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Jessica Rabbit has gone to the rainbow bridge

Mattie_G

Mama Doe
It is so sad.

I just went out to check on Jessica because D'Argo had come in and was nudging my leg and then went to sit at the top of the stairs. I found her lying outside her hutch on her side, gone. Her stomach was all swollen but nothing else looked wrong. She looked peaceful. I had taken her to the vets on Saturday because I felt something was wrong but we couldn't identify anything except she was a bit dehydrated, which seemed odd. She had Baytril and fluids and seemed so much better yesterday eating everything in site and hopping around.

We only got her just over a month ago after Chianna passed away, as a companion for D'Argo. She was a beautiful brown and white Dutch, always one ear up, one ear down. She loved dandelions and carrots and hopping around. She liked digging up the dirt patch in the garden as well, it was so funny to watc her go.

She came from a rescue in Sudbury, and she was just over a year old when we got her.

I hope she enjoys bunnying over the rainbow bridge and eating as much as she wants and never getting fat and digging loads of muddy patches. RIP Jessica, my lovely bunny.
 
Im so very sorry.

Im thinking she had bloat but Ive never come across it.


Rest Easy Jessica.xxx
 
Thanks everyone.

She was a very cool lady - we were all very fond of her, especially D'Argo bunny.


I was trying to figure what the cause could have been because I'm worried that we've now lost two quite quickly but yet D'Argo seems fine. With Chianna, it did seem to be something to do with her nervous system as she couldn't move her legs at the end - the vet reckoned something maybe in the spinal cord somehow.

With Jess she just stopped coming out at the end of last week but I thought I would keep an eye as I knew she didn't like the rain much and it was very rainy. But as I say, I took her to the vets Saturday and they just couldn't find anything wrong and vet said she was very healthy and in good condition. Yesterday she was fine.

One thing that springs to mind is my father in law was cutting the grass in the front and gave her a handful of different weeds, from what I could see it was dandelions and a few thistle-type things. Now I'm wondering if it was something to do with that? I wouldn't usually give her things I don't know - she usually has dandelions, carrots as a treat and then pellets and hay to eat. D'Argo had the same as her though and he is fine and so is Marge the guinea who was out the back with them. So it seems odd :-(

I know you suggested Bloat, Yvette, I'm going to look this up as I haven't heard of it before.
 
I'm so sorry. :( What an awful thing to happen to you. Binky free x

Bloat will kill a bunny very quickly. It's a build up of gas in the stomach and *i think* is usually secondary to stasis but I don't know exactly what happens as I've never had a bunny with full blown bloat. Have you thought about EC? Paralysis can be a symptom of it and not all bunnies will have symptoms, we recently lost a bunny to EC at the rescue I volunteer at. She had head tilt, which she recovered from but the EC had ravaged her kidneys and unfortunately we had to let her go :(. I think sometimes if one bunny gets EC their bonded partner may be perfectly ok. I don't know a lot about EC so I hope somebody will come along to give you better advice. I would certainly look into it though. Is your vet rabbit savvy?
When your other bunny died did you disinfect the hutch before you got Jessica Rabbit?
 
Yes, I did.

I just read up about bloat but the thing is it would have to have been really quick because this morning, she wasn't bloated at all. She was just sitting in her hutch when I last saw her alive and she sniffed my hand and I gave her a stroke and she seemed ok, if not quite herself. I thought I would take her to the vets after work (I work from home) and then I found her dead. I should have gone out to her sooner but I really thought she was so much better yesterday. I should have been more careful.
 
Yes, I did.

I just read up about bloat but the thing is it would have to have been really quick because this morning, she wasn't bloated at all. She was just sitting in her hutch when I last saw her alive and she sniffed my hand and I gave her a stroke and she seemed ok, if not quite herself. I thought I would take her to the vets after work (I work from home) and then I found her dead. I should have gone out to her sooner but I really thought she was so much better yesterday. I should have been more careful.

Did you speak with the vets?

I think that something was going on internally for her. It sounds different from Chianna's issue, if I'm honest. Chances are though, even if you had gone and checked her sooner, she would likely have been too ill by that point.

How is D-Argo doing?
 
Don't blame yourself. Bunnies' digestive systems are very delicate and even a bunny who is not acting "right" can die within a few hours. They hide their illnesses and pain very well because they are a prey animal and can't look ill otherwise they would be predated. This makes it very difficult to know exactly how poorly they really are. If she seemed to be improving then of course you wouldn't have thought she had anything seriously wrong with her. You don't know what was wrong, she could have had something going on internally to cause her to be "off", there is probably no way of knowing exactly what happened to her. You clearly care about your bunnies and sometimes things like this just happen, it's just very sad that it happened so soon after losing your other doe. :(

The main reason we lost the bunny with EC at the rescue was because of incompetent vets, they kept prescribing baytril because they didn't know what was wrong. As soon as we took her to a rabbit savvy vet she got the scan she needed but by then the damage was done, she may not have been able to be saved anyway but my feeling is that she could have been if the vets hadn't spent so much time giving her something that did absolutely nothing for her. Do you know if your vet is rabbit savvy? I would just not be happy with a vet who prescribed anti biotics without knowing exactly what was wrong with her.

These are just my personal feelings and of course if you are happy with your current vets then stay with them.
 
I'm still waiting to hear back :-(

I just spoke to Odies Rescue in case there was anything going round but Emily said no.

I will see what the vet says. It's such a shame.
 
Vegan Bunny - I think the vet on Saturday just didn't know what to do. She was dehydrated but that was the only thing that he could find and so he gave her the fluids and the baytril. He spent quite a while we her going through everything and he did a very thorough examination. I don't know whether another vet could have done better so to speak.
 
Ah it sounds like he gave her a good look over. I agree with Sky-O that there was probably not much the vet or you could have done for her. I'm just so sorry you had to go through this again. :(
She was a beautiful bunny and obviously had a brilliant time with you, just think that in the last months of her life she knew what it was like to be in a loving home and get up to mischief like a normal bunny. :D

D'Argo is GORGEOUS! :love:
 
Thanks. I just spoke to the vet and she seemed to agree. She had re-read the notes and she was the one who attended Chianna and said the conditions were totally different.

I did request some worming treatment for D'Argo just in case as don't want to take any chances with him. They are going to arrange a cremation for Jessy so we need to take her down there.

D'Argo is quite a looker. And a charmer. And utterly adorable. He is such a cheeky boy though - running along the tops of the sofas, climbing on the table, eating sweets that have fallen on the floor :shock: I hope he'll be alright.
 
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