Question about Rabbit Heath

Question
My 1 1/2 year old Mini Lop rabbit passed away and my vet doesn't even know why. I suppose this is probably a stretch, but he exhibited signs of reduced mobility for at least 6 months prior. We assumed it was because he was a lop. He was happy, loving, affectionate. However his responsiveness to noise ceased last December. We suspected he was deaf but he wasn't. He was neutered. He kept house with two females who weren't ill. He was involved in a minor fight with another male rabbit who I recently adopted. Aside from ear scratches, he had hot ears the night before and a very hot tongue. (He gave grooms). We know he didn't eat anything strange, we're not sure whether he licked a patch of carpet with old carpet cleaner on it. But again, there was nothing on it about toxins.

We found him the following morning, sitting in a massive pool of urine. He had very soft poos coming out of him til the very end. He ate and drank a lot. We've read about Acute Kidney failure and some symptoms match but not others. He had slow breathing and slow nose movements. And then lost the ability to swallow and move. He suffered seizure like movements at the time of his death.

What do you think? Do you think the stress of the fight might've exacerbated a chronic Kidney condition? Or a cancer/tumor? He never lost any weight, he was our plump boy. Although, he really didn't move a lot at all. I suppose this is now uncommon for any breed, even if he was a Lop. We just thought it was breed specific as our other buns are runners.

Answer
Hi Shaylen,

I'm sorry to hear about you losing your boy.  I have to tell you I can't tell you conclusively why you lost him, as I never saw him, and I'm not a vet.  I can only give really basic speculation based on less info than your vet or both of you have.

His hot ears/hot tongue suggest to me he had a bad infection and he had a fever.  He over heated and passed away.  He may have been battling a small infection for awhile and then with the recent scuffle and new wounds it might have been too much for his immune system to handle.

Anytime rabbits get scrapes or wounds they will almost always get infected.  You need to always get them looked at by a vet and get preventative antibiotics.

Again, I'm sorry for your loss.  Your boy knew you guys loved him, I'm sure.

Lee