Honky sick

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Rae

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Hey guys, just wanted to get your imput and advice about this issue.

Honky is sick. She's not drinking or eating. Yesterday I got her to sip a little from a small shallow dish in my hands but she hasn't taken anything from her water bottle since 3/12 when I last filled it. I've tried new water, new bottles, new crocks... she's just not drinking. She's also stopped eating. Not hay or feed. No BOSS or oats either. I did get her to eat a handfull of weeds but it took her all day, and she's eaten a bit of apple too but she wasn't terribly excited about it. The 6 surviving kits were all fed yesterday morning but I moved them into Bride's nestbox (now she's caring for 13) anyway hoping that taking some of the stress off her body might help. Anyway, this morning she still hasn't eaten or drank although again she took a bit of apple. She also has a bit of green snot around one nostril. I've read enough on here to have heard that this is bad and means my nest step is probably culling. The problem is that there've been no strangers, no new rabbits and I haven't been to any rabbitrys lately, so I'm not sure how this happened. I haven't even been around anyone else to raises rabbits, at least that I know of. She just had her kits on 3/10 so I'm hoping she's just ill from the bodily stress and that it's not something contagious, but if it's snuffles do you think it's too late to save the other rabbits? I'm moving her to the garage as soon as I can this morning. I think I'll give her another 24 hours before culling, just incase she starts to get better.
 
The thing about snuffles is that it can lie dormant for a long time and then rear its ugly head when a rabbit is under stress. It's possible that Honky has some other respiratory disease. Most people cull a rabbit with green or yellow snot, but if she is segregated it won't hurt to wait and see what happens.

I'm not sure I would have fostered the kits to another doe, since they may have taken the problem with them. But since it is done, not much you can do except hope this is not the case. You might want to isolate that doe and both litters as a precaution.

Snuffles can go right through a rabbitry, but it doesn't always. Many rabbitries have dormant snuffles anyhow... Since the symptoms don't materialize, the owner has no way of knowing.
 
Thanks MaggieJ. She's moved already and I gave her a bit of pineapple juice. It buggs me that she's not being her normal cranky self. She didn't even fuss when I picked her up. :( I really hope it's an isolated case and that Bride can care for all 13 kits. They all had full tummies this morning which is awesome, I hope it continues.
 
new mom.. she's under stress. Check that she doesn't have mastitis. Offer her WET greens to increase water intake. Sometimes getting a bunny mad when you have greens in your hand will cause them to grab the greens and go OH! Food!

Syringe pineapple juice into her. Offer her snapple iced tea mixed with water.
 
She's in pain now. I crushed a baby asprin into a syringe with pineapple juice and gave it to her. I've got to run to the store anyways in a couple of hours for my husband so I'll pick up some fresh parsley, gatorade and whatever else I can find. I'd like to at least give her a chance, but if she still in pain this evening after the asprin has had two chances to work I won't be able to stand it, I'll have to take her out back.
 
Snapple, Gatorade, or blackstrap molasses mixed with water can help entice her to drink, and will add some nutrients.

Oats coated with blackstrap might get her to eat a little.

Definitely keep up the pineapple juice, like Ladysown said. Lots of good enzymes in there, and it can help clear a fur blockage if that's the original problem. I think it needs to be fresh.<br /><br />__________ Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:14 am __________<br /><br />I just saw about the pain. :(
 
pain is not a good sign, it really isn't.

rabbits are built to hide pain, so if they are showing it you know it isn't good.
 
She's no longer grinding her teeth, which means the asprin is working. She also actually tried to drink from the syringe a moment ago when I was giving her a little water. Every other time she's fought me on that. So far I'm just giving her 5mL of water, pineapple juice or gatorade every 45minute to an hour. She's not interested in eating at all still, but the green snot is gone, it's not even on her paws. She's also urinated for the first time that I'm 100% possitive about in the last 24 hours although I still don't see any bunny berries.
 
:( I really hope she pulls through. Just keep up the fluids and trying. You might also want to try plain yogurt or some other form of probiotics to try to keep her gut moving as well with the juice.
 
I went to give her some more water about an hour ago and died right infront of me. :( Sort of looked like a seizure and then she just keeled over, eyes wide open. I'm really sorry that she had to go so painfully. I opened her up just to see if I could figure out what was wrong and there were a couple of different things.... one area of her large intestine was really full, many time larger than the areas around it there was also a lot of fluid filled areas of intestine. Also I opened her stomach just to see and there was quite a bit of air. Amazingly her lungs looked great. So did her liver. No retained kits. Looks to me like it a just a blockage and some gas. Something that could have happened at any point to any of the rabbits in the barn. I'm still worried about the green snot that appeared for a while, hoping that it's not something that'll spread through the barn. Thanks for all your help and advice. Next time something like this happens it wont take me so long to take action now that I've been given such great advice.
 
aww i'm sorry :( I've never had a rabbit die in front of my and i hope i never do. make sure you watch your other rabbits, and if you think what she had might be contagious, you might wanna dose your other rabbits with aqua-vite or maybe a little echinacea. i usually do that if i'm concerned about something spreading.
 
So sorry, Rae! It is hard to watch something die, especially when the seize up like that. I've been there. :( ((Hugs))

I would second Sterling's recommendation of the echinachea. I also picked up some chewable vitamin C yesterday to boost any bunnies that may need it. Tell you what- I will take some tabs out now and see if they are of any interest to the rabbits. Just in case it was related to something in the feed, why don't you go ahead and give everyone some pineapple too?
 
Thanks again. I gave everyone a bit of pineapple, now Bride has some soft shiny bunny berries... not runny, but I'll be watching incase it's from something other than the fruit.
 
The C was a hit! I gave 1/2 a 500mg tab to a few of the mama does, and they scarfed them right down. I didn't want to give too much, as high doses can cause diarrhea. Rabbits produce 226 mg/kg of ascorbic acid daily, so 250 as a starter dose is well within limits. When an animal is ill, the body ups production of C to detoxify the body. Sodium ascorbate is slightly alkaline and more gentle on the stomach than straight ascorbic acid, and both are available in a granular form (so you could add it to the feed or water), although your pharmacist may need to order it for you.

I think I am going to have to re-read this book and apply it to the rabbits... How to Have a Healthier Dog by Wendell O. Belfield, DVM and Martin Zucker. Here is the website where the book and vitamin supplements are available: http://www.belfield.com/books.php

I might have to order another copy myself- mine is nearly 20 years old, and as I am paging through it I hear the glue cracking and chunks of pages are coming loose from the binding! :x

The benefits of C just don't seem to end- if taken during pregnancy the fetuses are remarkably healthy and active at birth and the mother's labor is faster and less painful, it prevents hip displaysia in dogs, it is an analgesic (pain reliever), in mega doses it is an anti-viral, etc., etc.
 
MamaSheepdog":2ayvr2wa said:
I might have to order another copy myself- mine is nearly 20 years old, and as I am paging through it I hear the glue cracking and chunks of pages are coming loose from the binding! :x
Click to expand...
Take it to Office Depot and have them cut the binding off, then spiral bind it for you. I did this with my favorite cookbook, when it disintegrated into a bunch of chunks. :D
 
They can do that?!? :p A new copy is $15 plus shipping- surely the spiral binding would cost less than that?

I have a really thick gardening book that disintegrated too, and I drilled holes in it and bound it with those big D ring type fasteners... not sure what their real name is, but anyway- it worked. :D
 
MamaSheepdog":3hyluift said:
They can do that?!? :p A new copy is $15 plus shipping- surely the spiral binding would cost less than that?

I have a really thick gardening book that disintegrated too, and I drilled holes in it and bound it with those big D ring type fasteners... not sure what their real name is, but anyway- it worked. :D
Click to expand...

Yup, your BIL did that for my favorite Southern Home Living cookbook....
 

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