TinysMom wrote:
I am NEVER leaving home again if I can help it....it seems like things always go wrong with food or a virus or something else.
I'll share more later - but for now - RIP Tio & Harriet.
I guess it is time to do the "share more later" - huh?
The day before I posted this about Tio and Kyo - Art called me and was very concerned. It seems like we lost 4 rabbits in one day (by the end of the day - it turned out to be 6 rabbits).
Art & Robin did everything they could do - change food - change hay - check water bottles - etc. etc.
Some of the rabbits were related - but not many. They weren't all in the same area. Rabbits in other areas of the house - not affected at all.
Last Thursday Tio & Harriet died - I thought my heart was going to break.
Friday things looked a bit better - Saturday they turned worse - and on Sunday I learned that Saphira, Issy (Isenstar) and Meathead (along with Recharged) had all passed away.
The strange thing was - the flemmies and Californians were fine....it was the lionheads and Tio (Nethie) who were dying.
I spoke to Cathy (Blue Giants) at the rabbit show and the first words out of her mouth were, "You have a virus".
Why didn't I see that? We were looking at food - at water - at hay - at everything else to consider what was wrong. We were even trying to see if freon from the air conditioner was leaking into the rabbitry.
I called Art and told him how to deal with it....(20% Clorox solution for the cages and let it set for at least 20 minutes before rinsing off).
Fortunately - the virus seems to have run its course - no more deaths since Sunday afternoon. (Thanks Dave for listening to me when I called up crying and asking for prayer - I probably wasn't doing too well right then).
We lost several rabbits while I was gone - the number is heartbreaking and when I think of my beautiful bunnies that I loved so much....it makes me cry. In many ways - I'm glad I wasn't here to watch the bunnies I loved so much pass on.
So - in remembrance of my babies - here are the ones you knew...
Before the virus (old age or unknown cause of death):
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Harry:
Aggie:
THE VIRUS:
Tio:
Harriet:
Issy (Isenstar):
Sapphira:
Recharged:
Plus others that you did not know.
RIP my darling babies - I loved you so much and am so sorry I couldn't be here for your passing....
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A special thanks goes out to Cathy and all the other breeders at the show who helped me with this - from sharing their own experiences and how many they've lost to viruses like this - to just listening to me and letting me cry. It helped me so much to know I'm not alone and that others have had this happen also.
I learned that this can very easily happen during the change in seasons and we are going to put in place some new preventative measures to keep this from happening again.
However - in a space of four days - we lost over 15 rabbits - most of them during two separate days (Thursday and Sat night/Sunday morning).
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