DianeS
Ridin' The Range
When I went out this morning, I found one of my rabbits dead in her cage, and I'd appreciate help in figuring out why she died. She was a Californian doe, age not known but supposedly about 2-3 years old.
I first noticed something on Wednesday morning - her feet were all wet, all four of them. I didn't think anything of it, she's one who likes to play in her water dish. No dampness on the rest of her (none on her face/nose/mouth, for example). But her feet stayed wet Wed night, Thurs morn, Thurs night, and again when I found her dead this morning. Changing her out to a water bottle was on my list for this weekend. I don't know if wet feet are a symptom of anything.
Last night she was hunched up in her cage corner. Something about it looked funny, but when I put her fresh feed in she hopped right over to eat and receive a head scratch, and was in a normal position then so I didn't worry about it.
This morning when I found her dead, I saw she had apparantly had some explosive diarrhea before her death. In addition to being wet, her feet were all covered in wet diarrhea, and it was all over her back end. Her poop had been normal up until that point. And when I and picked her up, I could feel every bone in her body. She had almost no muscle at all. The last time I checked her out was Sunday, and she was on the thin side but OK. I upped her food amount a tad, and she's always eaten her food. Mostly pellets, with veggies and grass on Mondays.
She is housed in the middle cage in a row of 5 other rabbits. They all ate the same foods. She has a cage mate that is showing no symptoms and that has an appropriate amount of muscle and dry feet. (No food-hogging going on, I watched to be sure of that since she was thin.) She was bred about 10 days ago, and the buck is showing no symptoms. She has been stressed lately, getting her head stuck in her cage bars on Sunday (5 days ago), don't know how long she was stuck before I saw her and cut the bars to free her head. She drank a lot right after and perked right up, but something in that could have kept bothering her.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I first noticed something on Wednesday morning - her feet were all wet, all four of them. I didn't think anything of it, she's one who likes to play in her water dish. No dampness on the rest of her (none on her face/nose/mouth, for example). But her feet stayed wet Wed night, Thurs morn, Thurs night, and again when I found her dead this morning. Changing her out to a water bottle was on my list for this weekend. I don't know if wet feet are a symptom of anything.
Last night she was hunched up in her cage corner. Something about it looked funny, but when I put her fresh feed in she hopped right over to eat and receive a head scratch, and was in a normal position then so I didn't worry about it.
This morning when I found her dead, I saw she had apparantly had some explosive diarrhea before her death. In addition to being wet, her feet were all covered in wet diarrhea, and it was all over her back end. Her poop had been normal up until that point. And when I and picked her up, I could feel every bone in her body. She had almost no muscle at all. The last time I checked her out was Sunday, and she was on the thin side but OK. I upped her food amount a tad, and she's always eaten her food. Mostly pellets, with veggies and grass on Mondays.
She is housed in the middle cage in a row of 5 other rabbits. They all ate the same foods. She has a cage mate that is showing no symptoms and that has an appropriate amount of muscle and dry feet. (No food-hogging going on, I watched to be sure of that since she was thin.) She was bred about 10 days ago, and the buck is showing no symptoms. She has been stressed lately, getting her head stuck in her cage bars on Sunday (5 days ago), don't know how long she was stuck before I saw her and cut the bars to free her head. She drank a lot right after and perked right up, but something in that could have kept bothering her.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
