Rabbits suddenly dying after neighbor watched them!

[HansenHomestead]

So my husband, and I took off to OK to see his parents for the 4th of July. Before we have left we asked our neighbor if she could feed our chickens, and rabbits for us while we were gone. She said yes, so I set out the rabbits food, and wrote a note that said. "Fill bowls with pellets, give each rabbit 2 handfuls of hay, and fresh water daily." While we were gone she sent this text saying OMG OMG what do I feed the chickens?! I told her that there was pile of grass, and weed clippings I cut from the garden, and to give those to the chickens. She then replied the chickens are just looking at the grass. I told her that they always do that, and they will eat it once she walks away. When we got back home 2 days later she tells me that. She felt that the grass wasn't enough for those poor chickens so she took it upon herself to dump a bag of dog food in there that she won't give her dog, but Google told her it was okay to do that. (I was not happy about that.) Needless to say the chickens are fine. All of yesterday the rabbits were fine. Today I go outside to clean the cage, and I notice my buck is just laying down. Which is not like him. He is usually kicking around having a good ole time. So I took them all inside, and I took him away from the others, and just held him. He did not want food, nor water, and did not want to stand up, and if he hopped it was a very slow sort of sideways hop. After about 10 minutes he got worse. I mean if I wanted to pick him up by 1 ear, he would have just dangled there. (No I did not do that, but that's how uncaring he was about anything that was going on.) About 5 minutes after that he started gasping, and just went limp, and passed away. Now I've got one of my Californians acting up. She is still quite a bit active, but is laying down more than normal, has little to no interest in food, or water. I text my neighbor asking her is she had fed the rabbits anything other than what I set out for them, and she said that she did not. Nothing in their diet, or environment has changed. Does anyone has any suggestions on what could be going on?

Our rabbits, and chickens are for meat so if there are grim details I am able to handle it.

Thank you in advance!! :bunnyhop:

 

[Zass]

Do any of the sick rabbits have diahrea? Have any stopped pooping altogether?

Are all the water bottles functioning? Do any of the rabbits seem abnormally thin, as if they lost a lot of weight overnight? Dehydration due to diahrea can look like that.
Heat can also be deadly..

Autopsies can sometimes give a hint as to cause of death. Sometimes, not.


I'm sorry you are losing rabbits!!
We'll help as much as we can.

 

[MaggieJ]

Hard to tell what is happening with so little information. Are you having a heat wave, by any chance?

Did you open up the buck to see if you could determine what his problem might have been? If your rabbits are for meat you likely know what the organs should look like. Especially check the lungs and liver for obvious signs of disease.

I'm wondering if perhaps your neighbour did give them something else to eat and is afraid to admit it. But I don't see any way to find out.

 

[DBA]

Glad to see you on here Becca.
Folks, I sent Becca to this site because I was at a loss to what is going on.
She got her californians (two does) from me about 3 weeks ago or so.
In our area, it is actually about 20 degrees cooler this week than normal.


Sorry, Becca, not trying to speak for you, just jumping into the conversation hoping we can find out what is going on.

 

[HansenHomestead]

@MaggieJ

This is our first year with rabbits, so I am not yet familiar with that their organs look like, but I am going to open him up, and try to see if I can find anything. The weather has been an even 80's lately, but yesterday, and today, it has dropped to the 60's. What really made me think something was wrong with him was the fact that his ears were very very cold, and that is not normal.

@Zass

All poop is normal, no they are the same size as when we left. I checked the water bottles, and they are functioning normally.

@DBA

No you're totally fine hun. You're right about the weather. It has changed here too.

 

[MaggieJ]

I'm no fan of the House Rabbit people, but this page may give you some idea of what the problem may be:
http://www.rabbit.org/care/sick.html

If you post pictures of the organs, we will try to help you sort it out.

 

[katiebear]

My first thought is mold...check the hay, check the chicken hay too..the neighbor may have used some of the chicken hay thinking it was fresher...If there are any bad weeds in it that may be the problem..the symptoms sound kind of like poisoning. Maybe check for insect bites as well :?: :?: one more thought..did anyone clean the bottles? any chance of residue left behind?
And you may want to start to syringe fluids into the other sick ones mouth..water or electrolyte solution diluted Gatorade or pedilite....

 

[Zass]

How old are the rabbits?

 

[HansenHomestead]

They are 3 months, and 2 months. 1 passed away, the other is still active, but doesn't want food, or water. The other 3 are totally fine!

 

[Zass]

Between 8 and 12 weeks is still a fairly delicate age. It is possible something they ate could kill them suddenly before diahrea has a chance to set in.
Watch the others for it closely.

For the one who will not eat...The first thing I would try would be offering old fashioned oatmeal, and herbs like parsley or lemon balm, astringent weeds like plantain, or un-sprayed leaves from just about anything in the rose family. Apple, blackberry, strawberry, rose, etc.
Sometimes gas causes rabbits to go off feed, and in such a case,
smethicone infant gas drops may help relieve gi discomfort.

It's critical to get them eating asap.

 

[HansenHomestead]

I offered her the old fashioned oats, and she did not want those either. She did however eat some grass that I threw in there from the yard.

 

[Susie570]

I'm betting they were given the chicken's grass clippings and it had mold in it. :/
I hope they pull through!

 

[Zass]

I'm betting they were given the chicken's grass clippings and it had mold in it. :/
I hope they pull through!

Even a few handfuls of fresh grass could wreak some havoc on kits that are unaccustomed to it. It wouldn't even need to be moldy.

Once they go off feed...anything is better than nothing IMO, since nothing means certain death.

 

[HansenHomestead]

The neighbor swore to me that she only fed them the hay, and pellets I set out, and the hay is in a box, that is lifted off the ground to keep it from getting moist when it's humid out.

 

[Zass]

I'm not going to say mold is the cause, but I think it still can't be ruled out.

I actually had to move my hay inside the house, because it was getting moldy on the elevated hay rack in the roofed, sheltered, sand floored rabbitry.
It's just been terribly humid here. It keeps raining and raining..
Even the pellets the in j-feeders was starting to visibly mold if it spent more than three days in there. I've had to be super careful to make sure I don't put out more feed than they will polish off overnight.

I don't know if your climate is the same, but if it's similar, there could be a possibility that even well stored hay might have problems.

Since your neighbor is the type that you trust to care for your animals, I'd like to think they wouldn't fed the bunnies anything inappropriate and refuse to admit it. I mean, they fessed up to the dog chow..

 

[Preitler]

Did you check the leftovers ore wasted food for something that shouldn't be there?

 

[Galadriel]

I'm so sorry!

I don't know about mold. One of our rabbits went wry-neck on us ( the-freestyle-sleeping-of-a-wry-neck-rabbit-pic-heavy-t19433.html?hilit=bumfy#p212183 ), and we almost lost him to moldy food. He started losing the fur around his eyes in clumps and losing his coordination, and then Mom (Miss M) found out our feed was moldy. I don't recall anything else wrong.

Keep giving her grass, and I'd try to rustle up some other greens, like dollar-weed or dandelion or pony's foot or false strawberries. Try to keep food in her system. If she quits eating altogether, she'll probably go into gastrointestinal stasis, where everything quits. Once there, she'll die.

I agree with Katiebear: it sounds like poisoning. But I don't know what it might have come from. I'm just not familiar with that. My only guess would be like the grass clippings had a nightshade of some sort in it, but once again, I just don't know.

It could also be a disease that your neighbor brought with her, in which case, there really wasn't much you could've done about that except ask her to wash thoroughly before coming over, but Mom thinks that poisoning is much more likely.

Daddy Shay says that if she gave your birds dog food against your instructions and without your consent, then you can't trust her word on this.

:clover:

 

[Zinnia]

How sure are you that water was really being taken in by the rabbits while you were away?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I'm so sorry you are going through this!

If you use water bottles for the rabbits, try giving them crocks instead. Oftentimes they will drink "just enough" from bottles because it takes effort, whereas with crocks they can easily lap up as much as they want.

You may also want to offer a separate bowl with an electrolyte solution in it. You can use a sports type drink, or better yet make your own using the recipe here:

homemade-electrolytic-solution-t14844.html

Parsley is an appetite stimulant and can be fed fresh or dried. I add dried parsley to my grain mix when taking my rabbits to distant shows when they tend to go off feed due to the stress of travel, and they really like it.

You might want to mix some old fashioned black strap molasses with a little water and then toss your oats (and parsley flakes!) with it. It might tempt the rabbit to eat at least a little.

Good luck, and keep us posted on the little guy's progress. :clover:

 

[Bunny-Wan Kenobi]

I would try to get her to eat by giving her oats coated in molasses, it's worked many a time when one or more of our rabbits stopped eating.

You can also try oats in canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling), or oats in applesauce.

For drink, you can try electrolytes (Gatorade, Powerade, Pedialyte). You can also try tea, fruit juice, or juice in canned fruit that is packed in fruit juice.

Daddy Shay says that if she gave your birds dog food against your instructions and without your consent, then you can't trust her word on this.

I agree with Galadriel and our dad. Just because she said that she didn't give them anything that you didn't tell them to give her doesn't mean that she didn't give them anything else. Many people who have very little knowledge about animals go by their emotions for animals, and don't take advice from those who have knowledge of animals.