mystery bunny illness,she died today

Question
QUESTION: I found my normally healthy,active,alert bunny not eating and wetting her carpet this morning.  She was so listless, and making a chattering noise, that I just knew she was in trouble.  I called the bunny vet and took her in, the vet was unable to say for sure what happened.  She was breathing hard, and had a temp of 102.5, and by the time the vet saw her, she did not move/respond to pain in her back legs. We did an xray, and her heart, lungs, and abdominal tract all looked good.  Her spine had some thick spots, and she said the discs were somewhat compressed, the vet said nothing presented to cause the problem.  During our conversation about eating habits, etc. I mentioned that we had just discovered she likes raisins, and that we had given her, for the first time, probably 20 raisins over the previous 5 days.  The vet said they've discovered that raisins and grapes are toxic to rabbits over the last 5 years, I had never heard that before, and we had a bunny previously for 9 years who loved raisins and ate the frequently throughout his life.  The vet said she wasn't sure what it could be, since there was no diarehha(sp) or other symptom of poisoning.  She gave her saline, and she seemed to perk up a little at the office, was moving her back end a bit.  I left with a pain medication and an antibiotic, and was told to syringe feed her until she got stronger.  I held her on the way home, and she was very comfortable.  A mile from home she suddenly arched her back and spasmed for about 30 seconds, and then she was gone.  Have you any idea what could have happened to her?  And I am very concerned that raisins and grapes could be toxic, considering that young children eat them every day.  Thank you for your reply.

ANSWER: Dear Laurie,

I am so sorry about this tragic, unexpected death.

I very much doubt that raisins were to blame.  Although they are now known to be toxic to *dogs* (and possibly to cats, but this hasn't been fully established), they are not known to be toxic to rabbits.  Dogs metabolize a LOT of things into toxic substances. But rabbits, being herbivores, usually are able to detox many botanical compounds that would be toxic to other mammals, including humans.

It would be very strange for your rabbit to have suffered a toxic reaction to raisins unless she had an unknown, idiosyncratic sensitivity or allergy to them.

It does sound like a case of toxicity, though.  In the absence of fever, the signs just do suggest poison.  Did anyone spray for insects around the house?  Might she have gotten into anything?  Was she outdoors where there might have been something dangerous?

Unfortunately, without necropsy including histopathology of major organs, it will be impossible to establish a cause of death with confidence.   

I am so very sorry.

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Our bunny Meggie was a "house bunny" part of the day in the kitchen with me, where there are absolutely no concerns. The rest of the day, she was in a very large parrot cage converted to a 3-level bunny condo, which I roll from the garage bay outside to the driveway, where she is up off the ground and safe, but enjoys fresh air and sunshine.  Is it possible that a fly or yellow jacket or bee could have stung her and caused this?  Other than that, we let her run in our front flower/tree bed a couple of times a week, with supervision obviously, where there are lots of flowers, etc.  The only plants she nibbled on (she would sniff them all) are dianthus, lilly leaves, and Kentucky Blue Grass.  All of these behaviors were normal and typical for both our bunnies.  We think we would like to have bunnies again, but we need to know if we are doing something dangerous.  Still so very sad, but we so appreciate your time.

Answer
Dear Laurie,

Unless Meggie had an unusual allergy to these insects, it's not very likely that she would die from a bee or wasp sting.  I still wonder if someone in the neighborhood might have sprayed something that wafted over.  It's so hard to have something like this happen and not know what might have caused it!

The plants you mention...are they the only ones she might have nibbled?  Some types of lilies can be *very* toxic, so I would keep those out of reach of the bunnies.  Bloodwork (while there was still life) might have revealed whether her liver enzymes were elevated from exposure to a toxin that her liver was trying to handle without success.  But sadly, it's too late to find out now.

I wish I had answers.  But sometimes these terrible tragedies just have no reasonable explanation, since we may not have been present when The Culprit was there.  I've had several experiences just like yours, and in these cases we never were able to find out what the problem was, either.  So sad and so frustrating.

Again, I am so very sorry.  Please accept my healing thoughts.

Take care,
Dana