This post contains disturbing details about a rabbit’s sad demise. Please do not read if you feel this might upset you. Title edited by Bam and this warning also added by bam.
So last Sunday, 09-03-17, our rabbit was making a lot of russeling noises in his set-up and I went to look at him and he was lying on his side, unable to move and breathing heavily. My boyfriend picked him up and he was completely limp and gasping for air. My boyfriend held him on his back but more upright and he started calming down and regaining motor control. We set him on the counter and he stood up on his own but was panting or atleast I assume he was because he had his mouth open and was breathing hard (I’ve never actually seen a rabbit pant so.) We drove him 30 minutes away to the only 24 hour emergency clinic that would see rabbits and he was fine and calm the whole time but never stopped panting. When we got there they took him back and we waited hours but only because they had a lot of emergency cases that day. Eventually the doctor took us into a room and talked to us and she said that originally she thought he was doing pretty good. They assigned someone to watch him the entire time and he was moving and hopping around like normal but still panting. When they took his temperature though the stress of it caused him to have a nose bleed. After that she was afraid to take any blood or perform any x-rays for fear of stressing him out so bad he would die. She gave us some options, one of which was euthanasia but we had to figure out what was wrong with him so we picked the option to take him to a rabbit specialist. Sadly though the only one open on a holiday weekend was 2 hours away and would cost around $3000 but we were still ready and willing to do everything we could. So they gave him back to us and maybe a minute after we left the parking lot he started loosing motor control and coughed up a ton of blood and yelled in fear and or pain and then passed away. We drove back and they gave us a burial box and a form for the autopsy lab that is also 2 hours away. Sadly though they didn’t open until Tuesday so we had to keep him in the fridge until then. It’ll take a while for them to run all the tests they have to. The doctor at the lab already opened him up and said everything looked normal except for a lot of “red liquid” (I’m not sure why she didn’t say blood) in his lungs, sinuses, and throat. But as of now that is all we really know. I wanted to ask though if anyone else has had something like this happen before while I wait for more information from the lab. This is so important to me and my boyfriend because this bunny was one of 6 bunnies in an acident litter. He was only 8 months old. Also this litter was the second accident litter (the mother was pregnant with litter #2 while nursing litter #1.) The entire first litter died and half of them died almost the exact same was as this one, except they died immediately after losing motor control assumably because they weren’t even a month old and their little hearts couldn’t take the shock. We don’t want the other 5 babies to die the same way screaming and scared. All the vets I talked to about the 1st litter couldn’t tell me anything so hopefully the lab work will tell us something. If anyone has went through something similar and or has any thoughts or ideas I would love to hear them.
Please and thank you.
Also the rabbit that passed was named Love btw. We named him that early on but he quickly grew to be the embodiment of the word because he loved everyone no matter what species and or gender. He greatly enjoyed laying with my dog, grooming her stuffed animal, and being generally spoiled rotten but utterly sweet. He died too young and we’ll miss him so so very much.