My bunny went limp on his side and then died

[mrbunsthedutch]

Hi guys. My bunny died very traumatically this morning and I have no idea why. Please let me know if you have gone through anything similar

My male bunny was 7-8 years old and his health has been declining the past year or so. I took him to the vet 3 months ago and he weighed 2.5 pounds and then took him to the vet 1 month ago and he lost 30% of his body weight, making him at 1.9 pounds. His labs were normal, chest xray was normal, and the vet said his organs felt normal when palpating. She said the only thing she didn’t test for was any brain abnormality but mentioned he could have had a brain tumor or E. Cuniculi.

Ever since a couple months ago, I noticed my bunny would sometimes fall onto his side and would be unable to get up (only happened maybe once a month, so not frequent at all). He would get diarrhea frequently and I would have to clean his bottom. He also lost a ton of weight, which his vet recommended to start him on critical care daily in order to gain weight (I don’t think it helped too much). It didn’t seem like he ate less frequently, he ALWAYS is so so so excited for his daily pellets/veggies so the only thing I can say is that maybe he stopped eating as much hay? I also noticed his back legs were less mobile but the vet and I both thought it was due to his arthritis.

Last night I went to bed around 1am and my bunny was completely fine. This morning at around 10am, my boyfriend came home from work and started screaming, while I was still asleep. My bunny was completely limp on his side and could barely move. I had already thought he died from how little movement there was. We called the vet immediately but he died a few minutes later. Towards the end, his mouth was open and he was gasping for air and I feel absolutely horrible. We still brought him to the vet but I am just so confused as to what was going on. I don’t think it was GI stasis as there were poops under him. I feel so guilty I wish I had woken up earlier as I would have seen him like this and taken him to the vet sooner. I don’t even know how long he was like that for and it breaks my heart he was suffering alone, and barely able to move, for maybe hours. If anyone has any advice or had anything similar happen please let me know.

[Bam]

I’m very sorry you lost your bun, and in such an upsetting way. It sounds like maybe his heart gave out. There probably wouldn’t have been anything a vet couldve done. He didn’t die alone, you were there for him.

He seem’s to have been ill a long time. I’m sorry you couldn’t get a proper diagnosis for him. This is not rarely the case with rabbits. Really good rabbit vets are few and far apart.

It could’ve been ec as you suggest, because it’s a disease that can affect many organs. It can affect the nervous system, the kidneys and the GI system. It is of course also possible that he could’ve had a brain tumour, because all animals can, it’s just very rarely diagnosed in rabbits, so we don’t know how common or uncommon it actually is.

If your bun was hungry and eager for food, I’d say there was something going on that consumed more energy than he could eat. Pellets are energy dense so even if he did eat less hay, that wouldnt explain the marked weightloss.

I’m glad he did enjoy his daily food though, it means he wasn’t in a lot of pain even though he was sick. Pain causes inappetence in rabbits, and rabbits are very pain sensitive.

Again, I’m sorry you lost him. It seems you really did try to find out what was wrong with him. We can’t do more than that.

Binky free, little bun.

 

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