Unexpected Death

[Darby]

I have two rabbits, a rescue and a foster. They live in different cages in different rooms as the are not fixed. Anyway, yesterday I did my normal routine of giving them fresh water, hay and cleaning up any poop that didn’t make it to the litter box. I gave my one rabbit the same food he always gets. A very small cup of pellets, Timothy hay (same brands I always buy) and a bit of romaine lettuce (washed well). He had recently been to the vet for a checkup. Vet said he was very healthy and approved of his food, bedding (recycled non dyed paper). After finishing cleaning up and feeding my boyfriends and I sat on the couch talking and watching him eat. He finished eating and went to the side of his cage. (I have what I call a “front yard” set up with a large dog gate around the cage so that he has more room to run around when I’m not home to let him out. So he wedged himself between the gate and his cage which I found unusual. Thinking he was stuck I went over and opened up the space but he didn’t move. He would always respond to the gate opening so I was panicking at this point. I picked him up and he was limp but still breathing. He had a bit of green snot coming out of his nose. At this point my boyfriend called out vet (they’re 24 hours but 45 minutes away) to find out what to do. As he was on the phone my rabbit tried to move and ended up jumping from my arms only to twitch on the floor a bit. I scratched his favorite spot and picked him up again where he died in my arms. He was only a little bit over a year old (from what we and the vet could guess). I’m still extremely upset and just want to know if anyone has had a similar experience. I’m not new to rabbits but I would like to know if this was something I did or something that was preventable.

[jerseygirl]

Im so very sorry for your loss. I couldn’t say what happened to your boy.

2 of my rabbits passed in front of me and it is such a heart wrenching feeling. So I do understand a bit of what you are feeling. One of them did have a type of fit like the twitching you saw right before. As far as I know, that is a normal phase when they die and other animals do it too.
Again, my condolences to you and your boyfriend.
***Binky Free little Bun***

[Mikey]

The green snot dripping makes me think he may have been choking. When my rabbit was choking, he was ‘coughing up’ and sneezing a ton of green out of his nose and mouth over the course of 20some minutes. I had to do the bunny heimlich to help him get it all out and help get him into a stable condition so we had time to get to the vets the next day

(((((Binky free bunny!)))))

[Nev]

I’m so sorry for your loss

Not a rabbit expert, but I did read somewhere rabbits do not have a gag reflex, so if he had something caught in his throat as Mikey above suggests, maybe he could not get it out.

My husband’s ten year old and otherwise healthy cat died in September. It was awful. She was fine, it was a normal evening. Then started howling, fell over almost into hubby’s lap in a seizure and was gone faster than I could get on my knees next to them. We won’t ever get over it Big hugs to you,

[Author]

Messages