The unsolved mystery

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Rabbit Talk Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Cottie":3j23f4mo said:
Sadly what happened to your dobies sounds similar to what happened here. I hope you find the culprit. It's hard to get past without answers.
Click to expand...

The in-laws are bordered by 3 crop fields. So the problem is spraying the crops, but we'll never convince them to stop. So I've told them to keep an eye open for when the fields are sprayed and keep the their Dobi inside and allow it to dry before letting her out again. But we are now taking measures to keep her safe.
 
We're also surrounded by fields. It's just so hard to believe that is causing the issues when I know so many other homesteaders that are also surrounded, without problems.

Kits are 2 weeks told today, eyes are starting to crack open. Mama's back to being extremely aggressive. She uncovered the nest yesterday, despite the cold snap, and I'm worried the kits will get chilled. She knows best, though...

__________ Tue Mar 24, 2015 12:39 pm __________

Almost lost one. Crazy doe sent it flying out of the hutch, but fortunately it landed in a pile of straw. Half of them have their eyes open, and the other half are almost there. They're all a decent size and starting to hop around.

I've done my intervention for the week, and will leave them be until next Tuesday. <br /><br /> __________ Sun Apr 05, 2015 6:15 pm __________ <br /><br /> 5 died today. 3 weeks 4 days old. No marks. Going to necropsy them tomorrow.
 
I will tomorrow. They're in the fridge (soooo glad we kept the overflow fridge from when we had goats!). I'll photo the organs. I'm expecting to find nothing wrong.
 
hubby's suggestion is "pack up and move". If it's killing your animals... what is it doing to you????

So just move.
 
I would have to agree with Ladyson's hubby....If it is possible to move..Sell that land to someone who wants to store junk, or an "auto recycler"
I would be to honest to sell it to someone with animals or kids..I feel for you..But like she said...what's it doing to you??.
 
Have you talked to your neighbors about what has been going on? Have they been having any problems? How big is your property? Is there any way you can do some research into the past owners to see if something was going on out there that would be causing the problems? I would still get that barn tested for lead paint. Even though the animals didn't show high levels of lead doesn't mean it couldn't have any effect on them.
 
cmfarm":1urhbf1z said:
Have you talked to your neighbors about what has been going on? Have they been having any problems? How big is your property? Is there any way you can do some research into the past owners to see if something was going on out there that would be causing the problems? I would still get that barn tested for lead paint. Even though the animals didn't show high levels of lead doesn't mean it couldn't have any effect on them.
Click to expand...

I believe lead has to be ingested, not just in the environment, to cause any kind of big problem-- but I have seen old farms that still had lead water pipe going to the house, or out-buildings that no one knew was still there-- that does cause big problems...
 
ladysown":ikc8olhc said:
hubby's suggestion is "pack up and move". If it's killing your animals... what is it doing to you????

So just move.
Click to expand...
This is where we're at. We have to wait until September (I can't get a mortgage until then), unless we stumble upon another rental that is suitable for a family of 7 and will allow 2 large dogs.

Lead isn't a possibility. We've had animals all over the property, in new buildings that wouldn't have lead and in cages/brooders that wouldn't be exposed to lead, and our water tested negative.

My husband is calling the previous owners to find out if they ever had weird issues. They did dairy on the land, so it's possible that due to the size of the animals they never would have noticed a problem. An oddity we remembered from when we moved in is our landlord said the previous tenants moved because their relationship "fell apart." He reported they were happy when they moved in and over the course of 18 or so months everything went downhill. Possible coincidence, or it could be indicative of something environmental.

Also, the kits were fine on Saturday, I handled them, then they died the next day. Is it me? Am I radioactive or something? :cry:

Here's what happened on Saturday
The kits had developed nest box eye. Not severe, just enough to have gunk holding their eye(s) shut. 6 of the 8 had it only in 1 eye, 1 in both, and 1 had none. So, we took a washcloth with hot water out of the bottled water dispenser and cleaned their eyes.

The hutch wasn't in the cleanest condition. As I posted before, she had them on the floor instead of in the nest box, so I couldn't get the nasty straw out until they were all out of the nest. They were, so I removed her to a carry crate, put the kits in a basket (that we use for hanging hay from the ceiling of the hutch) and removed the dirty straw. New straw in.

New hay (store bought), new straw (store bought), fresh water (bottled). Everyone was happily hopping around.

Went out at 5PM yesterday (Sunday), around the same time I always do to feed/water, and 5 are just laying there dead in various parts of the case. Just like the last time this happened. Heads back to their spines, legs thrust out in running pose, mouths slightly open. Their eyes were open, too. It's almost like they threw their heads back mid-leap then just fell over dead.

There was not a single mark on any of them, and they didn't "feel" trampled, so I doubt the doe's involvement. She was aggressive with me, but not the kits.
 
We're also surrounded by fields. It's just so hard to believe that is causing the issues when I know so many other homesteaders that are also surrounded, without problems.
Click to expand...

Different crops and different farmers will inevitably mean different chemicals being used on fields. So some homesteaders not having any problems could just mean that their neighboring fields are not be treated with the same stuff.

I wouldn't rule out crop spraying just yet, as a farmer can decide to try out a new pesticide or herbicide at any point and if it's something new on the market or not purported to be "dangerous", it would be unlikely to show up in conventional lab testing.


With the kits dying after handling, I would have suspected bacteria (like e-coli), but most common bacteria are easy to test for...
 
Syberchick70":38vlzqi6 said:
I'm sure it seems rather obvious, but have you checked for Radon?
Click to expand...
Wrong symptom set and no markers for it in the testing we've done. The options we're down to
  • Me
  • Air
  • Radiation
  • Haunting
 

Latest posts

Back
Top