A bit of help

Hi everyone, hope you are all safe and well, I’ve been trawling the Internet and Found this site so apologies if this isn’t the correct forum....

We had to have our rabbit,Fudge, put to sleep on Tuesday, he was always a lively very healthy boy, full of beans and hopping about. In the morning he would throw himself down the stairs of his hutch to get his breakfast and let us know if we were late! In the garden he would binky and hop around and always be interested in what we were doing when we were out there.

On Monday morning we noticed that he hadn’t eaten his food or been pooing so took him to the out of hours vet thinking it was gut stasis, they x-rayed him, did an ultrasound couldn’t see a blockage but and gave him medicine which we then also gave in the afternoon plus evening etc as well as water, he seemed ok as would still eat a treat and greens that we offered. Tuesday morning however he was very unwell, limp and lying on his side. He had been downstairs in his hutch to poo and wee in the night but looked very ill. He wasn’t interested in food or water went to go downstairs but fell, it looked like he had had a stroke as his back legs seemed paralysed, rushed to the vet who said it looks like e cuniculi and he was very poorly, unfortunately even if they took action, his survival was 30% at best. We couldn’t bear to see him suffer and be in pain and unfortunately took the decision to stop his suffering which was heartbreaking.

I’ve been beating myself up since then, could I have done more beforehand, what caused this and how did he get it. I guess I’ll never really know and from reading about the disease on line it can be transferred or he was born with it. I’m sure there are other rabbits nearby in our road so perhaps it’s blew in or was carried by a bird or similar. The concern is if we get another, don’t want it to happen again.

Thanks for reading and again, sorry if this isn’t the right forum.

Welcome

How confident are you in your vet's skill with rabbits?

A lot of vets who don't know much about rabbits will diagnose E.C. without really knowing what is going on.

Since his back legs were lame, something very serious was wrong with him and I think you made the right decision.

Do you have any other rabbits ?

Firstly welcome to the forum, but so very sorry you found us due to the sad loss of your bunny. I don't have experience of having a rabbit with EC, so can't really comment on what could have happened to him, only a post mortem would establish the cause of death. However, your bunny did sound really poorly and given his circumstances, you made a heartbreaking but unselfish decision in having him put to sleep. I'm sure others on here will be able to give you more advice. Once again, I'm really sorry for the loss of your bunny.

Thanks both. Sorry to start on here with some bad news.

We know the vet and are confident and as he was so unwell we didn’t want to cause him any suffering. It was just terrible to see him in that state, trying to get comfy initially before just collapsing really. Usually in the pet carrier to the vets he would go nuts, trying to get out but on Tuesday he was just lying in his side on a towel.

Perhaps it wasn’t that but whatever he had, he went downhill so quickly it was just awful.

I'm sorry your bun had to be helped to the bridge. They are such fragile creatures that do their best to hide any illness.
I think you did all that was possible in the circumstances

Richard

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I'm sorry that you have joined the forum with such sad news about Fudge. It's impossible to know what caused him to become so severely unwell without a post-mortem unfortunately. I presume that Fudge was fully covered with his vaccinations for Myxomatosis and RHD 1 and 2?

Yes all vaccinations up to date, the next set were due in August. That’s the trouble with this, I don’t think we will ever know really and just speculate but knew he had a happy life with us and will have those memories and photos.

Thank you all.

I am very sorry you had to have your bunny put to sleep.

I’m so very sorry we do the best we can with the knowledge we have at the time, and the vets knowledge. You did the kindest thing for him to end his suffering. Thinking of you xx