what happened to my bunny RIP Cottonball

[Niannie]

My baby passed away 07/15/11 and I have no clue why, In June around the 21st one day she was fine and the next she stopped eating and drinking and wasn’t using the bathroom. This lasted almost a week, it started on a Sunday; i took her to the vet as soon as Inoticed she missed a day of eating and her exam checked out OK, he prescribed me phytomucil & reglan. By Friday she still wasn’t eating or drinking I was able to get her to eat very little and had to syringe feed her water and food. so i took her back for a re-exam and she checked out OK again according to the exocit pet vet dr who supposedly had exp with rabbits, so the Dr did a blood test and the results came back where her white blood cell count was low and showed bad liver values. she is now on an antibiotic. as soon as I started that she seemed to be getting better, started eating and drinking and her bathroom use was back to normal. The Vet said to check back in a week but it was the holiday weekend and we were going on vacation I asked if that were OK if it were later than a week and the vet said yes since she was eating again. She finished all her meds on July 3rd. Up until July 15 she was back to normal playing eating everything was going good. We were back in town so i was going to call for her recheck appt for the weekend,  I said my little goodnight on the 14th got my bunny kiss and woke up the 15 noticed she didn’t run to me like usual so i nudged her head and she didn’t move i got really scared and moved her little house she was on and she jumped up so i thought wow this girl must me real tired. I left her veggies, restocked the hay and gave her fresh water and let her rest and went to work. I called home had my son check on her he said she was in her litter pan and didn’t’ eat yet so i said keep an eye on her. he called back a few hours later said something was wrong she was dragging her back legs, i seen her do that once before in her cage months ago but after a few minutes she was fine so i wasn’t overly concerned. he let her out of the cage and said she went to hide and when he picked her up her head flopped back so he put her down to rest and she just flopped on her tummy with her legs spread apart front and back.he than tried so see if she wanted water but she didn’t few min after that he said she made gargling coughing like noises and tried to lift her head up a few times and couldn’t than started breathing really slow and than she just died. i left work to rush home as soon as I heard she was making weird noises but by the time i made it home my baby had passed. i have no answers at all, she had normal poops, was eating fine, did not break any bones i just don’t get it. can anyone help. I contacted her vet to see if they could tell me what could have happened and what was with her dragging her legs like that, she wasn’t injured and did not break her spine or legs.

[RabbitPam]

I am so very sorry for your loss. She had some underlying condition that was not improving, but it wasn’t presenting itself in a way that the vet was able to diagnose correctly, or she had a relapse that progressed to fast to save her. Please don’t blame yourself, as you made every effort to get her treated and cared for as much as you knew was needed.

Bunnies go downhill very, very fast when they get sick sometimes. It’s just the way it happens with them. The vet can examine her and do a necropsy, which is like a bunny autopsy, to find out what exactly happened. But honestly, I would just tell the vet (or send an email) and copy what you have described her and see what the vet’s opinion is regarding the cause of her death. It is an expensive procedure and cannot help her now. If you had another bunny it might be important in case she had something contageous, but I think we can only speculate at this point.
Just please be reassured that you did what you could. I’m sure your son needs comforting right now, and you do too.

I am going to move your post to the Rainbow Bridge section of the Forums, so the others can know about your loss and offer their respects and opinions as well.
{{{{{{{{{{{{Hugs to you and your family}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[Sarita]

Oh I’m so sorry. The only way to really know is to have the vet do a necropsy. Unfortunately since it’s been 3 days, the vet won’t be able to do a necropsy on your bunny.

[Niannie]

Thanks for the support, I emailed her vet and he said it sounds like colic ? Is that gas? Wouldn’t she have stopped eating?
I’m doing a little better but it just hurts not knowing and wondering if she was wondering where I was my son was by her side
So she had someone but she was a mommas girl.

[Niannie]

Thanks for your kind words. Her dr just emailed me back and said it sounded like colic but isn’t that gas? I thought she had gas before when she stopped eating but her dr said it was just a little not much at all and I gave her some baby gas stuff for a few days. The dragging of her back legs is weird too. I miss her!

[Sarita]

Well gas, is usually secondary to something else that is going on. I think it’s just pure speculation on your vet’s part, not good or bad, just speculative.

Hugs to you.

[Author]

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