• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

MushroomS?

Hi. New to this but wanted to warn all people who let their bunnies roam the garden to please be vigilant for mushrooms. I have loved my 2 bunnies freely roaming the back garden all year round with access to their hutch and run and tunnel system. Fresh hay, water and a small amount of pellets left them content to graze whenever they wanted and keep us and the cat company when it suited them. One however, Bunsen, was dopey one morning. I picked her up and checked her over and found her a little cold ( on a warm morning) but otherwise fine. I gave her a rum down and she hopped off and started nibbling some hay so I thought she’d be fine. Mid afternoon I saw her pushed up against the wire of her run (door open to the garden ) and lying in urine or watery diarrhoea. I scooped her up to find her totally limp but still alive. Her head and front legs could move a little. My daughter came home from school and we sat with her as I debated whether a vet trip would make any difference as I knew she was dying and just wanted her to be comfy and in familiar surroundings. Left her with my daughter while I picked up my youngest and came back 10 minutes later to find her having small fits. Stupidly thought I could syringe a little water in her mouth but that only upset her more. I picked her up to put her in her bed to die in peace and she had a big fit and died.
This was so rapid. She was otherwise perfectly healthy, only 5 years old and her sister is absolutely fine.
I found a nibbled mushroom growing in the grass and can only think it is this. Looks like a harmless lactarius but I am not good at shrooming.
Please please just dig these devils up if you own a bunny. It was a horrid way to go.
Also please when you lay them down for their last minutes curl them up. I laid Bunsen out straight and it made digging a deep hole in a stone garden 10 times harder to accommodate her length after rigor mortis set in!!!
 
Hi, welcome to the forum and I'm sorry it's under such sad circumstances. I am sorry to read about Bunsen :cry: That must have been very distressing for you and your daughter and also a dreadful shock. I very much agree that it is sensible to make sure that any fungus is removed from areas where rabbits are free-ranging. Identifying the different types of fungi is not straightforward and there will have been very little research done on the toxicity of the different types for rabbits.

Which Lactarius did you think that it was? It is of course very possible that the fungus was not the cause of death, especially if you did not see her nibble it. We have several varieities of fungi appearing in the garden and there are often bits eaten. Rodents will eat them and also a slug will make a hole. There are other possibilities that could have caused Bunsen's death, such as RHD2. Was Bunsen vaccinated for RHD2 as well as RHD1/Myxomatosis?
 
Hi. New to this but wanted to warn all people who let their bunnies roam the garden to please be vigilant for mushrooms. I have loved my 2 bunnies freely roaming the back garden all year round with access to their hutch and run and tunnel system. Fresh hay, water and a small amount of pellets left them content to graze whenever they wanted and keep us and the cat company when it suited them. One however, Bunsen, was dopey one morning. I picked her up and checked her over and found her a little cold ( on a warm morning) but otherwise fine. I gave her a rum down and she hopped off and started nibbling some hay so I thought she’d be fine. Mid afternoon I saw her pushed up against the wire of her run (door open to the garden ) and lying in urine or watery diarrhoea. I scooped her up to find her totally limp but still alive. Her head and front legs could move a little. My daughter came home from school and we sat with her as I debated whether a vet trip would make any difference as I knew she was dying and just wanted her to be comfy and in familiar surroundings. Left her with my daughter while I picked up my youngest and came back 10 minutes later to find her having small fits. Stupidly thought I could syringe a little water in her mouth but that only upset her more. I picked her up to put her in her bed to die in peace and she had a big fit and died.
This was so rapid. She was otherwise perfectly healthy, only 5 years old and her sister is absolutely fine.
I found a nibbled mushroom growing in the grass and can only think it is this. Looks like a harmless lactarius but I am not good at shrooming.
Please please just dig these devils up if you own a bunny. It was a horrid way to go.
Also please when you lay them down for their last minutes curl them up. I laid Bunsen out straight and it made digging a deep hole in a stone garden 10 times harder to accommodate her length after rigor mortis set in!!!



Ruth, I am so glad you you feel you can post on the forum, but I am sorry to hear about Bunsen :(

Thank you for that warning. We have to be ever vigilant for our bunnies. I remember a time one of my bunnies went into kidney failure and we didn't ever find the reason why, but ingesting something toxic could well have been a cause.

However, it's always really difficult to ascertain the exact cause of death without a post mortem. And I do take your point about curling a rabbit up. I had this problem during a very hard winter and it was so difficult on top of the pain of losing him.


I hope you will stay around with us :)
 
Just upping the warning to check before letting yur rabbits out to graze in garden, we had some massive ones shoot up overnight, now binned and smaller ones on lawn also binned
 
Back
Top