# Bunny died Suddenly?



## Mamamotz (Apr 26, 2013)

Hi all,

I am brand new to the forums and although I have owned rabbits before when I was young, I was a new bunny parent again only a few days ago!

My husband and I purchased a 2 month old Holland Lop from a reputable breeder and we loved her very much. We kept her in a fairly large indoor enclosure, provided her with the same pellets and hay her breeder gave her, we gave her fresh water daily and we had clean newspaper on the bottom on her cage at the breeders recommendation as we were going to litterbox train her.

She came out of her cage every day since we had her, we let her come out on her own. We were very careful if we did have to pick her up to support her properly and we weren't 'pushy' to play with her (we were letting her take her time to get comfortable with us). We do have small children ages 5, 4, and 2. They are very well behaved kids who were not allowed to handle the rabbit, and they are not 'screaming' kids that I was worried they may frighten her.

She was fine last night in her cage, we checked on her periodically and she was wing very sweet and cute. She was hopping around our bedroom only yesterday afternoon and smelling us an letting us pet her gently.

Basically she didn't show any signs of illness. I did notice she wasn't eating and drinking a lot, but she was eating and drinking and she had plenty of fresh hay. This morning we thought she was asleep, but she was lying on her side and she was dead! We were totally shocked because we were taking extra good care of her! I just told her last night how much we loved her already, o know that may seem silly because I only had her for a few days but I really grew attached to her already.

We called the breeder and she offered us a refund or another rabbit, I'm not mad at the breeder I just wonder what could have gone wrong or if it was something I did? Should I have taken her to the vet because she wasn't eating and drinking a lot? She was definitely peeing and pooping I saw it in her cage and I never let her cage dirty. She actually used her litterbox a few times as well! I thought we had such a smart bunny and now she's gone. 

I don't know what kind of pellets she was on because it came directly from the breeder, but her hay was Timothy hay(also from our breeder). I just figured I would ask here so I could know for next time if I did something terribly wrong?

Thank you for reading, sorry if I posted this in the wrong place 
I was hoping to get to know you all and your bunnies and planned on signing up here anyway until I no longer had a bunny to post about :*(


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## KeltonB (Apr 26, 2013)

I'm sorry I don't have anything to offer as to "why," but I wanted to say I'm sorry for your loss. Even though your bun had only been with you a short period, it is obvious that you loved her and were taking extra good care of her. I hope you get another, because I know you'll give them a great home.


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## OakRidgeRabbits (Apr 26, 2013)

Sometimes things like this happen and there is no real explanation to why. I'm sorry for your loss, it sounds like you were caring for her just fine.


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## woahlookitsme (Apr 26, 2013)

There can be many reasons why a rabbit can suddenly pass. We recently had two of our babies (one was 3 mos and the other was 11 weeks). Mom had noticed they didn't eat as much that night then the next morning we found them lethargic and with diarrhea and they were dead 5 hours later. I am so sorry for your loss but if a necropsy is not performed on the rabbit then it could really be anything. 

It is very good that you told the breeder and Im glad they will be able to help you. It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong


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## majorv (Apr 26, 2013)

I agree that you'll probably never know for sure. Sounds like you were just continuing what the breeder fed her so that shouldn't have been a problem. I know that for young rabbits stress can have an affect on health. Was she supervised 100% of the time when she was outside her enclosure? Is it possible she ate something off the carpet that she shouldn't have?


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## Mamamotz (Apr 26, 2013)

Thank you for all of your replies and kind words! I can't believe how she grabbed at my heart so quickly, and we will definitely miss her even though she wasn't part of our family for long. 

Majorv, in response to your question yes, she was always supervised and our bedroom was securely 'bunny proof. We had only let our oldest child in once to see her and he sat very still and waited for her to come up to him. There were no signs of stress that I can imagine, but them again I know bunnies are sensitive to those things so perhaps something spooked her that I didn't see or know about. She was upstairs and away from our daily activities so if something bothered her upstairs I didn't know it. We only have one other pet, a 14 year old Dachshund who does not come upstairs and had never met our bunny.

We are meeting with the breeder today to discuss the idea of getting another bunny. She has a mini Rex and a lionhead available. I don't know that I want another rabbit right away because I am still pretty sad about Arwen (yes we are big Lord of the Rings fans lol), so we'll stay in contact with her and see what the future holds.


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## Azerane (Apr 26, 2013)

So sorry for your loss, I feel like it's pretty much impossible to know, it sounds like you did everything right.


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## ladysown (Apr 26, 2013)

these things do unfortunately happen. and one can't always know why they happen. Sorry for your loss.


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## Millinex (Apr 28, 2013)

My sister had 2 rabbits randomly die for no reason too. I have a sibling to both hers that died, and mine is fine. We are absolutely baffled as to what happened..


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## Nancy McClelland (Apr 28, 2013)

We're so sorry for your loss. It's happened to us too--fine one night and gone the next morning with no signs. Rest in peace little one.


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## padani (Apr 28, 2013)

Hi

Sorry for your loss. The breeder looks like a nice guy.
Hope the next one lives longer:foreheadsmack:


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## DUSTBUNNY-CLYDE (Apr 29, 2013)

so sorry for your loss!


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## Ilovemyrabbit (Apr 29, 2013)

I'm so sorry for your loss. Its never easy.


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## RabbitGuru (Apr 30, 2013)

So sorry to hear about your loss - its always hard to say goodbye to a new friend but we're hear to support you!


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## Dillan (Feb 1, 2016)

Hay I'm dillan my mini lops died suddenly 1munit later he was dead. Same as what happened to urs but I found a wight tail spider. An I looked it up an if thay get bitten that die straight away. So sad!!!!


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## Aki (Feb 6, 2016)

It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. Even if the pellets aren't the best (they probably aren't), it wouldn't kill the rabbit in a few days, more like cause problems after a few years. It's hard to tell what the problem was, "not eating / drinking a lot" doesn't mean much - how little she ate/drank, and was there a sudden decrease of food / water intake is the important thing. Rabbits seldom show signs of illness, it's generally very subtle and only owners who watch their rabbits like hawks and know all the signs pick on them right away (you become the nutcase who runs to the vet because "she's kinda not holding herself exactly like usual and I know deep down, she's in pain... somewhere. I want x-rays now !" XD).
In your case, there probably isn't much that could have been done anyway. When a very young rabbit dies out of nowhere and there is no blood / diarrhea, it's often a heart problem or some kind of birth defect. It's not your fault, it happens. And I completely understand that you had become attached already - baby bunnies are the cutest thing ever. Unfortunately, they are also fragile little things. I don't know if I would take another rabbit from the same breeder, but maybe it was just a fluke - if you have a good feeling about her and that other people who got rabbits from her are happy with them, go for it. Just, don't use newspapers - the ink is not good for the rabbit if they eat it (and they will, they always do). The litterbox with some wooden litter (not shavings!) put inside the cage, in front of the hay rack does the trick nicely (I had to put a tiny cushion in front of the litterbox to help Aki go in during the first 2 weeks, though, but she's a nethie and she was tiny - the 2 dwarf lops didn't have that problem).


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