Hello mikek, thanks for your message - this is encouraging to learn that you have kept your rabbits safely in Rural Devon!
Sadly, our rabbits were only vaccinated for Mixy and RHD1, I realised this when Tim passed away and so I then had Tommy vaccinated but he then passed away shortly afterwards. I am not sure if he died of a broken heart or if he died of the same thing that took poor Timmy. To be honest, he did seem to sort of give up over the weeks, which was a shame as we were planning to get a companion for him at the end of that week. I had the hutch sectioned of ready and I had tried to time things to give Tommy enough time to grieve for the loss of his companion.
Thanks, Nick.
Craig, thanks for your kind words and the interesting points that you have raised. The vet more or less said the same thing; difficult to make assumptions with regards to the sudden passing of both buns, but he did suggest that the rural habitat might have been to blame, but that it could have been many things.
When I phoned the rescue centre, I told them that my main concern was that Tommy was missing Tim, and I suppose this is what they wanted to investigate, i.e. whether a bit of freedom in the garden would liven Tommy up. They did say to take him straight to the vets if he didn't have a hop round and perk up a little.
Of course, you're right about the garden, I cannot bleach it but maybe I can section off a large grassy area for any new rabbits - just to be sure that they don't eat any plants that they shouldn't. I am just looking at risk mitigation here.
In a way, I have found grieving for Tommy easier as I was still not over Tim and this allowed me to sort of bundle the grief together, still very sad though and I think of the poor boys every day.
One more concern I have about new buns that i would like to ask all members of the forum is that we get a lot of mosquitoes at the end of our garden (where the playhouse is). Should I be concerned about this? I would like everyone's opinion here.
Thanks,
Nick.