Baby rabbit dead after 5 days

Question
As I type, my baby bunny is still in a box on my lap. She died last night. I got home and found her sprawled on the bottom of the cage, not moving, and breathing very shallowly. My suspicion is she'd been like that for at least a hour before I rushed her to the vet.

We were in a cab, and she could hardly blink. Ocassionally her breathing would spike, and one time, her feet moved frantically but she couldn't move her head, it was still looking up. She looked as if she was seizing up.

Her heart stopped just as we got to the vet, and they were unable to revive her. There was no blood anywhere, no signs of bruising, and her feces was not runny. The vet's assistant (as the vet had already gone home) told us it could have been anything from gamut of CODs such as malnutrition (they told me she was thin) to heatstroke to parasitic overload.

I fed her grass and ocassionally, carrots. She always had water, and I kept her indoors, so i don't know what could be the cause, and my heart just couldn't take a necropsy just yet.

I'm scared because we have another rabbit who, right after she died, started showing the same symptoms. He's at the vet now, but they still can't determine the cause, so if you have any ideas as to what it might be, that would really be helpful.

What's sad is that she was only a baby, about 1 month or so old. We've only had her for 5 days, we haven't even gotten a chance to give her a name yet.


Answer
Dear Mica,

I'm very sorry for this terrible loss.  You don't say how old the baby was, but if she was weaned younger than 8 weeks, this could have contributed to an overall weakness of the immune system that predisposes baby rabbits to illness:  they need mother's antibodies until they are fully ready to leave the nest and be on their own at 8 weeks.

Baby rabbits are very susceptible to respiratory infections, but without a necropsy (including histopathology on lung tissue) it would be impossible to determine this.  In fact, as you've probably already heard, a cause of death cannot be confidently established without a necropsy including histopathology.

Did anyone spray for insects around your home?  Was there anything toxic the babies could have contacted or eaten?  These are other possibilities.

I hope the baby at the vet's office does well, since you caught the problem early.  Please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sickbun.html

...but I hope you won't need it, and your baby will be fine.

I am sorry about your loss.

Dana