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Hi everyone, I’m not sure if this is the right place for this as this is my first time here, but I have a couple of questions relating to my bunny.
At the time when I adopted her I had another male rabbit (an abolutely adorable black mini lop) and they became fast friends. However Merlin never really relaxed around people. She still does crazy eyes, even though I have had her for 5 months or so. By this I mean that her eyes are always bulging and showing the whites.
At the start of January her mate died due to heat stroke (being the middle of summer in Australia), and she was very ill too. Two weeks later she gave birth to a litter of four. She rejected the babies completely – i found them cold and scattered over the hutch floor so i gathered them up and warmed them before returning them to the nesting box. 2 days later Merlin had still not fed them so I contacted a vet who advised me to feed them myself. All four babies died before they were 10 days old. A week after the babies died, I accidentally left the door to the cage open and Merlin escaped. For about a month, she was hanging around my next door neighbors place and my own, but I didnt manage to catch her until two days ago when I think she was so tired and malnourished that she couldnt run away any more.
She is back in her cage now, but she is very skinny and clearly dehydrated (small, dark poops). I am doing my best to keep plenty of food and water in her hutch, although she does not seem eating very much (although that may be because last time I was feeding her she was pregnant and eating tonnes!). She is also very lethargic and breathing very rapidly. I know that rabbits breath fast – about 30-50 per minute – but she is breathing around 80-90 breaths per minute. These are deep belly breaths also which seem quite laboured.
I am really worried about her, and I just want to know if I need to be worried, or if there is anythign I should do? Is she still just under strain from giving birth so young? Or what should I do? Please help my baby
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