Sudden death in rabbit

[hbutkus5]

i got a young rabbit from the shelter in March, the vet said he was super healthy and about a year old. About a week ago we had found a bot fly in him so brought him to the vet, where they removed it and told us he should be good to go since they got it all out in one piece and there were no other ones. Yesterday, we discovered that he had died. That morning he was perfectly fine, playing and eating and drinking. Any ideas of how this could have happened to our bun?

 

[Kessel23]

I am not sure, but I don't think it was because of the bot fly, I get those in a lot of our rabbits and they are very easy to remove and heal up very well. Maybe the vets gave him some sort of drugs to calm him down and he reacted badly to it? He could have had a heatstroke too, I am not sure what the weather is ike by you though.

 

[Bunnylady]

Death from shock due to the rupture of a warble would happen shortly after the botched removal, not a week later. If the rabbit seemed healthy and normal for a week after the vet visit, you can pretty much rule out anything the vet did.

Rabbits are small prey animals, and as such, survival for them often means not showing signs of "something wrong" until it becomes a matter of life and death. However, sudden death happens a lot in rabbits; there really is no warning. Heatstroke is one possible cause, as is a bad reaction to a bee sting or even a sudden fright. This is one of the reasons that I am loath to spend very much for breeding animals - over the years, I've had a number of relatively young rabbits that died suddenly of no obvious cause.

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

@Bunnylady is correct. I had a recently had something like that happen... Maybe bloat or something. Very Sorry for Your Loss.

 

[hbutkus5]

I am not sure, but I don't think it was because of the bot fly, I get those in a lot of our rabbits and they are very easy to remove and heal up very well. Maybe the vets gave him some sort of drugs to calm him down and he reacted badly to it? He could have had a heatstroke too, I am not sure what the weather is ike by you though.

The vet just gave him local anesthesia just on that part, so he was awake. I don't think it was that because he had been neutered before. I live in Colorado, and it has been fairly hot but not recently like it was last month, so I don't see why that would effect him.

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

Hmmmmm.... Was she sneezing at all? She might have had worms or an underlying respiratory problem. I have 12 rabbits.

 

[hbutkus5]

Hmmmmm.... Was she sneezing at all? She might have had worms or an underlying respiratory problem. I have 12 rabbits.

No he wasnt sneezing at all. His nose wasn't running and we have been checking on him everyday since he had the botfly to make sure it was healing right and that he didn't have any other ones. One of our other bunnies had a botfly a long time ago, could this one have given him an infection or something?

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

I doubt it was infection. That would have had other signs... Maybe he went into shock from something like a dog got close to his cage and scared him.

 

[hbutkus5]

I doubt it was infection. That would have had other signs... Maybe he went into shock from something like a dog got close to his cage and scared him.

Still this doesn't make sense, my dog and him love to play and my dog doesn't bark and wasn't even outside when it happened...

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

Fox or hawk maybe got to close... Are you in a city or the woods or like a neighborhood...