Sudden death of wild rabbits...

[yramnot]

This has been something my dad's wondered about for years. I figured this would be the place to ask about it...

About 30 years ago, my dad rescued a litter of young wild rabbits after his cat killed the mom. Since this was before the internet, his resources were extremely limited and he had to work with what knowledge he had. He'd feed them fruits, vegetables, and lawn clippings. They lived comfortably for about three months, and then one began to scream continuously. Within a few hours, he found it dead and bleeding out of its mouth. This same process happened with each member of the litter, killing them all within 36 hours.

Does anybody know what may have caused their deaths? It's something he's wondered about for a long time.

 

[tonyshuman]

Wow, bleeding out of the mouth is pretty rare. The only thing I can think of is viral hemmoragic disease, which isn't common at all in the US.
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/aug05/050801ff.asp

Here's a really exotic rare disease that sounds like what they had (in a different species): European Brown Hare Virus
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/vhd.html

Rabbit pox?
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/171327.htm

 

[Pipp]

This really sounds like RHD/VHD -- [/i]Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (aka Viral [/i]Hemorrhagic Disease), but its pretty rare in the US. I'm not sure it was documented in the US before 1980 and if it was ever in Oregon.

Were they rabbits or hares? There are other similar or related viruses I do believe.

Very sad.


sas

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Wow, yeah, sas, that sounds right, but were you in UK when this happened?

We went to leave one day, always use our back door, and hubby told me to come back in...I was like what? There was a dead wild bun on our sidewalk right outside...No clue what happened to it, strange.

 

[yramnot]

This actually happened in Illinois, not Oregon. Before my dad moved out here, y'see. I kind of suspected this VHD thing when I read about it, but I read somewhere that American rabbits don't tend to have issues with it. And these were apparently your typical wild crop-eating Illinois rabbits. So, I don't know.

 

[tonyshuman]

The last documented outbreak of VHD in the US was in Indiana, in the early 2000s.
http://www.rabbit.org/care/vhd.html

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

yramnot wrote:

This actually happened in Illinois, not Oregon.

:shock:

Is that what could've happened the bun? Omg, never knew that.

 

[ra7751]

I suspect something much more common....it's something we see in wildlife all the time. Toxins....possibly a rodenticide or chemicals placed on/near plants. In rabbits, rat poisons will cause an internal bleed. Opossums will bleed externally. Other chemicals can become very caustic in the acidic environment in the gut and cause gastric ulcers. When they perforate, things get bad quickly and depending on the location of the perforation, it can lead to blood from the mouth and/or nose. And remember that 30 years ago, we had real toxins and some chemicals that were thought to be safe that we now know was quite harmful. And this includes fruits/veggies that were included in the human food chain. As far as I have seen in any publications, the primary issue in wild rabbits is tularemia...a bacteria.

Randy

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Wow, Thanks Randy, you are invaluable! Hugs for all you do!