Sudden rabbit death

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Hannahsweep

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Unfortunately, a few days ago our pet rabbit passed away very suddenly. She was a 5 year old netherland dwarf and was drinking and eating as she normally would.
We had seen her in her cage in the morning, but by the afternoon we found her dead. The day before she had been in her run all day and had been running around as she usually would.
When we looked at her we noticed that there was a large amount of blood surrounding her but there were no cuts or wounds on her body. We assumed that she had been cut internally as there was a large amount of blood around her bottom, however we are pretty certain that there had been no sharp objects in her cage that she could have swallowed.
We were wondering if there could have been any thing else that could have caused her death or for her to be injured internally.
Someone said that she could have had a tumour but is that possible?

Any thoughts welcome.
 
Sudden death with blood from the orifices made me immediately think of VHD (viral hemorrhagic disease/calicivirus) too. So sad :( I'm sorry for your loss.
 
Thanks for the information. I do not think it is a problem in the area that I live in as not many people have rabbits that could pass on the disease.
 
Have you taken her body to your vet for an examination?
I would do that. That is too curious as to what has happened and
This is the information I have on VHD.. but it appears not to have touched North America...

It has not been known to affect any North American native rabbits or hares, such as cottontails, snowshoe hares and jackrabbits. VHD is also known by several other acronyms: RHD (Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease), RCV (Rabbit Calicivirus), and RCD (Rabbit Calicivirus Disease). VHD was first seen in China in 1984, and has since spread to Mexico, Continental Europe, Israel, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss and hope you can get to the bottom of this.

Vanessa
 
That really depends where you're located, depending on where you live there may be a local rabbit population that it has spread from. Rodents can also carry and spread the disease, along with the obvious insect vector.

I suppose it could have been a tumour, but often with something like that there would be other signs of illness, whereas VHD is a very swift disease.
 
I live in New Zealand where farmers imported the Rabbit Hemorrhagic Virus illegally and released it to kill the feral rabbits that were eating their crops. I hear from people all the time who have lost their rabbits to it. We call it Rabbit Calici Virus Disease or RCD here.

I'm pretty sure that is not what your rabbit died of, if the virus was in North America you would hear 100s of people complaining about all their pet rabbits dying all of a sudden, whole rabbitries would be wiped out, and people would see dead wild rabbit everywhere too. It would be on the news.

Also, whenever I've heard from people who have rabbits that died from it, they report seeing blood coming out of the nose and mouth. Not the back end.

I'm not sure what your rabbit died of but it was something else.
I would also guess a tumour or something ruptured, if she wasn't spayed— a symptom of uterine cancer is bleeding.

Anyway, sorry for your loss.
 
squidpop said:
I live in New Zealand where farmers imported the Rabbit Hemorrhagic Virus illegally and released it to kill the feral rabbits that were eating their crops. I hear from people all the time who have lost their rabbits to it. We call it Rabbit Calici Virus Disease or RCD here.

I'm pretty sure that is not what your rabbit died of, if the virus was in North America you would hear 100s of people complaining about all their pet rabbits dying all of a sudden, whole rabbitries would be wiped out, and people would see dead wild rabbit everywhere too. It would be on the news.

Also, whenever I've heard from people who have rabbits that died from it, they report seeing blood coming out of the nose and mouth. Not the back end.

I'm not sure what your rabbit died of but it was something else.
I would also guess a tumour or something ruptured, if she wasn't spayed— a symptom of uterine cancer is bleeding.

Anyway, sorry for your loss.
Click to expand...

You are right. We don't have that virus or the other one, Myxomatosis
here in North America. Thank god for that. It's a horrible disease and
I don't care of the rabbits are wild or domestic, Myxo is horrible.. I
have seen pictures of it..

I hope she can get to the bottom of what happened with the bun and
prevent it from affecting any other animals in the area of it's some disease.

Vanessa
 
That's assuming the original poster is from the USA, we have no idea whereabouts she/he's located.
 
Azerane said:
That's assuming the original poster is from the USA, we have no idea whereabouts she/he's located.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is what I meant and also added thank goodness we don't have it here in the US... I hate to see any rabbit anywhere infected with that... or anything else that causes such a horrible death!!!


Vanessa
 
On Friday night my bunny past away suddenly. I came home to find blood all over her cage, but she was acting normal, and eating. No vets in my area were open at the time, so I thought it could wait until morning. Within one hour, I noticed her looking very weak, more blood leaked out, and she died quickly. I'm so heartbroken over this I don't even know what to do with myself. I've had her for only about 6 months, a friend of my dads wanted to give her away, and figure she was probably around 3 years old, but not 100% sure. I've been researching why this may have happened and can only guess there was something wrong with her reproductive system since I'm pretty sure she was un-spayed.
 
NotoriousReigns said:
On Friday night my bunny past away suddenly. I came home to find blood all over her cage, but she was acting normal, and eating. No vets in my area were open at the time, so I thought it could wait until morning. Within one hour, I noticed her looking very weak, more blood leaked out, and she died quickly. I'm so heartbroken over this I don't even know what to do with myself. I've had her for only about 6 months, a friend of my dads wanted to give her away, and figure she was probably around 3 years old, but not 100% sure. I've been researching why this may have happened and can only guess there was something wrong with her reproductive system since I'm pretty sure she was un-spayed.
Click to expand...

Where was the blood leaking from? As mentioned earlier in this thread, in regards to blood loss without wounds my first thought is viral hemorrhage disease (calicivirus). It spreads easily and kills quite quickly, if it was the case then even if a vet had been open there probably would not have been much they could do.

I'm so very sorry for your loss.
 
Might i suggest a sticky post with various diseases and symptoms common in specific regions?
 
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