She said goodbye

Question
Dear Dana,

On Sept, 25, 2008, our indoor neutered female American Fuzzy Lop past away. I am not sure of her age
but the Vet said that her woofers (teeth) are full grown. She was found roaming a mountain trail April
2007; we waited until she was 100% healthy as indicated by her blood work results and then had her
neutered Feb 2008.

Her name is Oreo and her diet consisted of unlimited amounts of 1st cut Timothy Hay and fresh water
everyday. Her large 3 tier cage (48x24x36) was cleaned every morning and she had the run of the house
in the evenings. We treated her with dried papaya treats and we also gave her broccoli, small amount of
carrots, parsley, celery, among other safe greens for her veggies and she never had any eating issues. In
fact, it is not unusual to fill her hay basket 3 times per day. She would drink at least 5 to 10 oz of water
daily, and one day nearly the entire 20 oz bottle, however she seemed to have lost some weight. I could
feel her ribs and vertebra, but I really could tell if she actually lost weight since I just had the groomer
shave down most of her coat so she wasn't as fluffy as usual. Her body temperature felt normal to me,
not hot, not cold but warm.

Around Sept 5th I noticed a couple of times during that week that around both eyes looked like they
were wet. This was the only period that I noticed this.
Sept 6th early in the morning she let out a loud scream and then pooped out 1 huge amount of soft to
mushy fecal. The week of Sept 15th I did note that a couple of times during the week, her eyes never
looked as though they were wide open, in that she looks drowsy.

The night before leaving on a business trip (Sept 19 2008); I noticed that she looked a little lethargic
most of the night and then she snapped out of it and started eating her hay and was active again. Oreo
never turned down her veggies.
During the week of Sept 15th she defecated and urinated consistently, however her fecal was sometimes
mushy but mostly soft pellets. We have seen this before and laid off the treats for a couple of days and
her fecal returned to the normal hard pellets, so I thought this was the case again. The week of Sept 22,
her urine was normal and her fecal we thought that they were normal (still a little soft), and when let out
of the cage she appear as if there was nothing wrong.

Sept 24 2008 while I was still away my wife let her out of her cage and she ran to the refrigerator as she
always does to beg for some veggies. Oreo ate her veggies but then sat in front of the Frig and did not
move for the longest time.

The next morning (Sept 25th) my wife cleaned her cage and Oreo seemed a little slow moving and later
that day when our daughter came home around noon she said that Oreo greeted her at her cage for her
head rub. All appeared normal until...

8:30 PM Sept 25 2008 I got a call from my wife and she told me that Oreo is sitting on her cardboard box
in her cage and did not come to greet her. She went to get Oreo a carrot but she did not acknowledge the
treat. She started messaging her head and then Oreo let out a small little murmur as if she was saying
goodbye, and then lay down on her side and went to sleep for ever.
On this day there were no noticeable deposits in her cage.


I know that without a necropsy there is not much to go on, but your help would be greatly appreciated.
looking back now i think she was showing me signs but we have seen this before and she recovered fine,
I feel helpless, and now I felt like I could have done more, I feel I let her down,  
Any thoughts as to what may have happen?

Sincerely,
Robert  

Answer
Dear Robert,

I am very sorry about the loss of your friend.  You should not blame yourself.  Rabbits can be extremely subtle about illness.  They are prey animals, and as such are instinctively "hardwired" to hide any sign of weakness from predators.  That your bunny kept getting better and then a little "ill" suggests she might have had an ongoing, chronic problem, but that's not possible to know from the information given, and possibly not even from a necropsy.

When a bunny acts a little bit "off"--especially on a semi-regular basis--it's usually a good idea to get her to a good rabbit vet:

www.rabbit.org/vets

for a full wellness check, including dental exam (molars!) and bloodwork, just to be safe.  There is no guarantee that an existing problem will be detected, but it's the best we can do to try and keep ahead of the game.

As you say, there is absolutely no way to confidently establish a cause of death without a necropsy including histopathology of major organs.  There are just too many possibilities, especially given the vagueness of her symptoms.

I am very sorry for your loss.

Dana