Losing nearly my entire herd of rabbits during the summer of 1981. In every cloud, there is a silver lining, and I became primarily a satin breeder because of it, but I lost some really, REALLY good rabbits as a result of all of it. The weather that year put my operation into a tailspin that I almost never recovered from.

I'm fairly new to rabbits but have already had some bad experiences. 1. litter dying on the wire. 2. doe not feeding babies. 3. kit injured it's back and had to be put down. this was the worst. we tried waiting to see if "Scoot" would recover use of his hind legs enough to be a pet. he didn't.

I hear you Billy:
I lost/dispatched a third to half of my herd due to an outbreak
of Snuffles/Pasteurella. This was more than 12 to 15 years ago.
The problem started when I brought a Rabbit/Buck into the herd
from a well known breeder[No names. will be mentioned]
Being the trusting soul that I am I took it for granted
that the Rabbit had no problems. I was to later find out
that this breeder was constantly medicating his Rabbits.
This created a herd with extremely weak resistance to disease.
Ther WAS a SILVER LINING! This is what started me on my
present breeding program all those years ago!
Any sign of illness or disease and the Rabbit is CULLED.
I do not treat any illnesses accept minor things like nestbox eye,
should the symptoms return, they were culled. After many years
of strict culling I developed a virtually Disease resistant herd.
I keep a watchful eye to this day, but I have to say that I am
proud of the wellness of my Rabbits! When you put a plan into
action and stick by your guns it will always come to fruition!
I know this choice is not for everyone, but it works for me!
Ottersatin.

No we never did He was such a sweetheart.

Losing my entire herd of 24 pedigreed, purebred Cali's
because of an impulse purchase of a cute little
$10 feed store mutt rabbit that ended up having Pasteurella.
[one acre farm]

I hear you,
how devastating I hope you read my post. Bad things happen,
but I like to believe that they are not deserved.
The only other bad things that have happened are:
The tough winters when hands are
nearly frostbitten by the time rabbits are fed and watered.
After all that persons who would like a Pet Rabbit
when you tell them the price. Their answer is: It's only a Rabbit!
I charge what I do because: If the rabbit costs only $5 or $10 dollars
and the kid decides they don't feel like feeding/caring for it,
the parent will say: "Oh well, it's only a Rabbit"!
But when they spend $25.00 or more, they will make sure that
the child gets out there and takes proper care of what they now feel
they have spent good money for! I would rather keep the rabbit
and send it to the processor or sell it for meat
than have it suffer from lack of proper care as a Pet.
As always, JMPO.
Ottersatin.

In my 8 years of breeding, I don't really hsve any horror stories! Knock on wood.

Likewise, I hear you Dennis.

My losses weren't sickness related, just heat & feed-related. Everything was fine until I started trying to prep my rabbits for an August show in Jacksonville, AR by putting them onto sweet feed to try and get a little extra weight on them at the back side of a very hot summer when they lacked some of their conditioning. Most of them stopped eating altogether about a week after being put on it, and the only ones who survived it all was a pair of Satins (a cal doe and a red buck to be exact). The problem went away the moment I quit feeding it, but not before it wiped out some really nice rabbits, and though I know there are posters on here who do so, to this day I won't feed it any longer.

The silver lining? Out of that red buck and cal doe came one of my best ever Satins, a black doe named Magic. She wound up placing in the top 10 of her class as a senior at the Colorado Springs ARBA convention that following year.

No I told him I had made a mistake and that they were not what I was looking for.