One month ago I adopted my Netherland Dwarf named Seven. Everyday with him was an absolute joy. At only 3 months old, his energetic spirit was infectious, and watching him explore everyday was the best. His personality was exactly what I needed after losing my Dutch bunny of 9 years back in December. He gave me a purpose again, somebody to wake up and take care of, somebody to look forward to seeing everyday again.

This morning I took him into the vet to get neutered, because he was starting to mark his territory with pee everywhere. Before they gave him his anesthesia he was supposed to have a routine blood test done, so they could check his liver and kidney function before sedating him. Early this afternoon I saw the vet was calling me, and I assumed that they had completed his surgery, and she was calling to tell me everything went well. Imagine my surprise and horror when she told me that he had went into cardiac arrest and died. Apparently when they were taking his blood, he obviously got stressed out. They were able to successfully get the blood drawn, but he immediately went limp after they did. They gave him some steroids and put him in an oxygen tank immediately. The vet gave him a little time and then tried to examine him, but said he went into cardiac arrest while she tried. She said they tried preforming CPR, but he passed quickly. According to the vet, who ran his blood test afterwards, there were extremely high levels of adrenaline and endorphins in his blood, which she said were released because of the stress. She said that it unfortunately looked like there were just too many chemicals released into his bloodstream, and his poor heart just couldn’t take it. They checked his back to make sure he didn’t move too much during the blood test and damage it, but it was fine. She also did a chest ultrasound, making sure that a vein wasn’t nicked during the blood draw, and there was no blood/fluid in his chest.

Obviously this was a huge shock to me, as I had no reason to suspect that a perfectly healthy 4 month old rabbit would have any problems during something so routine as getting neutered. My heart is absolutely broken right now, as I feel so beyond guilty that his life was cut so short. Literally being scared to death sounds so unimaginably awful and painful. It kills me to think that he had no one there for him when he passed, just strangers at the vet. At least when my Dutch rabbit Kiwi had to say goodbye, I was there with him until he was sedated, and he knew I was there for him. But Seven was alone. This time around, I’m not crying because I have to go on by myself, I’m crying over the life this sweet baby won’t get to have. We were supposed to have so many years of love and fun together, and he’s been cheated out of all of that. This is so unimaginably unfair to him, he desevered the world and he will never get it. There is no silver lining to his senseless death. When my previous rabbit was put to sleep, I knew it was happening because the fluid in his chest was causing him pain and suffering, so I could at least take comfort in the fact that his suffering was over, and putting him to sleep was the kindest thing I could do for him. There is no reason for this death, and he deserved infinitely more.