rabbit - died suddenly

trout

My daughter's pet rabbit died suddenly last night Less than 9 months old - and to my eye in good health. The rabbit had been eating well, and getting plenty of excercise.

The back door was left open yesterday at tea-time, and the rabbit bounded in, and hid under my daughters bed. He's done this before, and generally wandered out after a few minutes.

Last night, for whatever reason, he didn't come out - when I went to get the kids ready for bed, I saw the rabbit lying under the bed, apparently asleep. When I picked him up, he was clearly dead. This would have been at most an hour after he came into the house.

No obvious sign of any injuries or distress, no blood or indication of trauma ... for all the world it's like he went to sleep, and just never woke up.

How would I find out what happened to the poor thing ?

As a family, we did our best to care for the rabbit - so it's cracking me up what we did wrong, if anything. Nothing in his routine has changed, no change of diet or location. We have small kids, so I am positive there is nothing chemical in the garden that the rabbit could have eaten. My wife was at home all day yesterday, and the rabbit was running about the garden as normal ... it's quite a shock.

Any thoughts/ideas ?

eth0_

I remember that happened the rabbit I had as a kid. He dug out of his run in the garden and was found in the next garden with two cats surrounding him. He wasn't physically harmed but he died later that day, I presume he had a heart attack as rabbits are very highly strung.

Sigma Force

He could of gotten a very bad fright or perhaps eaten some plant material that was toxic, it's very hard to know with rabbits sometimes. The only way of finding out would be to have a post mortem done. But it sounds like it was out of your hands, whatever it was. R.I.P. Little bunny

Nala

The same thing happened to a rabbit we used to have. We had 2 sisters, when they were about 3 months old I went out one morning and one of them had seemingly just died out of nowhere.

dave1982

unfortunatley thats the problem with having rabbits as pets you just dont know when they will die not like dogs cats etc i had two rabbits when i was younger and like that they just died suddendly one was in garden shed hopping in out just dropped dead other fella didnt see what happened like your case as far as we knew he fell asleep didnt wake up im sorry to hear what happened a pet is horrible thing to loose

Rabbits as pets
Main article: House rabbit
A rabbit kept as a pet for companionship often lives inside the home with his owners and is referred to as a house rabbit. He has an indoor pen and a rabbit-safe place to run and exercise, such as a living or family room. A house rabbit is easily trained to use a litter box and can learn to come when called. His diet typically consists of unlimited timothy hay, a small helping of pellets, and some fresh vegetables. A house rabbit is a very quiet pet. He is suitable for a family without small children, due to the rabbit’s likelihood of being frightened or harmed by loud sounds or mishandling

this section was taken from wiki

Sigma Force

Rabbits do get stressed easily, some more so than others. However saying that rabbits can live 7 to 10 years there is always a reason why they die but whatever the reason many people do not go down the road of having a post mortem done. I think it's important that small animal owners do have a pm done if they are not sure of the reason, it does help to learn more about the animals and what to do and what not to do next time. Or to put your mind at rest. Saying that I had a pm done on a guinea pig but there was no definite answer to why he died but it did give me piece of mind when I knew it was nothing I could of helped.

I would also think that the amount badly bred rabbits is also part of the problem some pet shops don't even know where there small animals have come from. People buy two rabbits from the same cage in the pet shop, they have an litter the owners bring the litter back to the pet shop and the cycle happens all over again. Same with guinea pigs. More so with rabbits though as they can be harder to sex.

It's terrible not knowing what happened exactly but he did have a good life having all that freedom which they love. Sounds like all in all it was a good home rabbits love to be running free about the house far too many are kept in tiny hutches all day.

Vaccinations is something I might as well mention here as a general comment, rabbits should be vaxd against Mixomatosis and VHD. VHD is probably less obvious than Mixomatosis. http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/gray_book02/fad/vhd.php

Jack Sheehan

Ah i feel your pain, my rabbit died a few weeks ago in similar circumstances and the vet gave me a few reasons:

1. Maggots infected his rectum/anus and caused him to go into septic shock.

2. He got colic from bad hay/straw and went into septic shock.

3. He went into septic shock from wet ground on his anus, was it particualy wet that day?

sorry if this disturbs you, I know how hard it is losing a rabbit.

trout

Jack Sheehan wrote:

1. Maggots infected his rectum/anus and caused him to go into septic shock.

2. He got colic from bad hay/straw and went into septic shock.

3. He went into septic shock from wet ground on his anus, was it particualy wet that day?

No obvious signs of maggots.
I don't really know what colic or septic shock would look like in a rabbit, but the ground was dry as a bone that day. The hutch is raised up off the ground, and the hay was clean and dry also. Just before he came into the house, he was up on the deck sunning himself, one of his favourite occupations.

I've been thinking about changes in behaviour, food, location, circumstances and nothing springs to mind ... it was just another day for the rabbit, and he really seemed in good health.

The kids are still quite upset, but I'm going to hold off on any kind of pet for a wee while. Last years adventures with the goldfish were bad enough, cos I know that was down to my own ignorance of how best to care for the fish ... but we were so careful and conscientious with this rabbit ... I'm baffled.

Jack Sheehan

trout wrote:

No obvious signs of maggots.
but we were so careful and conscientious with this rabbit ... I'm baffled.

I know, I know same story here, we were so careful with the rabbit and yet, well, he died. I'd recommend a cat, Very hardy