Hi Everyone,
Hopefully somebody can suggest some possible reason why my rabbits are dying.
A week ago I had 12 rabbits, in five separate hutches. I found a one year old buck dead in his hutch (where he lived alone) the middle of last week. His hutch is in a part of the garden well away from the other hutches. Yesterday I found two dead rabbits when I checked their hutches in the morning. Each rabbit lived in a different hutch, one is within an outbuilding, the other is outside. Today another rabbit died, again in a different hutch from all the others. So far I have not had two rabbits die who actually live in a hutch together. Just four dead rabbits in four separate hutches and none of the rabbits have ever met (not since the buck last mated about 3 months ago, anyway). So I'm pretty much ruling out the possibility that it is a disease spreading amongst the rabbits due to their isolation from eachother. So I was thinking poisoning was more likely.
All the rabbits have at least an hour in my garden every day. All the shrubs are fenced off with 13mm chicken wire as I don't know whether some may be toxic. Occasionally the rabbits will nibble some tiny bits of leaf through the wire or reach up to an overhanging branch. Of course, with it now being autumn, there is the added possibility of poisonous seeds or berries falling into the garden, or trees with poisonous leaves may drop more at this time of year. However, the rabbits have been out everyday for the past 9 months and nibbled at everything without any ill effects. No new plants have been added this year. I do have a cherry laurel in the garden that has been dropping its leaves into pretty much continually for the last 9 months but all the rabbits have been nibbling on the leaves for the past 9 months with no ill effects. They have dug a couple of deep burrows, so it's possible they might have found some poisonous roots.
All the dead rabbits were as stiff as a board, even one that had only been dead an hour or so and was still slightly warm. I haven't had any rabbits die before so I don't know whether this rapid rigor mortis is normal or not. But this made me think it might be strychnine poisoning. However, the rabbit that died today had not been allowed in the garden yesterday (due to the two deaths that day) so she hadn't been in the garden for around 44 hours. I believe that strychnine poisoning takes effect within an hour or so and strychnine has a half life of about 10 hours so it doesn't seem likely that it could take effect after such a delay.
I did check on the rabbit that died today a few hours before she died and she was looking sleepy (not unusual for mid-afternoon) but she certainly wasn't having convulsions or showing any signs of distress so this also points away from strychnine poisoning, despite the rapid on set of rigor mortis.
Obviously, I have considered that their feed could be contaminated. But they are at the end of a bag of meadow hay that they've been eating for the past 3 weeks (plus the first rabbit to die hardly ever ate hay) and their only other food is a freshly opened 15kg bag of Bunny Brunch.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Hopefully somebody can suggest some possible reason why my rabbits are dying.
A week ago I had 12 rabbits, in five separate hutches. I found a one year old buck dead in his hutch (where he lived alone) the middle of last week. His hutch is in a part of the garden well away from the other hutches. Yesterday I found two dead rabbits when I checked their hutches in the morning. Each rabbit lived in a different hutch, one is within an outbuilding, the other is outside. Today another rabbit died, again in a different hutch from all the others. So far I have not had two rabbits die who actually live in a hutch together. Just four dead rabbits in four separate hutches and none of the rabbits have ever met (not since the buck last mated about 3 months ago, anyway). So I'm pretty much ruling out the possibility that it is a disease spreading amongst the rabbits due to their isolation from eachother. So I was thinking poisoning was more likely.
All the rabbits have at least an hour in my garden every day. All the shrubs are fenced off with 13mm chicken wire as I don't know whether some may be toxic. Occasionally the rabbits will nibble some tiny bits of leaf through the wire or reach up to an overhanging branch. Of course, with it now being autumn, there is the added possibility of poisonous seeds or berries falling into the garden, or trees with poisonous leaves may drop more at this time of year. However, the rabbits have been out everyday for the past 9 months and nibbled at everything without any ill effects. No new plants have been added this year. I do have a cherry laurel in the garden that has been dropping its leaves into pretty much continually for the last 9 months but all the rabbits have been nibbling on the leaves for the past 9 months with no ill effects. They have dug a couple of deep burrows, so it's possible they might have found some poisonous roots.
All the dead rabbits were as stiff as a board, even one that had only been dead an hour or so and was still slightly warm. I haven't had any rabbits die before so I don't know whether this rapid rigor mortis is normal or not. But this made me think it might be strychnine poisoning. However, the rabbit that died today had not been allowed in the garden yesterday (due to the two deaths that day) so she hadn't been in the garden for around 44 hours. I believe that strychnine poisoning takes effect within an hour or so and strychnine has a half life of about 10 hours so it doesn't seem likely that it could take effect after such a delay.
I did check on the rabbit that died today a few hours before she died and she was looking sleepy (not unusual for mid-afternoon) but she certainly wasn't having convulsions or showing any signs of distress so this also points away from strychnine poisoning, despite the rapid on set of rigor mortis.
Obviously, I have considered that their feed could be contaminated. But they are at the end of a bag of meadow hay that they've been eating for the past 3 weeks (plus the first rabbit to die hardly ever ate hay) and their only other food is a freshly opened 15kg bag of Bunny Brunch.
Any ideas?
Thanks.