Looking for good information about grieving

[pinkiemarie]

I lost my precious Wally suddenly last night. No emergency vets here take rabbits and I couldn’t even nurse him through until morning. I let his bonded friend see his body, and he watched him die, so he does understand what happened. I feel like it’s impossible to get trustworthy search results now so I was just looking for resources or advice for making sure the surviving rabbit is ok. This morning he’s eating ok and is active but I’m not sure if I should expect him to get upset after a few days when it really sinks in that he’s alone. He has been with Wally since he was 8 weeks old so they’ve been together for his whole life. Any advice would be really wonderful. Thank you.

[Bam]

I’m so sorry you lost Eally.

When my Mango passed, his bonded girlfriend was in the same room. I let her sniff his dead body, she had the most puzzled expression on her face 💔

We just spent a lot of time with Snöa after. We still do. It took 2-3 days before she stopped being withdrawn and had started to eat properly.

 

 

 

[pinkiemarie]

He was about 2 feet away when Wally passed also and thumped when I put him near his body. He’s been cuddling up with a fuzzy cat toy so I ordered him a couple of stuffed  bunnies to see if he likes one of them better. We actually have another rabbit and couldn’t make a trio work. This little survivor was odd man out. I think we’re going to try to bond the 2 even though they didn’t work out before and just see if the dynamics are different. She’s normally a tornado and we haven’t heard a peep out of her today.

[Em]

I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s so hard, especially for the rabbit left behind.

I understand what you’re going through as I also now have a lone rabbit who for 7.5 years had never been alone, ever. She was a part of a group of 4 and I lost 3 of them within the space of 3 years. I was down to a pair last year until my frenchie passed suddenly after a battle with his health, he was 6. It’s important I think that they see the body of their friend because I do personally believe it helps them process and understand that their family member is gone so that’s good you were able to do this. I find that sometimes they will grieve for the passes rabbit, but not always. It really depends on the rabbit. My two boys were joined at the hip, and when the first boy passed very suddenly out of no where it hit his brother hard even though he was able to see him and understand he was gone and even though he still had his sister left. While he never went off his food, he definitely became a lot more quiet and withdrawn for a while. And then when he died, his sister was left all alone. She was previously a very rabbit-rabbit. She liked people, but LOVED other rabbits; she’d choose her brothers over people any day. But when she was left alone, she became very clingy and always wanted to be with people – because she was lonely. So some rabbits will become more withdrawn for a while, and others will become more clingy with people – some will be totally unphased. It’s hard to predict, as it varies from rabbit to rabbit. You just have to keep a close eye and act accordingly. Because your rabbit got to see the other had passed, I think (in my experience anyway) this makes it a lot easier for them to process and they take the death a lot better than a rabbit who didn’t get that chance.

My surviving girl has not been cleared by a vet to pair up again and she lost her brother last July ‘23 (complex health problems, I’m really hoping we are cleared soon!). Ideally, you’d let them grieve a little, understand their friend is gone, and then start the pairing process again. If that’s not possible, for my bun I got her loads of rabbit life-like stuffies. It is depressing to watch her groom her stuffies and see her confused over why they won’t groom her back, but she loves cuddling them and grooming them and they offer her some comfort. So I’d definitely recommend looking into something like that from the likes of Amazon or something. Turn a radio on low during the day to also offer some sense of someone being around even when you’re physically not; that’s what I do for my Bailey anyway, and I do think it helps her especially when I’m in work. And then of course, spend as much time as possible with them.

 

 

[pinkiemarie]

Wow that’s so hard to lose 3 like that. I can’t even imagine how your surviving bunny must feel. At this point little Ben is doing better than I expected but it’s breaking my heart because he keeps grooming this fluffy cat toy. I already have some stuffed bunnies on the way and now I’m trying to decide if I should start attempting to bond him with Chloe as soon as possible since they’re “friendly” from the other side of bars or give them more time. I’m almost thinking sooner might be better in this case because she will want to be dominant and he was submissive in his relationship and doing it right away might alleviate some of the power struggles. She’s also abnormally subdued right now so she might take to it more easily too. Ya know or not. I just don’t know.

[LBJ10]

I’m sorry you lost Wally. I agree that it can vary from rabbit to rabbit. Some will become depressed and withdrawn, while others will become more clingy to their human. I think your best bet is to try to spend time with your surviving bunny and just see how he does. You can always adjust things as you go.

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