Rabbit fine yesterday, sick this morning & gone by this afternoon??

[Fancypants4569]

A friend of mine called this morning and sayed her daughters rabbit wasnt feeling good this morning. Im familiar with snuffle's and dont think thats what was wrong. She sayed that the bunny was lethargic, clear fluid out of her nose, she could hear and feel the rumbling in her lungs. Then I got a call from her and she was saying that the bunny kept throwing up clear fluid. I called her a little while ago and she sayed that by lunch time the rabbit had died. Can anyone out there give me any ideas as to was might have affected it in such short of time. She sayed it was fine yesterday, wasnt acting out of the normal at all. Thank you in advance!!!

 

[JoieDeViveRabbitry]

This is a toughy...
Throwing up clear fluid, clear fluid from the nose, rumbling in the lungs, and lethargic...
To me this sounds like one of two things:
Some mightily fast acting pnemonia (I've seen it first hand, they can go FAST like that but it always starts with snuffles, which can be very mild and sneaky) OR the rabbit aspirated fluid into his lungs and died from that.
The symptoms of clear fluid coming from nose and mouth and the "vomiting" really make me feel like this rabbit essentially drowned somehow. Once fluid gets into the lungs it can kill very quickly.
Ask your friend if the fluid felt like water. Mucus from an illness would be slimey and thickened, like gooey.
Hacked up fluid from the lungs that was breathed in somehow would be thin, non slimey and like water...
Did this animal get a bath recently?

 

[JoieDeViveRabbitry]

or was given any liquid by syringe?

 

[Fancypants4569]

Thank you JoieDeVive, I asked her wether the liguid was milkie or yellow and she sayed no. She was also wondering wether she could have inhailed water from her water dish..can rabbits really do that? Ill make sure to ask if by chance she was trying to give her liquids with a syringe. Thank you agian! I am a 1st year 4-H leader for rabbits and poultry and get calls or questions for things I dont have the answer for, so I have a feeling Ill be coming here often to ask questions on some of this mystery stuff.

 

[JoieDeViveRabbitry]

Thank you JoieDeVive, I asked her wether the liguid was milkie or yellow and she sayed no. She was also wondering wether she could have inhailed water from her water dish..can rabbits really do that? Ill make sure to ask if by chance she was trying to give her liquids with a syringe. Thank you agian! I am a 1st year 4-H leader for rabbits and poultry and get calls or questions for things I dont have the answer for, so I have a feeling Ill be coming here often to ask questions on some of this mystery stuff.

I supose it could be possible, but it would be rare...

For safety sake, if she has any other rabbits, I would certainly dose them with terrimycin in their water on the off chance it was some disease that moved very fast.
One 1/2 tsp of terrimycin powder per gallon of water, fill their water bottles (usually 32 oz. size) and don't refill until they are emtpy, then go back to plain water.

SOME people do this once a month as a preventive thing, I really do not reccomend this and I have only given my rabbits antibiotics when I knew they came in contact with another sick rabbit.