This condition, also called ketosis, occurs much more often in some rabbitries than others. Female rabbits suddenly die shortly before or shortly after kindling. On post-mortem examination,the most obvious lesion is a yellow or tan liver caused by an accumulation of fat in the liver cells. This infiltrating fat interferes with the normal mtabolic processes of the liver and the breakdown of the fat into metabolizable energy. The result is the formation of keton bodies from the unmetabolized fat - thus, the name"ketosis." The exact cause of this disease has never been found,but the feeding of high energy diets may be involved.
An affected doe gradually reduces or stops feed intake. In some cases of pregnancy toxemia, a hairball is found in the stomach. This may cause the doe to go off feed, but the body still requires energy for maintenance. Fat is taken from fat deposits and transported to the liver to be converted to metabolizable energy, but not all the fat is utilized. Treatment for this disease is seldom attempted, as the diagnosis is generally not made until a post-mortem examination.Injections of glucose have been found to be helpful in cattle with similar disease.
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