the garden....i worry
 
are they house bunnies that people have lost or garden bunnies?

if they are outside maybe its fright that causes it??
 
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