What's wrong with this rabbit??

[ollitos]

This rabbit wasn't growing and looked horrible. He felt like nothing. There was no point trying to let him grow out because something was obviously wrong so we culled him.

Greg pulled back the skin and we could SEE all the organs!! Normally, that layer of "skin" or whatever it is after you pull down the fur is pink. This was literally translucent. Here's the pic -- we had not opened the abdominal cavity yet.

The intestines were very large. Kidneys and liver looked fine although the liver looked a bit dark. The stomach was huge - larger than the liver. The heart was so tiny! It was half the size of a kidney. The rib cage was very small and the bones were not very firm.

Any ideas? This rabbit was 9 weeks old, I think but looked like it was several weeks younger.

 

[GypsyTinker]

I have no idea... but it may be a key to your slow growth issues...

Perhaps he was unable to process protein or was not getting enough for some reason?

I first thought "bloat" but this is too weird. I get the sense that it is some sort of intestinal bacteria based issue that started very young. I know you have a lot of rabbits, but do you know if this one had diarrhea at all, especially early on?

Again, I have no idea what this is and have never seen anything like it in any animal.

If he is the ONLY one you ever see like this, it could be a mutation / birth defect...

 

[AmysMacdog]

Eewww Weird! Very strange indeed. Hopefully it is an isolated incident in this one kit and won't show up again.

 

[Nyctra]

The flesh looks like glass. o.o That's trippy.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I'm thinking that what we are seeing is the "silver skin" or outer membrane of the muscle tissue. Since the kit was so young, the muscle tissue may have come away with the fur when you opened the rabbit up.

I do see that the cecum is empty and inflated with air. The cecum is where most of the beneficial bacteria and normal gut flora live, so that would account for the "light" feel of the kit since it was unable to fully digest its food and gain muscle mass.

 

[ollitos]

Yes, it's the outer membrane but in every other rabbit we've opened up, that membrane has been pink. This was translucent which was really freaky! When I looked at the underside of the fur, it was as clean as every other rabbit we've opened. There wasn't any muscle or extra tissue.

I'm going to pull a few more rabbits from that litter and evaluate them. None of them have had diarrhea. I'm thinking this is a genetic issue as opposed to an illness but I have no idea.

Seeing that tiny, tiny heart was so odd. Everything was so out of proportion with this rabbit's innards.

 

[DitchDoc]

Thank you for posting the pic along with your post...pictures are worth a thousand words. Wish I had the knowledge to make an informed response about what was wrong with the bun but it's prodding me to do yet more research. Would you let us know if this appears in any of the other littermates?

 

[AnnClaire]

Ollitos, I agree that this looks and sounds like a genetic issue. Is this breeding with a buck and doe that have been bred before? Any other kits that felt like this/failed to thrive? Can you cross the doe and buck with others to see if you get more light weight kits like this?

I have had a few fail to thrive ... they do well, then all of a sudden, for no reason, they are skin and bones one day and dead soon after. I haven't opened any up ... just can't do it on a kit of that age :weep:

 

[mystang89]

I've no helpful information (not surprising ) but wanted to say that's really cool looking.