Unexpected Death: What to do next time? (RIP)

[BlackAndChrome]

Unfortunately I lost my Himalayan Dwarf, Bud, this morning. Looking for some advice, I'm still not sure what did it other than it was respiratory. Just looking for some info on what happened in case there is a next time, as well as some closer I guess.

I got Bud a little more than a year ago as somewhat of a rescue rabbit, he was very neglected (although somewhat obese) and extremely skidish. I spent the better deal of the last year getting him back to a somewhat social pet. Up until yesterday he seemed to be in perfect health other than a little abnormal shedding which he never really stopped. Since I'm away at college my mom has been taking care of him, AKA spoiling him, but he spends most of his days outside and his nights in the garage although my parents are always heading in and out (plenty of attention although he was still fairly antisocial) and he got very accustomed to my mom giving him parsley as a treat whenever she went out to check on one of our elderly dogs. Saturday I took him outside and when I brought him in he was just fine, I usually carried him around in his basket for 15-20 minutes and talked to him or let him run around the front room while I watch some TV. There was no evident problems until Sunday morning when I went to take him out he seemed to be flaring his nose and possibly breathing through his mouth a little. I didn't really think much about it, he's always had a slightly runny nose like he was allergic to something and it didn't seem to bother him much, I'm really kicking myself for not paying attention now. The rest of day I spent out of the house and when I got back home I had to leave quick to go back to school, grabbed my stuff and after a quick rub behind the ears I left. My mom noticed he was having a lot more trouble when she cleaned out his cage that night and called me. The reason she knew something was wrong was because he didn't jump up on the side of the cage to get his parsley like he usually did. It was to late in the night to get to a vet. I got a call this morning, they told me he was really struggling to breath and he passed on the way to the vet around 8:00am.

Any ideas what it could have been? What hits that fast and that hard? I never would have guessed that he would go from healthy to, well, in the ground within 24 hours. I'd really like to know what caused it, hopefully my lack of attention wouldn't have really made that much difference.

-Nick

 

[tonyshuman]

It is really strange for a rabbit to die that quickly from an upper respiratory issue. It sounds like he could have had a heart problem--that could have caused the rapid breathing. Was there any mucus? Was he still pooping?

The fact that he had a runny nose before might mean he had a tooth root infection. It's common for the smaller breeds to get tooth root problems because of the shape of their faces. Infections in the tooth root can get bad quickly, from infection spreading to the bloodstream, or infected tissue swelling and blocking the airways.

Do you have an idea of how old he was? Were you able to take his body to a vet for a necropsy? That could really help. I'm so sorry you lost him, he was adorable.

 

[BlackAndChrome]

The root infection seems like a likely cause. Bud was 1 1/2 when I got him and he had a slightly overlapped tooth. Given that he wasn't well monitored I assumed it was no concern and that it was nothing that would require extensive monitoring. It's been a year since then and I can't count the number of times I said he needed to be taken in to have his teeth looked at since he fought me too much to get a good look at them myself. Although when he yawned they did not look abnormally long. On the other hand he never chewed extensively or ground his teeth at all suggesting that they possibly weren't growing as fast? There was a slight amount of mucus around his nose and I suppose this could explain his high interest in the parsley even more although I never really noticed him having any problems with his food and he was a healthy weight.

I doubt they finished the drive to the vet. We rarely see a point in throwing money at an animal that's already gone.

-Nick

 

[Maureen Las]

I am really sorry to hear about Bud; hewas really darling.
It is possible that the wet runny nose and mucous around the nose were not an allergy at all but a low grade respiratory infection. it could have gone on for quite awhile without getting worse but often an infection like that can be undetected or attributed to allergies ..once it moves to the chest it becomes very serious and often fatal

You can really never know the cause unless you get an necropsy.

 

[naturestee]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I agree with Tonyshuman that it sounds like it might have been heart failure because of the breathing. It's hard to tell without a necropsy though. I have heard of several cases of young rabbits like yours dying from congenital heart problems that hadn't been found before they died.

He was a beautiful bunny.