Help! rabbits dying off!

[inearth]

At the start of this, I had 14 rabbits.. Now I have 9. thats how bad its gotten! I need help to figure out what is going on! after 2 deaths I thought it could be the recent increase of sonic booms, maybe heart attack (those two rabbits were rather skittish) and from their positioning and everything it matched what would be a heart attack.. but now all of the calmer rabbits were dying off?? an today another one! My family were out feeding the animals and everyone was fine, one was rather jumpy so we picked her up and tried calming her down but then she just DIED! in our arms! just like that! there was something coming out of her eye???

We have had an increase of rats & mice, which some the chickens have killed off but they are still there. could they be passing off some kind of disease of infection to them and thats why they are dying off? they have been getting into our food containers, feces are left in them.. could that kill rabbits?? (we have secured our food containers in an old unplugged freezer now) But what could be the reason? I need help, desperately!
I cant even imagine the possibility that more of my babies will die from this. we're trying to clean out their pens as much as possible but everythings still the same! How do I stop this and what is it?? Ive researched and researched but theres just nothing! also the wild rabbits are dying too! ive seen multiple that have just died!

theyve had a weird/strange behavior the night before they die as well!
bouncing around the walls of their homes, acting crazy! like they are getting spooked. they are in pens in enclosed fenced yards with chickens and we also have a guard dog that barks away anything and everything.we also have a bedroom overlooking the yard, and nothing-sound wise has come to our attention! we have the occasional snakes, coyotes, mountain lions(rarely) but they dont come near the house due to our dogs...

Please, I need SOME KIND of help.
The breeds of those who have died:
Holland lop/lion head
New zealand/californian
^mixes
I also lost my ginormous new zealand buck!

 

[Lopsie the bunny]

Hi, i'm sorry for whats happening to you, and i hope the rest make it.
Maybe they are dying from stress because of the noises from the guard dog or increase of sonic booms. Or maybe they are living too close together, and need more separate space of their own. Since you have a lot of rabbits. If their was something wrong with her eye, maybe they're fighting and injuring each other. Bucks will fight other bucks. They could also be dying from a spread of underlying intestinal parasites that you don't know of yet. Was there any kind of poisoning that they could've gotten a hold of? Maybe they got a disease from the rats and mice and its just now taking affect.

Maybe you could bring them inside into a quiet room, and get some cages to separate all the bunnies? To make sure they're each eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom like normal. Also so they aren't stressed out or spreading anything they might have. I wish i could help you more.

 

[JBun]

I'm sorry this is happening. Most common cause of multiple rabbit deaths would be a problem with the feed like mold, mycotoxins, other toxins, toxic vitamin levels. This could especially be a possibility if a new batch of food was just started. If you know any other rabbit owners that feed the same food and have the same batch number, it might be worth to reach out to them and see if they are experiencing rabbit deaths as well.

If in fact wild rabbits are dying as well then you either have a contagious rabbit disease occurring in your area or possibly someone is somehow poisoning the rabbits, though this seems very unlikely, but still possible. Tularemia isn't comon but could occur if you are seeing symptoms that match.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Bacterial/Tularemia.htm
Not as likely in the US as it's extremely rare, but still a remote possility, is RHD. It can cause sudden death with little to no outward signs.
https://rabbit.org/vhd/

 

[majorv]

I agree that it could be something related to the rats...possibly they’re carrying some type of disease. I hope you don’t lose another rabbit, but if you do you should get it to a rabbit savvy vet who can either do a necropsy, or can send the body off to have it done..

 

[davidrhoton]

You might want to try a few things to stop this. One is to cover the cages with blankets this calms them down especially with the noises there. Also you can use herbs from your health food store as teas. Boil up and then add a little at a time . Also your feed store has antibiotic that can be added to their water. I do this one a regular basis about every 6 months.

 

[Preitler]

Rabbits don't die from occasional noise. They don't just get a heart attack from noise, that would be a freak incident, not bound to happen twice.
Giving antibiotics randomly isn't a good idea for several reasons.

Like JBun said, check all feed for mold or get a new batch anyway, just in case. It's not always obvious.

 

[majorv]

Normally I would agree that it could be the feed, but if wild rabbits are dying, too then it may be something in the environment. Certainly wouldn’t hurt to either to get a new bag of feed with a different batch number on the tag or have your feed checked (especially if the rats got into it). Disinfecting the pens is another precaution.

 

[inearth]

Hi, i'm sorry for whats happening to you, and i hope the rest make it.
Maybe they are dying from stress because of the noises from the guard dog or increase of sonic booms. Or maybe they are living too close together, and need more separate space of their own. Since you have a lot of rabbits. If their was something wrong with her eye, maybe they're fighting and injuring each other. Bucks will fight other bucks. They could also be dying from a spread of underlying intestinal parasites that you don't know of yet. Was there any kind of poisoning that they could've gotten a hold of? Maybe they got a disease from the rats and mice and its just now taking affect.

Maybe you could bring them inside into a quiet room, and get some cages to separate all the bunnies? To make sure they're each eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom like normal. Also so they aren't stressed out or spreading anything they might have. I wish i could help you more.

They are all in separate cages, just next to eachother. none are injured and all seem to be doing fine, they all have normal feces and have been eating/drinking well-- no poisoning since they are off the ground and nothing can get in. the dogs never bothered them before, most of them are 2+ years old.

 

[inearth]

I agree that it could be something related to the rats...possibly they’re carrying some type of disease. I hope you don’t lose another rabbit, but if you do you should get it to a rabbit savvy vet who can either do a necropsy, or can send the body off to have it done..

Thank you! I will make sure to do that.

 

[inearth]

You might want to try a few things to stop this. One is to cover the cages with blankets this calms them down especially with the noises there. Also you can use herbs from your health food store as teas. Boil up and then add a little at a time . Also your feed store has antibiotic that can be added to their water. I do this one a regular basis about every 6 months.

all of the cages are covered with tarps so they have shade, more noise reduction, wind protection, etc. ill try the antibiotic/herbs- that sounds interesting

 

[inearth]

Rabbits don't die from occasional noise. They don't just get a heart attack from noise, that would be a freak incident, not bound to happen twice.
Giving antibiotics randomly isn't a good idea for several reasons.

Like JBun said, check all feed for mold or get a new batch anyway, just in case. It's not always obvious.

Okay. thank you!
Ill be checking the feed mercilessly. Ill remember the "Giving antibiotics randomly isn't a good idea for several reasons." part as well.

 

[inearth]

Normally I would agree that it could be the feed, but if wild rabbits are dying, too then it may be something in the environment. Certainly wouldn’t hurt to either to get a new bag of feed with a different batch number on the tag or have your feed checked (especially if the rats got into it). Disinfecting the pens is another precaution.

We've moved all of the rabbits into new cages yesterday and cleaned everything with bleach then let it sit/air out for a day until it was all good to go and okay for the animals to return to their pens. we deep-cleansed their waterbottles and bowls. hopefully there isnt a bad rabbit disease going around. Thank you for the information!