3.5 Week Old Bunnies Dying! PLEASE HELP!

[Wolfsbane121]

The rabbits are housed in elevated wire cages that are washed in a bleach/water solution once every week then rinsed thoroughly and set out to air dry. We have trays under the cages to catch their defecation and that is cleaned and sterilized every other day along with their water bottles. Its getting colder now so I fill the bottles with warm water every morning. Food boxes are cleaned with the cages. We have been feeding Payback 18 up until now. We just bought a bag of sun-baked (I'm not looking at the label atm) alfalfa pellets. We have alfalfa hay that they really like and we treat them to sticks of carrots and handfuls of lettuce. We tried giving them slices of squash, but they didn't care for it. We put straw bedding down in our nest boxes and it gets changed out when things start looking damp. Our nest boxes look similar to Costco milk containers only bigger and industrial grade. They have holes in the bottom so urine can drain out. Around day 15-18 we line the cage with straw and evict the kits on day 18 to avoid eye infections (Nestbox Eye). The straw then gets changed out when we clean the defecation trays. That is pretty much the procedure around here.

Thank you all for trying to help, but a vet is not an option for us. I called quite a few vets to see if their was anything I could do at home and only one helped me out a little. One of the vets suggested a necropsy, but he also told me it would be spendy around here and I'm not looking to spend any more money on them than what is necessary. Yes, I understand you cant really know what is going on with an animal unless you look at it and no I did not diagnose the rabbits myself through the computer. The vet who was actually helpful listened to me explain in detail what was happening and to my observations of the rabbits. He told me it sounded like they were dehydrated and malnourished. He thought our doe died because she had to many kits to take care of and they were pretty much sucking nutrients out of her. He also explained to me that rabbits only produce a certain amount of milk and yet that was his conclusion. To me what he said sounded like what was happening to the rabbits. He could be wrong, but there is an equal chance he is right too.

I do have a question I hope can be answered without any arguing and such. If a doe neglects her kits will she do the same to the next litter or will her motherly instincts kick in? I know each doe is different and you cant positively give an answer, but in most cases would the neglective doe care for her next litter or be a bad doe the rest of her life?

I do apologize to anyone who thinks im being rude. I wasn't trying to be rude at all. I had dying rabbits on my hands and I wanted to know what i could be doing to keep them alive until they gained strength. Things got off topic.

 

[Stout]

Are they cold I know they have to stay at certain temp or the milk with churn the little stomachs that's all I know. Hope the get well

 

[sourland]

For the next litter keep her in a pen that she is familiar with, provide a nest box with clean bedding, make sure that nothing disturbs her, provide a balanced ration, and hope for the best. She may very well be successful with her next litter. If she is not successful, I would then remove her from the breeding group.

 

[Wyandottes7]

No, the doe will not neccesarily perform the same in the next litter. Often times first timers have more problems and do just fine in the second litter. A lot of people have a "three strikes" rule for rabbits. The doe gets three tries to have a successful litter, and if she doesn't, then they cull her. I've never had a rabbit doe neglect her kits, but some of my first timer does have had kindling problems (dead kits or extended labor). The second time they've been good mothers.

 

[dainerra]

. My reasons for not wanting to go to a vet or buy all these extra food items is because rabbits are supposed to be an easy animal to keep. You are supposed to keep the food, water and housing clean and supplied and call it good. My father owns the rabbits and I look after them for him. If they were mine I would probably take them to the vet and absolutely give them the things their current diet is lacking, but he is very frugal and there is no changing his mind once its set.

everyone assumes that rabbits are easy to keep. people assume that chickens are easy to keep - there are more than a few people who think that a diet of nothing but corn is all they need.
I'd loose the alfalfa hay in exchange for grass hay. Your dad may be happy to make that change since it tends to be cheaper anyway. Pellets should be measured daily and hay offered free choice. Again, it's much cheaper than pellets so hopefully he will be happy to go with that.
Rabbits are very prone to kidney stones, crystals in their urine and even complete blocking of the urinary system so diet needs to be carefully monitored.

even meat animals need vet care. if you plan on raising generations, your foundation stock has to be healthy and vet checked. You don't have to worry that the rabbits may develop age related issues but you have to know that they will be healthy until their turn for harvest. If they are breeding stock, you need to know that they will produce a healthy next generation that will be a good weight at harvest. It's simply part of the investment. If your foundation breeding stock dies unexpectedly, then you need to know what caused it because that will tell you if any offspring can replace them in the breeding program or if you need to cull all of them.
Since all of these rabbits came from the same breeder and you don't know if they share common ancestors, if it is genetic all of them might need to be culled as breeders and start over again. Since the vet said malnourished there are definite changes that need to be made unless your father wants to keep throwing money away. If the rabbits are skinny they can't be harvested as meat. So any money put into them is down the toilet.

If you are giving them iceburg lettuce as a treat, however, stop it immediately. It's really not good for them - no nutritional value and can cause diarrhea (leading to dehydration).
Carrots, very sparingly since they are high in sugar and can increase crystals in the kidneys.
Bell peppers are great.
Romaine lettuce in small quantities.
Broccoli is good but only given in small amounts since it can cause gas and some rabbits don't like it.
Many rabbits like fresh spinach.
Kale is an amazing food.
Parsley as well.
Spending 3-4 dollars to put some parsley and kale in a small space of garden. healthy treats for the bunnies and easy access to them all the time.


Color genetics are actually NOT irrelevant to rabbit health. Or any animals health for that matter. She was simply pointing out that there is no way to know what buck was bred with these does (and by extension that you have no idea of their genetic health).

 

[Wolfsbane121]

Are they cold I know they have to stay at certain temp or the milk with churn the little stomachs that's all I know. Hope the get well

I had held them close to my torso until I felt they were good and warm each time before I fed them the KMR.

 

[Wolfsbane121]

For the next litter keep her in a pen that she is familiar with, provide a nest box with clean bedding, make sure that nothing disturbs her, provide a balanced ration, and hope for the best. She may very well be successful with her next litter. If she is not successful, I would then remove her from the breeding group.

Thank you, I hear lots of different things from many people and you kind of have to pick and choose information because what one person says may be true for them, but it may not be true for the majority. A few people around here have told me the doe will be a bad mother for the rest of her life... That same person also told me never to touch the kits when they are born or the doe will eat them and that's not necessarily true. It hasn't happened yet so you cant take only one persons word for it. I've done a lot of reading online and hardly any rabbit breeder has had problems like that. Thank you for the advice

 

[Wolfsbane121]

No, the doe will not neccesarily perform the same in the next litter. Often times first timers have more problems and do just fine in the second litter. A lot of people have a "three strikes" rule for rabbits. The doe gets three tries to have a successful litter, and if she doesn't, then they cull her. I've never had a rabbit doe neglect her kits, but some of my first timer does have had kindling problems (dead kits or extended labor). The second time they've been good mothers.

Okay thanks! I put her in with our buck Sunday and Monday so we'll see how it goes this time around.

 

[Wolfsbane121]

Thank you for the information dainerra. I'll talk to my dad about the grass hay. "Color genetics are actually NOT irrelevant to rabbit health. Or any animals health for that matter. She was simply pointing out that there is no way to know what buck was bred with these does (and by extension that you have no idea of their genetic health)." Actually it was irrelevant to the subject of keeping the bunnies alive at that point in time. I do realize that it is important to overall rabbit health, but overall rabbit health was NOT what I was asking help for.

This Thread was made with the intention of figuring out how to keep 3.5 week old bunnies alive because they were dropping dead like flies. It was not made to figure out a long term plan to keep them healthy although I really do appreciate the help and advice from everyone.

 

[shee]

As one person pointed out first time does can have problems. We got a doe that had never been bred before. She had 7 kits im her first litter and between 2-3 weeks old five of the seven died. She had 5 with this second litter and all five are now 7 1/2 weeks old and have done great.

I am glad to hear that your remaining babies are doing a lot better, and that the KMR helped, and that you posted that information on the pedialite. That is something I want to keep I mind for future reference. A couple of things I have read that you may or may not want to keep in mind for future reference is if something happens to a doe and she isn't feeding her kits first choice for hand feeding is doe's milk, whether giving kits to another doe or expressing the mother's milk to feed them. If that isn't possible, second choice was goat's milk which you can buy at Wal-Mart in the dairy section (I work at a no-kill cat shelter and this is also recommended by some vets as better then KMR). KMR was actually listed as the third or fourth choice. Also the doe produces certain feces that the kits eat to help their ph levels in the gut adjust to eating solid foods. I am not sure what age kits need to start eating this or how long it needs to be fed to them, but it is a necessity or hand fed young kits won't survive. Picture a bunch of grapes...how you have one big bunch comprised of individual grapes. That is sort of what that particular feces looks like. If i still have the picture on my computer (I am on my tablet right now), and you are interested in this information i can try to send it to you through personal message on this site or post it as a reply in this thread.