4th Male Rabbit to die, WHY?

Okay, I am probably looking for an answer that isn't there, but I am so sad, as this morning we lost our English Spot, Mr Magoo.

We have a heard of 3 girls, Lilly, Jez and Lou and they are all fine and have been for years, but we don't seem to be able to keep a male, none of them have made their second birthday. The first, Bubba mini lion head died from head tilt, the second Mr Mac, from kidney failure, the third, Mr Nesbit from furballs, apparently rabbits can't cough them up like cats and when they live in a heard, they get to much hair in their gut, which builds up, causes a blockage and the first you know is when they die! I know juice pineapple and give them each a syringe full every couple of weeks because this helps to break down the fur - according to the vet. Now this morning, our fourth male passed away whilst I held him, he showed no signs of being ill.

I should point out that they are house rabbits, somepeople child proof their house, ours is rabbit proofed, they have plenty of hay and grass and fresh veg every day, they are vaccinated even though they don't go outside (when we do take them out, they run straight back home again!).

All the girls are now sitting underneath my bed looking really miserable, I know my partner will want to replace him, but I just don't want to go through this again. Can anyone help, I have asked for an autopsy from the vet, but why is it the girls are okay and the boys keep leaving us?

Sorry, I just need to rant and see if anyone had had the same experience or heard of anything.

Tara

Sorry you have lost your boy

It could be a variety of different reasons for each rabbit, so difficult to determine without PM's.

As one of your boys had head tilt there is a possibility that EC may be present in your group - do you Panacur them regularly?

The pineapple juice you give for your buns guts doesn't contain the bromelaide that helps their guts - it needs to be fresh pineapple.

Hope you get an answer from your PM.

Hi :wave: I'm very, very sorry for your loss. It must be horrible to lose so many so young. From your description you keep them very well, and as they have all died of different causes, i think its just horrible bad luck. It seems none of the conditions could really have been predicted or prevented, its just unfortunate, and probably coicindence that they all were male.

If you still have 3 girly buns and they are all happy together, perhaps have a break before introducing a new boy, so you can grieve and feel a bit stronger and more confident.

i have no answers i'm afraid, i just wanted to say how sorry i am that you've lost another bun

Thank you all

Thank you so much all for your kind words. The vets have just phoned and said they couldn't find anything except for some black spots on the lining of his stomach so I have instructed them to do proper lab reports. I just need to know. He was such a character and it broke my heart this morning to be lying on the bed with him and knowing that he was slipping away from me. They are like my children and are spoilt rotten x

VikkiVet said:

Hi :wave: I'm very, very sorry for your loss. It must be horrible to lose so many so young. From your description you keep them very well, and as they have all died of different causes, i think its just horrible bad luck. It seems none of the conditions could really have been predicted or prevented, its just unfortunate, and probably coicindence that they all were male.

If you still have 3 girly buns and they are all happy together, perhaps have a break before introducing a new boy, so you can grieve and feel a bit stronger and more confident.

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Thank you x I love the picture you have used, the brown one looks just like my Lilly x

TaraBunny said:

Thank you so much all for your kind words. The vets have just phoned and said they couldn't find anything except for some black spots on the lining of his stomach so I have instructed them to do proper lab reports. I just need to know. He was such a character and it broke my heart this morning to be lying on the bed with him and knowing that he was slipping away from me. They are like my children and are spoilt rotten x

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awful that he just passed away without any warning signs try to take comfort in the fact that he was with the person who obviously loved him dearly. xxx