My friends bunns have died

Question
My friends rabbits(2 of them) have died and we have no idea why.
They had some problems such as: Trying to stretch their backs as if they have a kink and when you touched the corner of their eyes they wouldn't blink. They were fine a week before.Can you help clear this up?
Thanks for any help and your time!

Answer
Hi,

So sorry for the loss of your friend's buns.  These guys are so fragile.

Without a necropsy, it would be nothing but a guess but I have an idea.  I suspect based on your comment about stretching their back was that they were in pain most likely from a digestive system problem.  A rabbit is a hind gut fermenter.  Over the evolution, there gut has developed a way to extract the most nutrition possible from the low quality foods they find in the wild....things like grass, leaves and bark.  Now you will think we aren't talking wild rabbits...but domestics are descendents of wild rabbits from Europe so the digestive system of a domestic rabbit is the same as a wild rabbit.  This type of digestive system requires a low protein, high fiber diet.  The primary diet of a rabbit should be grass hay...and a healthy rabbit can live very nicely off high quality hay.  The hay is the "high fiber" part of the diet.  It provides the bulk in the diet to keep things moving thru the intestinal tract.  It also provides a good environment for the beneficial bacteria that digests food.  If something upsets this delicate bacteria....high protein (too many pellets, too many treats, refined sugars.etc) is the prime culprit here...and the bacteria starts to die.  The decaying bacteria becomes toxic.  The bacteria that is dying not only helps digest food, it keeps harmful bacteria in check.  Without the good bacteria to maintain control, harmful bacteria such as clostridium and/or e coli can grow.  This creates a condition known as cecal dysbiosis and the sum of all the issues related to this condition will result in a fatal condition known as ileus.  It is very difficult to recover from ileus.  Many times the rabbit will stop eating and/or pooping as they enter stasis (a slow down in the gut that preceeds ileus).  Is there any evidence they stopped eating or pooping prior to losing them?

When we have multiple rabbits sick or lose multiple rabbits near the same time, you have to look at the common denominator....what did both of them have access to?  It sounds as if they had a gut problem so the first suspect is diet.   What was the diet?  Insufficient hay can cause this concern.  Too much proteins.  Too many greens.  Mold (more specifically a by product of mold....mycotoxins) can cause this.  We find this often in low quality pellets and hay but no brand is immune from it.  They could have eaten carpet if they are indoor rabbits and that will shut down the gut quickly.  If they were outdoor rabbits....anything from being spooked by a predator such as a fox to parasites to venomous bites from snakes or spiders could be the cause.  My suggestion is to do a little investigating from your end starting with the diet.  Review their diet to make sure they were being fed correctly.  Was any of their food spoiled?  Did they access to any food that is potentially toxic?

I feel confident based on your description that they were suffering from some type of GI problem.  The GI is so sensitive in a rabbit.  Some of these GI conditions can kill a rabbit within hours.  But again, without a necropsy, there is no way to be more specific.