sudden death

[tinwoodsman]

I am making an inquiry for my girlfriend who had a rabbit that suddenly up and died for no apparent reason and I am trying to help her understand. Her rabbit was 3 years old and for a couple of days prior to the death was aggressively knocking litter from its box and scurrying around. She told me that the rabbit did it another time and let out a shrieking noise to wake the dead, then laid down breathing heavily then died. What just happened? She told me the rabbit was fine before that. Can anyone give me some ideas so i can tell her so she will understand what happened. I would really appreciate any ones help here.

Bill

 

[Phinnsmommy]

Im sorry for your loss, binky free.




There are a number of reasons why your rabbit died, and you probobly wont know unless you do a biopsy.

Was she spayed? That could be the reason for her digging out her litter.

 

[tinwoodsman]

I do not know if the rabbit was spayed or not. Just strange to rough up the litter box throwing it everywhere the getting out of the box then shrieking and laying down breathing heavily then dying. I need to ask more questions from her.

Bill

 

[Pipp]

How sad.

It's onlya guess, but I think the excessive digging may be a stress reaction to an internal problem.

Absolutely no way of telling without a necropsy -- the causes can be numerous -- butI wouldn't be surprised if there was amass orsome sort of organ damage there somewhere.

The end stage scream is a fairly common occurance, but I don't believe it's always a pain reaction. I read about the cause for that sound before somewhere, but not sure if I can find it again.

The bunny's appetite and output were perfectly normal before that?

So sorry she had to go through that. :tears2:

sas:sad:

 

[tinwoodsman]

I will ask more questions from her tommorrow and I will post back to you. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me. Her other bunny misses the other one you can tell. How sad is that.

Bill

 

[Pipp]

Tell her not to feel guilty for not spotting any problems. Bunnies are very adept at hiding their ailments.

They're prey animals, and in their natural habitats, showing signs of illness means they're the first to be singled out by predators.

It's very difficult to tell when they're sick.

Sorry about the other bunny. She'll have tokeep an eye on him/her. They can grieve to the point where they stop eating and drinking, s/he'll need to be doted on.

At some point she may want to take the remaining bunny to ashelter or find a rescue that can help and see if the remaining bunny would like another mate. They usually set up 'bunny dates' --bunnies are individuals, they may like one bunny and not another. And they may embrace a new partner right away or they may want to continue grieving for awhile.

Please let us know how it's going.

sas

 

[Flashy]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Do you think maybe its worth your girlfriend joining the site? She might be able to draw comfort, and have somewhere to release her grief. Also we have some contacts on the site (see Rainbow Bridge) that can help people when they are greiving.

Losing a bunny suddenly is horrible, especially when the reasons are unknown. Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure is a necropsy (animal autopsy). It's probably more important for your girlfriend to keep talking about it, to reach out and allow herself to grieve, and also to spend a lot of time with the other bun. As well as helping the bun, it will probably help her too.

Hang in there both of you.

Take care



RIP Little bunny.