Sudden death

[sarahmullane14]

Hi there, i'm new to using this forum and don't know what to expect.
I bought two baby bunnies two months ago, a brother and a sister (Duke and Duhess) - pair of mini-lops. They were both used to being outside all of the time.

Sadly when I went home for the weekend, I received a call on Saturday morning from my housemate telling me that they had found Duchess dead in her hutch.

Duchess had been put in to her hutch (which is also inside of a shed in the garden) at about 10pm and was gone by 9am. She was so lovely and full of life, always wanting to run around and then have cuddles. I was told that she was acting completely normally the night before - no signs of illness at all.

I have been told by the vet that there are no obvious signs of death. Her airway was clear, she didn't have a bloated or twisted stomach (so no poising) and she had no problems with her limbs. I am absolutely devastated and don't think I can get closure until I have some idea of what may have happened to her. Unfortunately a PM is £200 and I cannot afford to pay for it.

Has anybody else experienced this and then had a post-mortem performed?
Duchess was only 4 months old so I don't understand how this could have happened. I really don't think it could have been from the cold as her brother was in a separate hutch outdoors and he is perfectly fine. As she was in the shed she also didn't have any access to foxes and so I don't think it could possibly have been death due to shock. If it had have beent then surely Duke would have been more exposed and would have died too!

If anybody could shed some light on this then I would appreciate it - i'm so torn up and really need some sort of closure.

Thank you

 

[Aki]

So sorry to hear about your bunny. Rabbits have a real gift for dying unexpectedly on us and I know that it's not easy to get over it when it's so sudden...
It's hard to tell, but with no apparent signs and a rabbit that young I would lean toward a heart problem. Rabbits are notorious for having weak hearts and some rabbits have it worse than others. I'm not very fond of the idea of keeping rabbits outdoors as, every year, I see lots of people losing rabbits to very cold or very hot temperatures (the death toll was particularly high this summer, with heat strokes and fly strikes all around), but it probably isn't the problem here as the temperatures are still pretty mild.
Still, the fact that another rabbit survived means nothing : rabbits have different weaknesses and you can lose one to an illness or stress while the other is completely fine. One year ago, one of my rabbits was so stressed out by a tree being cut in front of their room that she went through GI stasis, while her companion, who lives with her at all time, barely seemed to notice. It didn't really surprise me : I've had Aki for more than 7 years and she's really high strung, hates new things / people, and doesn't do well on her own when you put her in a stressful situation, while Tybalt is really laid back and quite fearless.
If it was a heart issue, there is not much you could have done...

 

[majorv]

Unfortunately, you will probably never know. We've lost a few young ones - about 3-4 months - but the signs can be very subtle. They might not be quite as active the evening before and/or not eat as much of their food as normal, and then be gone by morning. We had one necropsied and it showed signs of gut issues and evidence of e.cuniculi. We were surprised at the EC because there were no outward signs of it.