Kits died at 2 months old

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pla725

pla725

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Burlington County, New Jersey, USA
I volunteer for a rabbit rescue in NJ. One of our fosters was taking care of a mother and her kits. The kits were born in the shelter. Four of the kits passed away. Two died in earlier and two died today. The kits are about two months old. I'm looking to get additional info from the foster home.

Any ideas?
 
I'm sorry they did not make it.... Any diarrhea? Mucoid enteropathy? Eating normally? Still nursing? Mom still have milk? Mom have mastitis? (Mammary glands infected? hot to the touch? caked or crusted?)


 
This is what I have so far from the foster but I will ask the other questions.

3 just seemed to have suddenly died, the first one, we thought because he was away from the rest of the litter and needed them to keep warm. the second one was fine in the morning then like 2 hrs later she came home and he was gone. all were good this morning when she came home from work, one was gone and the other was lethargic, and passed while she held him.
 
I'd first suspect the mother and her milk... the first one that was seperated was probablypushed awayby the mom or siblings. They knew something was wrong.

Could be a genetic "thing". What do you know about the breeding? The sire? Could be something wasn't right. Digestion, nervous system, etc. Has the doe ever raised a successful litter before? First litter? Inexperienced doe? Mistakes are made... she could have shut off the milk too...

Other options would be coccidiosis, pasturella or a virus of some kind. It's tough when you ahve no background info....


 
The mother rabbit and another litter were rescued by animal control from a backyard hutch. They were all crowded into that one hutch. Momma had another litter in the shelter at the end of September. So the kits are 7 weeks old or so. Momma is about 2 years old. It is possible she has had several litters.

Here is more info from the rescue:

I believe no diarrhea, and yes eatting normally. They try nursing but mom won't have it. they have been eatting greens, hay and pellets for a few weeks.
 
I hate to say this - but sometimes I've lost kits when I just had no idea why. We had the cutest kit a couple of months ago - just about 6 weeks old. It was playing one morning and passed that afternoon and we had no idea why.

I think until they're weaned (and then even afterwards) things can sometimes just go wrong and unless you get a necropsy - there are no reasons to explain it.

BlueGiants has had some great questions though....they were the first things I thought of too.

Peg
 
I'm guessing that since Momma wasn't kept in the best conditions before her rescue that may have contributed to the cause of death. The kits from this litter may be the result of inbreeding.

I asked the question because the foster was thinking she did something wrong. Thanks for the help.
 
One thing you said raised a red flag... she had another litter that is 7 weeks old or so, and this litter was 4 weeks old? She was bred back to back... rough on any doe. And she shut off their milk way too early... but she probably didn't have it in her to raise another litter. Not having mothers milk may have affected their immunity as well as their nutrition.

The foster didn't do anything wrong... but who ever left her in a situation where she could get bred back should be ashamed...I'm guessingshe may not have been in the best of condition... and that was not right. Poor thing. She is over two? She needs a good retirement home with no more babies!
 
Actually the current litter is about 7 weeks old. The other litter was about 4-5 months when they were taken by Animal Control.
She will be spayed when funds are available.
 
You said that they are bout two months old. At that point they would have been eating solid foods so no milk wouldn't have killed them. Most rabbit breeders wean their babies at 6 - 8 weeks. So it's most likely not milk unless the mother had mastitis and the kits ingested the bacteria, that could kill them. You also said that they were being fed greens. That is a huge no no for an 8 week old bunny. If the owners gave them more then a couple small sprigs of something then that is my bet. Some breeders do it and have no problems but I have seen a lot of rabbits die from eating greens. Baby rabbits stomachs are extremely sensitive and grow and adjust very slowly. So adjusting from milk to pellets is hard enough. Throwing in greens may have been the issue. Maybe not but just telling from experience. I don't feed any to my rabbits till they are at least 3 months old, usually closer to 6. Not worth taking the chance. Is it possible they got into anything like chocolate or something? At two months old rabbits wouldn't freeze to death either. They can keep themselves warm at that point. My guess is either they ate something or the mother has some type of infection that she passed to them. Usually it wouldn't have taken this long to show up unless it could be mastitis, in such case senario check the doe and treat her with antibiotics. Maybe coccidosis or worms? Not enough info to make a definate conclusion.
 
Greens are o.k. if mom was getting them before she got pregnant and during the pregnancy and while she was nursing. If greens are given to a baby rabbit that has never had them before, it could mess up their digestive system. If the rabbit or its mother has never had greens before, it is best to wait until the rabbit is 6 months before introducing anything new.

Sharon
 
It's hard to guess as to what may have happened, but viral and bacterial infections are common at this time of year.

Pam
 
Hi,

I suspect what caused this is something like enteritis. It happens quite often in cottontails raised in captivity but will also strike domestics since their guts are the same. With cottontails, it occurs somewhere around 21 days old. It usually strikes without much warning....when we have seen this in both cottontails and domestics....they usually start to wobble and then fall over and death occurs pretty rapidly. If you will notice the timing, it happens about weaning. As a rabbit weans, there is a rapid change in the pH in the GI tract. The bacteria there is still not firmly established and is extremely delicate. The violent change in climate in the GI is too much for the bacteria to take and it starts to die off. The decaying bacteria and the harmful bacteria that grows, most often clostridium, bascially poisons the rabbit. Once this happens, it is impossible to reverse and death usually comes quickly. I have had some success with manually controlling the GI conversion using lactobacillus acidophilus. While it is common thought that it's the bacteria in this compound that is working...it's actually not. It is acidifying the gut...look at the first few letters. Many of the books will tell you never to acidify a rabbit's gut and then turn around and suggest using acidophilus. The idea I have been using is to start the conversion of the gut about 10 days old and increase the acidity as we approach weaning (remember that cottontails wean earlier than domestics). I have had particular success in using lactobacillus casei strains. More work to be done. And this happens sometimes when everything has been done correctly. I have also been treating some test groups of cottontails by "shotgunning" an antibiotic. This particular antibiotic is quite good at targeting the harmful bacteria that grows during these events. More work on that next rescue season. This is the very reason that few people are willing to raise cottontails in rehab. You do all the right things, the right formula, the feedings every couple of hours...and with me, feeding tubes...only to lose them at wean. And it does happen in domestics and sounds to me like that is what happened here.

Randy
 
Randy, a question: Atwhat points in the weaning process are they more susceptible to problems? When they first start eating food? (Is that the 21 day point?) Or when they stop drinking milk altogether? Or can the danger point be anywhere in between?

These kits were seven weeks old andif I understand it correctly,had just been rejected by mom? So that means it's more the latter? Is one more common than the other?

sas :?
 
Generally kits of any age can be affected because they lack the resistance to bacterial and viral infections that themature animalshave. I've seen nursing kits at 2-4 weeks also succumb to ME.

Not only can weaning be a stress factor, but younger kits can also be affected with mucoid enteropathy due to viral infections that progress into bacterial infections. Outbreaks often seem to be weather related. Broad spectrum antibiotics can be helpful in outbreaks in rabbitries. Once an outbreak has occurred, resistant animals are left in the herd that will pass on this resistance to their offspring. Unfortunately, once the rabbits are moved to a different area, they are often exposed to different strains of pathogens that they may be vulnerable to.

We went through a period years ago where we lost many pre-weaned kits. Once the pathogen cycled through, we never had a similar outbreak after that.



Pam
 
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