Necropsy Liver problem **GORY PICS**

[imajpm]

*sighs* Handsome Stranger was a young buck that I had planned on keeping. He was 11 months old. A week ago he started acting less friendly but was otherwise eating and drinking and acting like himself. This morning I found him huddled in the back of his hutches, eyes mostly closed, and his food and water from last night, untouched. I decided not to mess around and to dispatch. He did not put up any fuss so I know he must have been feeling terrible.

Necropsy pics. I hope they are clear enough. Two things stood out to me. He had one lobe of his liver that was very hard and black. I opened that and it was black all the way through and a granulated type texture. The other thing was his bladder was huge and full. I saw something white in there that was holding its shape so I opened it up. It pretty much rushed out with the urine and vanished/dissolved so I did not get a good look at what it was. Stomach was packed full so gut stopped either yesterday morning or the evening before. Kidneys looked normal. It's the liver that concerns me. The rest of his liver felt normal in texture but looked a bit lighter in color than what I normally see in meat buns.

Anyone see this before and have any ideas?

 

[Dood]

Wow, I've never seen a liver like that

I did some google searching and cannot see anything comparable except from trauma :shrug:

 

[imajpm]

I haven't either! I did find something called liver torsion. Symptoms fit and that is definitely a dead lobe. Argh my poor bunny. I am still not sure though and hoping someone here has seen this before.

 

[Zass]

Massively swollen gall bladder too, probably associated with the liver malfunction. I've seen some rough livers, but nothing like that.
I'm glad you put him down quickly.

 

[Miss M]

I've never seen that either. :shock: Poor bunny! It's good you put him down when you did.

 

[imajpm]

Thanks. The second I laid eyes on him I knew I had no other choice. I am worried about my other rabbits but since it's so not recognizable then maybe it's just a freak thing. I just don't know.

 

[a7736100]

Maybe someone at the free site http://www.allexperts.com/el/Ask-Veterinarian/ can help you find the answer. It would be interesting to find the cause.

 

[imajpm]

Maybe someone at the free site http://www.allexperts.com/el/Ask-Veterinarian/ can help you find the answer. It would be interesting to find the cause.

I had a peek at the experts. No vets, but I may ask anyway, not sure. I'd prefer a vet who has exotic animal experience as I am beginning to think this is pretty rare.

I was racking my brain about the history of this rabbit and remembered an incident that occurred 4 or 5 weeks ago. I had the rabbit barn open for fresh air and my neighbor unexpectedly showed up, which he rarely does, with his dogs. Now his girls are very nice and calm but being dogs they just had to go see the bunnies. My dog is not allowed past the door because he is too vigorous so the rabbits are totally unfamiliar with dogs. Even if they were his dogs look totally different from mine and the rabbits all went berserk. This buck, and his sister, is closest to the door and was really alarmed, racing wildly around. He called his dogs out right away and felt terrible. I checked the rabbits and they all appeared normal afterwards.

For torsion, it says an injury to the ligaments supporting the liver can be the cause of having the liver twist at a later date. Or it may have even twisted during that incident. I have no real idea. No one has seen this. I've got the question/photos out in a 4000 member colony group also and still no answers. All I know is that this bunny was glowing with health.

I think since it's so unknown, that I am going to go off the theory that its not an infectious disease for now, and just keep watch. I am still hoping someone has seen this before so I can stop worrying!

 

[Miss M]

I remember reading about torsion once, when I was looking for a different liver problem explanation. It did seem like a freak kind of thing.

 

[imajpm]

Hah! Well that liver qualifies as freaky lol.