Young female rabbits dying, pls help.

[Mountain Wampus]

I have 5 young rabbits, the smallest a lil male w/a broken leg that doesn't slow him down. ( he came from auction like that some how ) He doesn't try to breed and all 5 of them are very happy together. The other 4 are female, 3 grey and 1 californian I believe it is. The tiny male shouldn't even be away from its mother yet, I don't know the history of how any of that happened as I got most of the rabbits @ auction a few weeks ago.

Yesterday morning all 4 young females seemed to be a lil bloated or even pregnant ( it's possible but not of my doing ) They were also not eating / drinking much & got a very wet stool going on compared to normal turds, ect.

This morning one of the greys had passed, other two not looking great. Lil white one too seems dehydrated and bloated. Still the tiny male nursing the broke leg is just fine while the others are not.

I have 4 adult breeders in other pens adjacent w zero issue, fresh hay is consistant from same local farmer, feed is good from the co op. Fresh water once a day at least, clean wire bottom pen, no stress on them. ALL I can come up with is a male got to them weeks back @ auction where I picked them up from. I don't know if being knocked up so young can cause the diareah and bloating / dehydration, but it's the only non normal thing that has happened to them that I can think of. Up until yesterday morning all the rabbits were doing absolutely great. The little ones are fast n friendly then boom my babies are sick! if this sounds like something you can help with please do. thank you.

 

[VickieB]

It doesn't sound like they're pregnant to me; it sounds more like you've got sick bunnies. I would keep them a distance away from your other rabbits, and make sure you clean up well after cleaning and handling the sick ones, and before going to your breeders. I'm still a novice at raising rabbits, and the others here, I'm sure, could give more advice. But until then I want to warn you not to pass what the sick buns have over to your healthy breeders.

 

[Mountain Wampus]

I've been studying the pen to try to see what could have got my lil girls sick but not the smallest who has a broke leg. If they stand up they can nibble a piece of wood that makes up the top part of the pen. It's reclaimed wood, marking weathered away, I don't know if its treated wood or not. I understand treated wood & some pine woods / shavings are toxic to rabbits. It is possible the one dealing w the bad hind leg can't stand up tall enough to have eaten on that piece of wood, and that may be the reason he's the only one in the pen who's not real sick.

I took 1cm square holed fence scraps and covered the exposed wood where they can't nibble on it any more.

There is evidence that they've nibbled on it. Can treated wood and some pines cause the diarreah and bloating that I am seeing?

 

[P.O. in MO]

I am like VickieB. and still new at this but I have read that treated lumber can make rabbits sick and that diarrhea is one of the symptoms. The old treated lumber was called CCA and the A stood for arsenic. You say they have nibbled on it but I don't know how much they would have to ingest to cause damage. I don't think the runny stools would be caused by a too young pregnancy. I believe that if the rabbits are old enough to be fertile they will be able to deliver their babies. Not as many maybe and maybe with a lower survival rate but physically they can have kits. I wish I could help more and I hope you are able to save the rest, but definitely protect your other healthy rabbits from the threat they pose to you herd. PO Good luck

 

[alsea1]

Sounds like enteritis. You will likely not be able to save them once they stop eating and drinking.
Sometimes coccidea can cause this as well. If you catch this before they quit eating and drinking I have had good results using corid.

 

[Andrei]

Some kind of intestinal infection.
You can go straight to medication of you can give them a strong solution of apple cider vinegar with a syringe as a start.
I like to use propolis tincture as an imune system booster.

 

[Mountain Wampus]

Thank you for the advice all. I did lose two of the four sick kits yesterday. One I put down as it was obvious it was too far gone & would suffer. The two that drank a little and ate some hay for me yesterday were hanging on when I came in last night though I don't have high hopes. I can't believe the bad leg on the lil male saved his life. He couldn't stand up tall to nibble on that one piece of wood like the others did. Going to go bang my head up against a wall for leaving exposed wood in a rabbit pen. It's all my fault.

 

[Mountain Wampus]

I now have 1 of 4 sick bunnies left. It's bloated up as wide as it is long but it's drinking water off my fingers and when it got enough it went to munching hay. I'm going to keep working w the lil one till this ends one way or another. thank you all for your input.

 

[Southern by choice]

Very sorry for your loss.
As hard as these things are you will have walked away with this gaining more experience.

 

[alsea1]

If it was me I would try giving probiotics. It needs to get the bacteria in his guts back to normal.
If you hear it grinding its teeth that indicates pain. It will need something for pain. Rabbits don't tolerate pain well. I have used ibuprofen. Stay clear of tylenol. If you have it tramadol is good. But that requires a prescription.
I would also give the rabbit simethicone. You can get this in the infant section. Its given to babies with colic. This may help to disperse trapped gas.
The rabbit digestive tract is very sensitive and can blow up it seems over the slightest changes.
Also, I would disinfect the pens in case these rabbits are shedding coccidea eggs.

Without taking to a vet though its hard to say.