My bun just died and I don't know why. Please help.

[shonesters]

My (not quite) 3 year old rabbit just died and I have no clue why. She was completely healthy (seemingly) immediately prior to it happening.

She is an indoor bun and her cage is in my room. I use a dog kennel as her "main" cage, so it has a plastic bottom. I heard some scratching noises and went over to her cage to find her lying on her side, sort of rolling onto her back, and her hind legs moving like her rear end was trying to get up. Her front half wasn't moving at all. I scooped her up in my arms and put her in the carrier to rush her to the vet but by the time I got out to the car, I looked in the carrier and she was gone. When I picked her up she peed on my shirt a little. The fit was probably going on about a minute or so before I checked. I thought she was just digging like she sometimes does, or I would have gotten right up.

Can anyone please give some insight into what may have happened? I am so sad, but I want to know what just occurred. I can answer any questions that may help someone figure it out. :cry2

 

[Cosmic]

I'm so sorry for your loss! I'm relatively new to the group and world of rabbits, but it sounds like a seizure to me. I don't know how seizures affect rabbits differently, but we had a dog that seized and it was similar to what yours sounded like. I wonder if whatever caused the seizure killed your rabbit? Maybe an aneurysm? I'm so sorry and I hope more people chime in to help!


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[kmaben]

Could have been a seizure could have been head tilt. Odd though that there were no other signs or symptoms before hand. You really couldnt have prevented anything.

 

[Watermelons]

She may have thrown a clot somewhere (stroke, heart attack, etc....) Often Seizures can come after these events, like a hypoxic seizure, which means she was most likely all ready gone at this point. The urinating is just an end of life function of the body. Seizures themselves don't usually kill. Hard to know exactly what happened without having a necropsy done. But it doesn't sound like there was anything you could have done.

 

[shonesters]

She was still breathing when I picked her up and making noise. She peed a bit on my shirt and pants and I put her in the carrier. I looked in when I got in the driveway and she had stopped breathing/moving. She was probably seizing for about 3 minutes actually. I saw her like... hop to one side of the cage and then lay down.... and then when I got up to check on her, I realized she wasn't able to get up. =/ It's just hard when you don't know what happened. She was totally fine prior to this. No head tilt, normal stool, normal eating, playful, etc. Blah.

 

[bunbunfun10]

I had a rabbit do that when I was younger. I was devastated :-(!! It turned out to be a respitory problem..where his lungs filled up with fluid. He had been to the vet and was on antibiotics.. but wasnt getting better. He just up and died.. I am soo sorry for your loss. That must of been traumatic for you.

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[Sweetie]

I had a rabbit that would jerk his head a little. I remember when he was a little off and would be fine in the morning. One night he seemed a little off, but I thought nothing of it. Morning came, I checked on him and he was face in the corner of the cage and Sweetie on the other side. I grabbed him and he was basically lifeless. Took him to the vet, but he passed away at the vet office.

These things are hard to understand. You did what you could. I am sorry for your loss.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

Sorry for your loss, what an awful thing to go through