Im new to the forum, and posting on a sad note.
One of our three littermate bunnies, Clover, died in the early morning hours.
And I still dont know why...which is why Im posting I suppose.
The rabbits are kept in a very large airy three-room hutch in our backyard, and are allowed on the lawn every day for many hours in a fencedenclosure. The hutch is in a shady area but doesnt get a lot ofairflow, which is why we let them out during the day. I always figuredit was a pretty good life for a rabbit, and they seemed happy. We havehad them for almost two years with no problems, they are all about fouryears old (we think).
Last night I noticed Clover was sitting alone by herself next to thefence. When I approached her, instead of getting up and running as shenormally would, she just sat there. I picked her up and noticed she wasvery cold, lethargic, and barely moving at all. She had semed fine theday before, but due to my job I hadnt been paying enough attention tothem to know for sure, something I now feel a lot of guilt over.Anyway, we took her to the emergency vet at 1:00am, and he said she wasjust dehydrated. They gave her a shot and some subcutaneous fluids andtold us to give her only hay for a week. So i took her home and put herback in the hutch.
This morning at 7:30am when I went out to check on her she was dead,and rigor mortis had set in, so figure she had been dead at least a fewhours. My wife and I were very upset and buried here with a smallservice in the back yard, and planted a Japanese maple over her.
Now, Im wondering what happened?
I have a lot of guilt because I think there were things I could havedone to prevent this. So please read on knowing that *I know* mycaretaking could have been better.
The vet obviously was wrong, but I dont blame him really.
Today I saw this site:
http://www.mybunny.org/info/gi_stasis.htm
and am now wondering if she could have died of GI stasis?
We gave them regular food and water. Diet was timothy hay pellets andfresh veggies, and thier bedding was alfalfa hay. I did notice theywould push each other out of the way to get to the water bottlesometimes, and Clover was always the sweet meek one. But I saw herdrink often and never though she could get dehyrated. How wrong I was.I also read that alfalfa hay is bad for adult bunnies so Ive nowswitched to timothy hay. I never closely watched her pooping patterns,as there was always plenty of poop and I figured all three were healthyand popping regularly.
Again, perhaps it was too little too late for poor Clover.
Anyway, Im determined not to let the same thing happen to Blackberryand Hyzenthlay, her littermates. So Im asking, does anyone have anyinsight into this? I will happily provide more info If I can, andaccept any suggestions besides the obvious one, to look after our othertwo rabbits with greater care and attention. Im feeling pretty badabout it all and want to do the right things without overreacting. Imtaking them both to the vet tomorrow for a checkup, something I shouldhave done months ago.
Thanks very much,
Jgoodman in LA
PS: Clover was the one on the left in the picture...<<sniff>>
One of our three littermate bunnies, Clover, died in the early morning hours.
And I still dont know why...which is why Im posting I suppose.
The rabbits are kept in a very large airy three-room hutch in our backyard, and are allowed on the lawn every day for many hours in a fencedenclosure. The hutch is in a shady area but doesnt get a lot ofairflow, which is why we let them out during the day. I always figuredit was a pretty good life for a rabbit, and they seemed happy. We havehad them for almost two years with no problems, they are all about fouryears old (we think).
Last night I noticed Clover was sitting alone by herself next to thefence. When I approached her, instead of getting up and running as shenormally would, she just sat there. I picked her up and noticed she wasvery cold, lethargic, and barely moving at all. She had semed fine theday before, but due to my job I hadnt been paying enough attention tothem to know for sure, something I now feel a lot of guilt over.Anyway, we took her to the emergency vet at 1:00am, and he said she wasjust dehydrated. They gave her a shot and some subcutaneous fluids andtold us to give her only hay for a week. So i took her home and put herback in the hutch.
This morning at 7:30am when I went out to check on her she was dead,and rigor mortis had set in, so figure she had been dead at least a fewhours. My wife and I were very upset and buried here with a smallservice in the back yard, and planted a Japanese maple over her.
Now, Im wondering what happened?
I have a lot of guilt because I think there were things I could havedone to prevent this. So please read on knowing that *I know* mycaretaking could have been better.
The vet obviously was wrong, but I dont blame him really.
Today I saw this site:
http://www.mybunny.org/info/gi_stasis.htm
and am now wondering if she could have died of GI stasis?
We gave them regular food and water. Diet was timothy hay pellets andfresh veggies, and thier bedding was alfalfa hay. I did notice theywould push each other out of the way to get to the water bottlesometimes, and Clover was always the sweet meek one. But I saw herdrink often and never though she could get dehyrated. How wrong I was.I also read that alfalfa hay is bad for adult bunnies so Ive nowswitched to timothy hay. I never closely watched her pooping patterns,as there was always plenty of poop and I figured all three were healthyand popping regularly.
Again, perhaps it was too little too late for poor Clover.
Anyway, Im determined not to let the same thing happen to Blackberryand Hyzenthlay, her littermates. So Im asking, does anyone have anyinsight into this? I will happily provide more info If I can, andaccept any suggestions besides the obvious one, to look after our othertwo rabbits with greater care and attention. Im feeling pretty badabout it all and want to do the right things without overreacting. Imtaking them both to the vet tomorrow for a checkup, something I shouldhave done months ago.
Thanks very much,
Jgoodman in LA
PS: Clover was the one on the left in the picture...<<sniff>>