lost 4 week old kit, thoughts?

[dangerbunny]

I lost a kit

One of my 4 week old kits had diarrhea yesterday morning, was lethargic, stopped eating and died around midnight. All of the other ones look fine and our acting normal.

I did a necropsy last night, everything looked totally normal except the stomach was very full of green matter and streaked with mucus, intestines had a lot of mucus. It looks like the gut motility stopped

I haven't done anything different lately but I was thinking maybe since I feed my does a lot of green forage maybe the kit over ate and threw it's gut flora off? As a precaution I removed all green forage and am keeping them all on hay only for a couple days, I also dosed everyone with probiotics. Maybe this kit had a weaker digestive system but I wasn't expecting this as they aren't being weaned or anything.

Any thoughts?

 

[Flemishstar]

I think your right, if they werent too accustomed to the greens, and One over did it, that sounds like the cause to me

 

[Cottie]

I've read about that here or there. A few of the old-school rabbit books I've read talk about not giving greens to young kits. I stopped giving South all forage as soon as her kits started jumping out of the box (except for a few pieces of plantain and mallow when she seemed to be drooping last week).

The one that passed probably had a weaker gut to begin with. Seems extremely sudden to blame it entirely on the greens.

 

[Flemishstar]

See , now I feed Clover to them at 2 weeks.... a few times a day, then at 4 weeks I start intergrating, cause I feed the mom dandelions and plantain ,clover etc and its hard for them to stay away

 

[Dood]

My nursing does and their kits get a pound or two of forage (grass, vetch, clover, trefoil, plantain, sow thistle, lamb quarters, grape vines, etc...) every evening and I haven't had any losses from it.

Is suspect he was just a genetically weaker individual that nature selected against.

 

[skysthelimit]

I would say the same. If they are started early, then they develop the right bacteria for it. If not people who pasture raise would have kits flopping down dead frequently.

Kits can get chilled, reducing blood flow to the gut and die at 4 weeks. One from a litter, just an individual issue. If it becomes a trend, it's a predisposed weakness.

 

[OwnedByTheBuns]

Kits around 6 weeks can die unexpectedly due to Enteritis. The switch to food can completely mess up their guts and they can die even without diahrea (sorry, no one spells that correctly). That is what your kit died of, wether the greens set it off or the food.

 

[dangerbunny]

What I thought was weird is I wasn't weaning them, momma is still nursing them a ton and there was no change in environment or food. I'm very careful at weaning time but this was out of the blue.

 

[OwnedByTheBuns]

Was there any food anyway for momma? If the kit CAN possibly reach the food, he probably got into it and ate some.

 

[dangerbunny]

It's a colony setting, free choice hay and they get oats, barley, boss and flax. I feed a lot of fresh forage like fresh grass, mulberry, alfalfa, blackberry.

Babies have been nibbling on food for awhile now. None of the others are affected, which is why I was thinking a genetic weakness rather then a management issue.

 

[skysthelimit]

Even without weaning or changing any food, the kit could still have become sick. Actually weaning from the mother is not the only cause of mucoid enteritis, a kit in the nest could get chilled and that could change the gut flora and they could die. Any type of imbalance could cause this. Weaning is just a period when they are really sensitive, but I've had young kits still nursing, weanings and older kits die who had been eating on their own for a month, adults die, who were eating the same brand of food, they went from one breeder to another and the move caused the imbalance. Same food, different bag. Change of weather, genetic disposition. Unless you know you did something to cause this, then don't beat yourself up.

 

[OwnedByTheBuns]

OH, definitely don't beat yourself up. There is absolutely NO reason at all to do that. Everyone who has raised rabbits has at least lost one rabbit by accident. And it is not your fault either as you can't exactly control gut flora. I have lost 2 adults in the past two weeks, one for absolutely NO reason. Weather hadn't changed, nothing at all. It just happens.

What I mean, is that that kit did indeed die from enteritis, but no one can figure out what caused it.

 

[skysthelimit]

OH, definitely don't beat yourself up. There is absolutely NO reason at all to do that. Everyone who has raised rabbits has at least lost one rabbit by accident. And it is not your falt either as you can't exactly control gut flora.

What I mean, is that that kid did die from enteritis, but no one can figure out what caused it.

So true, and I hate to say it, but rabbits are so fragile. I thought I had it going on, then had my entire population of kits all but 9 of 50 kits, wiped out by ME in a months time, with no change of anything except the weather. You can do everything right, and everything go wrong.