Hi everyone. I am a first time bunny owner. I adopted two chinchilla rabbits about 3 weeks ago, a male and a female, who are about 12 weeks old now. Unfortunately the male, Mr. Bunny passed away the day before yesterday, and I’m very sad. I have no idea what happened but now I am scared about caring for Mrs. Bunny. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about what could have happened. I am hoping it was just really bad luck, and not something I did. I’ve had tons of cats and rats and hamsters etc in my life, so in general I feel like a pretty confident pet caregiver, I’m just so confused :/.
The day before Mr. Bunny died he started having a little nasal discharge. He seemed totally fine before that, running and hopping and eating and playing normally, maybe a few sneezes but I thought it was just dust. So around 11 AM he had a bit of a runny nose. By evening it got way worse and he was struggling to breathe. Between that time, he did eat a few munches of hay and had some poops that were a little too small. I took him to the vet at night and she gave him a penicillin shot for a URI and some fluids and gave me Critical Care and oral Baytril. Later that night when I tried to feed him Critical Care, he swallowed a teeny bit and then started convulsing in pain, I couldn’t tell if he aspirated it or it hurt his stomach to swallow the food. I was freaked out and didn’t want to do that to him again, so I left him as comfortable as possible overnight to rest. In the morning his discharge seemed a little better, and I had to go to work so I left him under the care of Mrs. Bunny for the day . He seemed like he wanted me to leave him alone anyway. When I came home, I tried Critter Care again and he had the same reaction. Then he also started having those convulsions without my feeding him, and by 11 that night he passed away .
I felt like everything happened way too fast for it to be just a URI or stasis or a blockage from eating something. There were no warning signs and it was so quick and intense. What could’ve happened?
I would really appreciate your opinions. I am concerned about Mrs. Bunny now, I hope she is ok. I feel paranoid about her eating things she shouldn’t, like I haven’t put anything in her cage besides her litter box, food,water, and a toilet paper roll. I had assumed that like my rats, rabbits would chew things but not swallow them, but now I’m worried. Can I put things in her cage so she can be comfy, like towels, doggie beds, a stuffed bunny to cuddle with, etc or will she eat that stuff? Was I right to assume that they’re pretty competent when it comes to actually eating things, or is a blockage a big concern? I was letting them run free in my house a lot of the day when we were home, and we were watching over them but not following them around or anything. Is that a mistake? I didn’t see them chew cords but they did find little bits of paper and things on the floor, and they chewed the cats cardboard scratching block, but I figured it was made of paper, so of they did swallow some it wasn’t a big deal. I want to block off half of my living room for Mrs. bunny to have more space, she loves to sleep under my chair, but is tht safe? You can tell I’m really paranoid now haha. I really appreciate any insight anyone has about what happened to Mr. bunny. Thanks!