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why did our dwarf rabbit die?

22 10:17:52

Question
Our dwarf rabbit died unexpectedly this morning and we can't figure out why. She seemed perfectly healthy yesterday. She was active, running around, eating and drinking fine. There have been no changes to her diet. But we did introduce one change to her environment a couple days ago. We built a large outdoor pen for her so she could get more exercise and explore things. It was made out of vinyl-coated wire. This morning I put her in her pen and she seemed fine, but I did notice that she spent a lot of time just sitting. Because it was a little cold this morning I thought maybe that was why. About mid-morning I noticed that she had gone underneath her hutch and had layed down. I thought she sleeping, but when my daughter got home from school and we went out to play with her, I realized she was dead. She was about 4 months old and we have had her for about 2 months - bought her at a reputable pet store. Do you think she could have eaten something in the pen that could have caused her to die? Most of the ground is covered with lawn grass (she has spent time before outside on our lawn eating grass with no ill effects). We haven't sprayed chemicals on our yard for months. I noticed she did eat a lot of dandelion leaves over the two days that she used the pen. Also, there is a pine tree beside the pen, and there were some dried needles and tiny twigs that had fallen into it. She chewed a little on one of the twigs. Thank you for whatever ideas you could offer. My daughter is, of course, heartbroken, and it would be helpful to me to try to figure out a possible cause of death before we buy another rabbit and use the same pen.

Answer
Dear Steph,

Sorry for the delay.  Had a bit of computer down time, and am just now able to access AllExperts!  :(

I am sorry about the loss of your little bunny.

Without a necropsy including histopathology and toxicology of tissues, it's not possible to confidently establish a cause of death--especially one like this.  It could have been any of dozens of things.  But because it happened in the pen rather quickly after her being put out there, it does sound as if there might have been something toxic in the pen.

If the "pine" tree is actually a yew, it is extremely toxic, and she could have died from that.  Be sure to get a positive I.D. on the tree, as it is also extremely poisonous to humans.

If anyone sprayed chemicals or fertilizers in the vicinity, that could have caused problems, too.  There are just too many possibilities here and too little detail for me to tell you the most likely cause.

I am very sorry about your loss.

Dana