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.
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?
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.