baby orphans giant rabbits

Question
my french lop mated with a british giant and had ten babies 4 weeks ago. The mother died when they were only 3 weeks old. All babies are doing really well, but 3 keep getting diarrhoea, i seperate the poorly ones then they are ok the next day so i put them back. One seems to have wet tail, ive seperated it but i would like to know if, its contagious and what should i do now? Please write back soon.

Answer
Hi Anne

It is most likely enteritis.  This is where their stomachs get inflamed.  Baby rabbits don't have the ability to fight off infections and they don't have the necessary bacteria to keep their guts healthy like adult rabbits do.  They don't develop this until they are around 7 weeks old and they rely heavily on their mothers milk for protection.  

This can kill them and they really need to see a vet.  If you can get some cecotropes from a healthy rabbit and feed it to them it may help.  If not the next best thing you can do is give them pro-biotics.  These can be purchased at just about any tractor supply store or occasionally at pet stores.  If you get them to the vet they can give you the pro-biotics themselves.

I hate to say this but the babies that are ill have a really slim chance of survival without veterinary intervention.  I really hope that you can find a good vet to help you.  If you need help locating a vet in your area you can try this site

http://www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

I also doubt that it is contagious.  Enteritis itself isn't contagious unless it is caused by a bacteria or virus.

Good luck and I hope the little one's make it.

Sincerely

Pam