Sudden death

[Milliemoo]

hello,

I’m new hear but wanted some advice please!

Unfortunately I have just lost one of our rabbits. He was a male lop and he was around 3/4 years old.

He wasn’t an old rabbit and he has died very very suddenly, we are all devastated.

This morning my mother went out and gave food and water to the animals and he was absolutely fine eating and drinking and enjoying cuddles!

This evening I went to put them away and noticed he was dead, I was shocked.

He was laying on his side with his mouth open in his litter box, he had two rectangle litter boxes and one of them was pushed so it was on an angle and he was lying lengthways in between both of them.

The litter box was close to empty as I’d cleaned it out the day before but his stool was normal.

I’m so confused as to what happened! There was no sign of blood at all, could it have been a heart attack? Or a disease? I have another rabbit and am worried it could be spread?

I did notice a huge amount of birds on the tree above the shed which we’re stopping for a drink in the pond and I don’t know if that could have scared him?

I didn’t put them on the grass today as it was raining.

Any advice would be great please!

We’re going to bury him in the garden tomorrow.

Thank you

 

[JBun]

A heart attack is possible. Also, being you are in the UK, RHD1 and RHD2 are also possibilities if your rabbit wasn't vaccinated for both diseases. It is very contagious, so if your other rabbit isn't vaccinated, I would suggest contacting a rabbit savvy vet immediately, to get those vaccinations done and instructions on what to do to protect your remaining rabbit, as well as disinfection instructions for anything that was in contact.
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ve...s-that-have-been-recommended-by-rabbit-owners
https://www.rabbitsonline.net/threads/uk-vet-list-regularly-updated.91904/

 

[Milliemoo]

Thank you for your response!

This could have been the case, we were informed that when we got him (we adopted him) that he already had these vaccinations but was told we didn’t need the boosters, doing further research this may be the case.

Our female rabbit is just under a year and I’ve had both sets of injections done for her , hopefully this will protect her against it.

She is up to date with the injections, is there anything else I can do?

Thanks!