Why did she die??

[Quinton]

I’m so devastated.

We had our bunny for a year and a half, since she was a baby and today we found out she died.

We recently had a baby and needed to move house because the home we were living in had mould issues and was not safe for a newborn and was also exacerbating my asthma.

We moved to a new rental property where we weren’t allowed to have a rabbit. My mum offered to take care of her. It was just supposed to be temporary until we buy a place of our own in the next 6 months.

Well, two weeks in my mum’s care and she’s dead.

Evidently she died of thirst/dehydration. I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive my mum for this or get past it.

What I am after is some advice/closure regarding her cause of death. It kills me to think she suffered.

She drank out of bowls, never bottles. On hot days we’d simply leave out several bowls and she was fine. She has survived many hot days this way, in the Australian heat no less.

Well my mum insisted on getting her a new water fountain so she had a constant supply of water. Her heart was in the right place and she meant well, but I don’t understand how she can remove her existing water source before making sure she can drink from the new one first? She never talked to us about any of it either. Just made all these decisions herself.

This is a picture my mum sent of the water fountain she bought. It is gravity fed so it’s supposed to top up with water as it gets empty.

I asked about her litter and my mum said it was wet at the bottom, not the top. And she hadn’t changed it in two days (also when she filled up water fountain).

This makes me think she was not urinating the last few days because the top of her litter is always wet by the end of the day and needs to be topped up.

My mum says the water level was going down on the fountain but that could have been the heat evaporating it.

I called the pet store that recommended this particular fountain to my mum (which is actually for chickens) and they insist rabbits can drink out of it and that they recommended it for all rabbit owners.

So my question is, if our rabbit is that thirsty, why would she rather die of thirst than take a sip of water from a new bowl? Is this normal? Has this ever happened to anyone before?

Could there possibly be another cause of death? I’m just devastated and need closure.

I miss her so much. Can’t believe I’ll never get to see her again.

She’s stayed with my partner’s parents multiple times before and they’ve always taken great care of her and she’s been fine. I only wish we could have asked them if they would have been okay to take care of her for an extended period.

I’m just devastated and need some answers.

Thanks for your help..

[Quinton]

Sorry, I should add my mum says our rabbit was fine last night. Perky supposedly. Not laying down or ill or anything. If she hadn’t drunk any water in 48 hours by that point, would she have been looking well last night? She was gone by the morning.

[Quinton]

The picture of the water fountain didn’t attach the first time so here it is again.

Edit- none of the pictures I’m attaching are showing up. Not sure how to fix it.

[Bam]

I’m so very sorry your bun passed away.

I have sent you a PM.

[Doodler]

I am so sorry for your loss.

It is possible that a rabbit can die after looking just fine the night before. I lost a rabbit that was just fine an hour before. They hide illness so well that stories like this unfortunately are not that uncommon.

As far as the water fountain, if it’s what I’m picturing, I know people do successfully use those for theirs bunnies.

Unfortunately the only way to be able to get more defininitive answers is to have a necropsy. Even those don’t always yield answers. It’s possible she may have passed due to some other cause. If she wasn’t urinating, lack of water could have been the cause.

Please try and forgive your mother. I’d hate to see you hold her responsible for something that might not have been her fault. Even if it was, it clearly wasn’t intentional or done out of malice.

[Bam]

Here’s a picture of the water fountain:

I have seen pictures of similar water fountains in local Facebook rabbit groups. 

[Bunny House]

I’m sorry for your loss. Are you able to get a necropsy so a vet can determine the cause of death to see if it was something intentional or something like genetics or an illness.

[Sirius&Luna]

If you’re in Australia and she was outside, it could well have been RVHD, which is extremely quick acting.

I’m sorry for your loss.

[Quinton]

Thanks everyone. Unfortunately a necropsy isn’t possible because my mum buried her in her garden after finding her. Wish she would have asked us what we wanted to do first because finding out cause of death would have given me the closure I desperately need.

My mum lives about 2.5 hours from us out in the country where apparently there are a lot of wild rabbits, and she’s had some visit her in her front yard where our rabbit was kept. So possibly RVHD too. In retrospect, agreeing to her staying there was a huge mistake. The heat is much worse there too. Wild rabbits around etc.

It’s logical to think that her dying two days after getting the new water fountain means lack of water/not being able to drink is the cause but I guess it could be a coincidence. Shame we can’t know for sure now.

[Quinton]

My mum refilled the water container to see how much water was lost through evaporation alone and the water level is the same after a day and a half. So it’s not evaporating. Apparently our rabbit consumed about 3 litres in two days? Seems strange. She probably wasted a lot of it splashing around in it. It’s a 4 litre container. I would really hope she’d figure out how to drink enough of it to at least keep her alive.

Now my mum is saying she has wild rabbits visit her daily. Wish she could have said something before. Didn’t know there were so many wild rabbits on her property or I wouldn’t have agreed to have our baby stay there.

[Phil]

Very sad, could be many reasons, stress at moving, new carer, the water fountain looks very unsuitable,  was she vaccinated, wild rabbits carry RHD

[Quinton]

I know, I thought the same. What if she couldn’t get her head in there? Don’t understand why that pet store would recommend it for rabbits. It’s a large chain of pet stores too so I will be taking it up with their upper management. If they are recommending water fountains that kill rabbits, then something needs to be done about it.

I thought about stress/new carer but she has stayed with partner’s parents for one month previously and she was very happy there. They took excellent care of her though. Lots of pats/affection and plenty of fresh vegetables.

No vaccine either At the time, we were told that myxomatosis was the thing to worry about but that we couldn’t do anything about it. Had we known calcivurus was potentially deadly to rabbits, we would have got it done. We were led to believe it was just a flu and that the vaccine isn’t very effective against it. So decided against it.

Just wish I had a time machine. I miss her so much and this is very unfair. She deserved better.

[Phil]

My bunny could never drink from that very bad idea. Your vet should be aware of how contagious Rhd 1 and 2 are, vaccine is best protection for all bunnies, very bad.

[Doodler]

Although I would never use that water fountain it doesn’t honestly sound like that was necessarily the cause. If your mom tested it and there was not an evaporation issue and there was 3/4 gone it sounds like she could have been drinking. Honestly I don’t see a bunny splashing around in it, unless she has a habit to do that with her water no matter how small the water area is. My bunnies never splash in their water though. Regardless, we always need to make sure our bunnies are eating and drinking. This is why I wouldn’t really hold the store responsible. I wouldn’t hold your mom responsible for this either. If the water was going down then it would be normal to assume the rabbit is drinking. Of course it’s ideal to monitor them and actually see they are using it when it’s something new to them. I know it’s probably tempting to think she should have noticed the litter wasn’t wet like it normally should be but that is a hard ask when it wasn’t her rabbit to really know.

I actually did a search online for ‘chicken water fountain for rabbits’ and the very first result was for a fountain just like that and the description calls it ‘rabbit breeding equipment’ and it was for sale on Amazon. This is something people obviously use for rabbits.

I know how hard it is when you don’t have answers. There are so many possibilities for what caused her passing. There definitely was a high risk with her not being vaccinated but that also might not have anything to do with it either.

Again I am so sorry.

[Author]

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