sudden death of bunnies

Question
Hello-
I am desperately trying to find some clues as to what may have happened to our 4 baby bunnies. They were born in October and all 4 have died at different times (between 5-9 weeks) of the same illness. The illness came on quickly and in 3 cases in the evening, and they died quickly and I was unable to get them to a vet. The first one that died had what I thought was a broken neck or spine from the way it was twisted and having spasms, but it died too fast to get it looked at. All of them had the following symptoms - loss of balance, falling over, spasms, head tilt, then after a few minutes they became lethargic, weak and couldn't hold themselves up. They died slowly within hours. Both mom and dad appear fine. We are very sad about this and I am hoping someone can give me some direction on this. I am also concerned because I have 4 children who have played with the bunnies - could they contract this? One person I talked to in a store mentioned something called e.cunniculi? I didn't find a lot of info. about it, and found conflicting reports about it. Do you have any ideas as to what would cause this type of (neurological) illness in the babies?

Answer
Dear Sheila,

I am very sorry about the loss of the babies.  To set your mind at ease, it is not at all likely that they had anything that could be passed on to a human.  In fact, the most likely explanation for the deaths is that the babies actually got a deadly bacterial infection from human handling by the children.  Baby rabbits are extremely susceptible to human intestinal bacteria, which we have all over our skin and hands.  One of the most common causes of death in baby rabbits is E. coli intestinal infection, the symptoms of which include watery diarrhea and rapid death.

Infection can be systemic, as well, however, and it may be that the babies, with their undeveloped immune systems, could not handle any type of bacteria that were being rubbed onto them by human hands (e.g., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is ubiquitious and a very aggressive facultative (i.e., it'll make you sick if you're susceptible) pathogen.  The babies may have gotten ear infections which then traveled to the rest of the body via the bloodstream, resulting in rapid death.

Again, I am very sorry for this tragedy.  Please read this before you consider breeding the bunnies again:

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

and this one:

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

But if you do decide to allow the rabbits to breed again (which I CANNOT DISCOURAGE STRONGLY ENOUGH), then be sure that the children (or anyone) does not handle them at all without first thoroughly disinfecting hands with HOT water and surgical scrub (you can get povidone iodine surgical scrub at most feed stores in the horse supply section) and hydrogen peroxide, then dried well with a clean, disposable paper towel.

The stress of being handled is very hard on baby rabbits, too, and this can immunocompromise them.  The babies should be handled only on the floor, not carried around excessively, and never to the point where they are trying to get away without success.  Rabbits are prey animals, and easily stressed by the well-meaning attentions of children.  The babies need to be protected from the kids until they are well grown and able to handle it better.

Again, I am sorry about your loss.

Dana