Seeking input on poor rabbit doe found dead in cage with dead newborns

[goats-n-oats]

Hi all, this morning I found a very recently deceased New Zealand white rabbit doe in her cage. There were 5 dead newborns. No signs of trauma on the newborns, and it's pretty warm in the barn. This doe has successfully raised a couple of litters but this time she did not prepare any nest. Sadly, she seemed to have been in a lot of pain when she died. She was clutching the bar of her cage with her teeth (I had to use pliers to open her jaw), and there was a lot of blood on her rear end. It looked like she expelled the placenta and a couple of white matter lumps. her abdomen felt lumpy but did not feel like any additional kits were inside. Any ideas what could have caused this? Her conditions might have been stressful because she (any my other rabbits) are housed in a barn with goats, who headbutt their cages to get their food, and there are also rats in the barn.

 

[cassie]

Whatever caused this is unlikely to have been caused by stress. Stressed does usually just kill their young. The only way to even get a clue would be to cut her open.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Could rats get inside her cage?

 

[goats-n-oats]

Could rats get inside her cage?

Yes, I have seen the smaller ones go in there to pick up food. I will have to reinforce all the cages with 1/2" wire netting. Why?
There was rat poison (Ramik Green pellets) in the barn. Could a rabbit somehow ingest material from a poisoned rat?

 

[cassie]

Yes, I have seen the smaller ones go in there to pick up food. I will have to reinforce all the cages with 1/2" wire netting. Why?
There was rat poison (Ramik Green pellets) in the barn. Could a rabbit somehow ingest material from a poisoned rat?

Not unless she ate it. I can see a chicken eating a rat but not a rabbit.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Yes, I have seen the smaller ones go in there to pick up food. I will have to reinforce all the cages with 1/2" wire netting. Why?
There was rat poison (Ramik Green pellets) in the barn. Could a rabbit somehow ingest material from a poisoned rat?

As horrific as it is, by your descriptions in your first post, it crossed my mind that a rat could have entered the cage as your doe was in the process of giving birth, then dined on the uterus, placenta and possibly also some newborns at that time.

 

[goats-n-oats]

As horrific as it is, by your descriptions in your first post, it crossed my mind that a rat could have entered the cage as your doe was in the process of giving birth, then dined on the uterus, placenta and possibly also some newborns at that time.

The doe's body looked in tact; it just looked she had expelled a lot of blood. It's possible the rat did attack her and she was too weak to fight back. The babies (at least 5 of them) were in tact as well. Not clear why they would have died. I did feed the (dead) newborns to my dogs, will no ill effect. I would have thought the rabbit was somehow poisoned, but wouldn't this have carried into the dogs?
In any case, a trusted 3yo Rhode Island Red hen also died that week; I found here lying on her stomach, which was green, with green poop. I was using a lot of rat poison in the barn (in one place, every night), so I wonder if this killed both the doe and the hen.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Rat poison could explain the massive amount of blood in the rabbit cage, but how would the doe have accessed the poison?

 

[NatJ]

Rat poison could explain the massive amount of blood in the rabbit cage, but how would the doe have accessed the poison?

Could the rats have carried the poison to a different place? (like into the rabbit cage, or into the feed or hay that was given to the rabbit.)