Loss of a doe

[dearsrock]

Saturday I had a doe in distress, couldn't keep on it's feet. After bringing her in and watching for an hour I decided she was in too much distress and decided to put her down. She died before I could get my gun. She had distended gut with a an awful smell. I realized I have been smelling this for several days. Her heart had a hole so I guess whatever it was lead to it blowing up and she bled out. unny thing is she never skipped a meal. And her poo looked normal in the hindgut. My guess is that the heart was secondary to whatever else was going on. Any ideas what happened? she was one wk from her due date with 9 kits, they looked good. I couldn't find anything besides the gut was filled with gas. I feed alfalfa, oats, BOSS and wheat berries. Any thoughts?

Renee
S CA

 

[akane]

Do you feed unlimited of the grains and how do you feed the hay?

 

[dearsrock]

Grains are about 1/2 cup per rabbit, hay is as much as they can eat overnight, I usually stick a pile about the size of the body of the rabbit.

In hindsight I probably should have opened the stomach to see, but I didn't. BTW, do you think it's ok to crockpot and feed to the dogs?

I appreciate any thoughts!

Renee
S CA

 

[MaggieJ]

I'm sorry about your doe... That must have been very distressing. It's so hard to know what is going on with a rabbit, particularly if it is eating and pooping normally.

Half a cup of grain sounds like quite a bit to me. You might want to reduce it to a third and feed more hay. Perhaps add some grass hay as well, unless there is grass in with the alfalfa.

 

[akane]

If you mean you are feeding hay on the ground/floor of the cage that could also be a source of problems. If you feed that way you should clean out all leftover hay down to the last piece at least once a day before giving fresh. We lost a guinea pig with very similar symptoms and we are 99% sure it was because he ate a piece of peed on hay that had started to go bad. Hay molds quickly once wet and often becomes toxic. The hay rack ran empty and we believe the guinea pigs turned to some hay dropped in the corner and peed on. The boar was found acting very lethargic and unable to stand 12hrs later and did not recover. The vet cut him open to find the intestines filled with gas and some turning necrotic. There were no other symptoms or any other questionable foods fed to them in the past 48hrs making us reasonably sure it was the wet hay. The cage was stripped clean, which is when it was found that quite a bit of hay (from the viewpoint of how much a guinea pig eats) had piled in that hard to see corner under the rack and was soaked from urine. Since then I have always scraped any dropped hay off the wire or shavings in a cage before feeding fresh. The colony rabbits have a 14x14" cube kept 4" off the shavings that the hay is dropped in to. It is lifted and as much hay as possible scraped from the floor weekly.

 

[dearsrock]

I appreciate the feedback. The hay always gets fully eaten, however it did rain last week, so wondering if it just got too wet between the hay tarp and the run to the barn. She also had a nest box, so guess anything could happen with that if she was eating that hay too.

Maggie,
I just want to clarify b/c I'm new to feeding more natural. Why the grass hay? Do you think the alfalfa is too rich? Or too stemmy? (is that a word?). I always keep grass hay around to stuff boxes. Believe me @ $18 a bale of alfalfa, I won't mind mixing! And if this is so, should I be doing the same for the kits? And on the amount of grains, these are NZ, about 10 or 11 lbs, a 1/3 of a cup is good? The basic mix is 6 parts oats, 1 part BOSS, 1 part wheat berries. THANKS!

Renee
S CA

 

[fuzzy9]

I don't have any solutions, just wanted to say that I'm sorry for the loss of your doe.

 

[dearsrock]

Thanks Geri, I'm just hoping I can learn so that I don't have this happen again. I feel bad that it is most likely my fault. Sigh, gotta keep working on those husbandry skills!

Renee

 

[MaggieJ]

Dearsrock, there is no reason to think it is your fault. I suggested feeding some grass hay because it has plenty of beneficial fibre that helps keep the rabbit's GI tract healthy. The other reason for feeding it is to let the grain piggies still feel satisfied. When their smaller grain ration is gone, they should nibble at grass hay to attain that nice full feeling. Grass hay can be made available free choice... and you never have to wonder if the buns are out of food.

 

[hoodat]

Gas is always a problem with rabbits. They have trouble eliminating it at either end. Coarse matter like hay and wood shoots like apple or willow is the best preventive to keep the fod moving in the intestines.