A bittersweet hello.....

[SquirrelsDad]

Morning Everyone,
I joined this forum the other day because I was desperately looking for help and information about bloat. My little Rex X who was 5 months old was fine Friday evening before being tucked away for the night, but Saturday morning, he was lethargic and his tummy was bloated. We took him to the vets and she gave him some pain meds, some emeprid and some infacol. For the next 36 hours, every 2 hours, we were giving him infacol and trying to administer some critical care. At one point, we thought he was going to pull through as he had started moving a bit and pooing, and his sister was even bringing him food and laying it in front of him, but unfortunately, in the afternoon, his little body could take no more and he passed away. My daughter who is 7, was with us at every step, as I think it is important to understand what was going on. She was devastated as this is the second rabbit we have lost, the first rabbit we lost was about 2 months ago, she was a Dutch, about a 18 months old, but she had a stroke or something similar, and died very quickly. She wasn’t bonded as she and our other rabbit did not get on..... Anyway, when our Rex died, we were all very upset and took him out and gave him some last cuddles and as it was a Sunday, we just laid him quietly in his carry case. One thing that we didn’t know, was were we had removed him, his sister, who has been with him, was searching for him. We didn’t know that we should have left him in there with her, to help her come to terms with his death. We put his body back in the hutch, at which point she went straight to him and started to groom him and lay with him, basically trying to wake him. We left them for the evening and the next day, we removed his body. She seems fine so far, doing everything she should, but we are keeping a close eye on her. We had only had these 2 rabbits for 4 weeks, we got them from a rescue centre and we wanted a bonded pair, but now we have 2 single rabbits again. We will leave it a while, but we will try and bond her with another rabbit in the future, but our other rabbit is very happy on her own.....

The information about letting bonded pairs come to terms with the death of their partner was very difficult to find, luckily we found it.

Anyway, now I have more knowledge, I hope that one day I can help someone else.....

 

[Maki_p29]

I’m so sorry to hear of the recent losses you have experienced. My condolences to you and your family! My bunny Hawkeye sends her condolences too!

 

[Morchall]

We went through the same thing with our 3 month old rabbit. He suddenly started having diarrhea and died a few hours after that. We took him away to get him looked at and he didn’t make it home. His sister, who he was bonded with, seemed pretty depressed for a while, because she probably had no idea where he went and thought that we took him away from her and wanted him to come back.
It’s been two months now, and she seems pretty content now, but it was heartbreaking to see her searching for him in the weeks following his death. She now has a different brother from the same litter in the house but they are not bonded and probably won’t be able to bond until she is able to be spayed. She tries to fight with him. But I hope they will eventually be as close as she was with our first boy. They used to cuddle all the time and it was so sweet.
Condolences to your family, it’s always such a hard thing to lose a pet, even if they were young and you didn’t have them very long. I still cry about losing my bunny and I only had him for a few weeks before he died. It’s devastating to lose such a young animal because you think, “why did this happen? They were just a baby...”
I hope your daughter will be okay, it is really difficult to experience a pet’s death as a child but I think you are doing the right thing in letting her know what is going on. I really wish my parents had told me what was going on with my dog when I was a kid, they just had her put down without telling me beforehand and it was really messed up. So I’m glad you’re making sure she is able to take the steps to understanding and accepting the death of a pet.
I am very sorry for your loss and I hope that your family and your other rabbit are able to comfort each other in this shared grief. It’s a shame that rabbits are such fragile animals but they give us so much joy while they are around. Good luck with everything.

 

[Imbrium]

*Hug* GI stasis (lack of appetite/insufficient movement in the gastrointestinal tract which can be caused by any number of ailments) is a swift and brutal killer at times . While we've successfully helped rabbits recover from stasis many times, the two rabbits my husband and I have lost over the years both died during a bout of stasis despite medication and veterinary treatment. Layne (3.5 yo), who died last January, we don't have an explanation for... Gazzles (a couple mos shy of 2 years old when she passed) had a necropsy done that revealed a blood clot in her intestines (though I don't know if the stasis caused the clot or vice-versa). Losing rabbits is always quite tough!

I was the same age as your daughter when I first personally experienced death - when I was 7, my dad's oldest brother (who I barely knew) died of a heart attack and our family dog (who my parents got before I was born) abruptly got very sick and had to be put to sleep. It's a lot to take in, but in retrospect I've always felt like that was a good age for learning about death. Granted, my dad died when I was nine, making me grateful later on that I'd had previous experiences with death. I remember we took the dog to the vet before school and when it was determined she would be PTS, my mom asked me whether or not I wanted to be in the room with her when it happened. I opted to stay out of the room (and afterward declined the option to take the day off from school), though I later sort of regretted not being in the room with them - right after Annie was euthanized, Mom came out, told me how peaceful she looked as she passed and assured me that she was in a better place where she could no longer feel pain.

Anyway, welcome to RO! I'm so sorry that you've found us under such sad circumstances, but we've got a great community here and I hope you stick around .