Help!! 4 week old rabbits are dying!!

[dlellis]

Hi All... I need some quick help/advise!!

We started breeding rabbits a few months ago.. they are New Zealand/Californian mixes.. the doe kit about 4 weeks ago. she had 14 rabbits in all, 1 died at birth, we lost 5 more over the course of the first week.. all of which seemed to be pushed out of the group. we attempted bottle feeding, but no luck. we've had 8 babies growing over the past 3 weeks and have been putting on weight. this last week we've had 3 more die for no apperent reason. our first thought was that the mom was killing them.. but we've found no sign of trauma(no broken necks, no cuts, everything feels solid).
We have noticed that some of the babies have had diarrhea.. We keep the food bowl full around the clock. the only thing that we didn't have in a good spot was water. it was kind of high. we've sense added a water cup, as well as another water bottle at the babies height..

I'd appreciate ANY advice!

Thanks all!

 

[whitetail98]

Hi I raise rabbits and have not had anything like this happen to me! Do they have access to the pellets any earlier than 3 wks?

 

[dlellis]

Yes. well kind of. they were in the nesting box for week 1-3, this last week they moved out of the nesting box. we have two dishes in the hutch for food. we keep it full around the clock for the mom.. this week they've started eating a little of the food.

 

[whitetail98]

Bc I know if they eat it too early it'll bind them up and then they'll die

 

[dlellis]

hmm. ok. i'll have to look into that a bit more. whats strange how sudden they die.. My wife was out checking on them around 12:30 today, and all was fine. she went back out around 1:40pm and one was dead..

Thanks for the info!
Damon

 

[Rosies Roost]

I have no experience with rabbits as pets but I have so basic knowledge from work ( I'm a vet tech assistant). And I also happen to have a book here that has rabbit care and stuff in it. Based on the diarrhea the first thing I think of is coccidiosis. It's a protozoan that shows up in the stool.
The signs of it are

• Diarrhea
• rough looking fur
• them not growing as well as you think they should
• and a pot belly even though you can still feel the spine

If this is what it is you should clean the cages thoroughly with 1 part bleach and 5 parts water and see if you can get some sulfaquinoxaline, which I think they have in most farm supply stores. Also taking them to a vet couldn't hurt.

They could also have diarrhea because of a lack of fiber (though that doesn't cause death), a bacterial infection, or a digestive system disease.

I hope that helped if even a little. Get well soon little bunnies!!

 

[whitetail98]

Also I'm sure they're all covered up with fur now so it'll be hard to see but they should be pink and with bulging bellies. If they're not, this may mean some are not getting fed... How many are left?

 

[dlellis]

Thanks so much for the info! we'll clean the cage, and i'll look into the Sulfaquinoxaline!

Thanks again,

 

[dlellis]

we have 5 left now..

 

[whitetail98]

Ok well how are their bellies?