Unexpected death of bun

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I'm heartbroken to write with this question.  We had a six-month old male bunny who usually played well with our declawed cats.  Two nights ago I noticed him squinting with his left eye, and there was a whitish discharge coming out.  He was also very quiet and ate little of his dinner.  We had him to the vet within two hours, and the vet told us he had a scratch on his eye and gave us an antibiotic ointment, an NSAID painkiller and laxatone to keep his gi tract moving, along with a fine prognosis for his recovery.  While at the vet, he was given a dose of the meds, he ate two baby carrots, pooped twice and seemed his usual rather feisty self.  The next morning when my husband administered the medications, bun was hiding behind a box in his cage, hadn't eaten or drunk anything that we could tell, and was just rocking back and forth a little bit.  A couple of hours later when I returned from a doctor's appointment, bun was lying on his side, dead.  My husband took him to our vet for cremation.  Our vet thought maybe bun died from shock, but it seemed like a long time between the trauma and his death.  I feel absolutely horrible and keep thinking there was something more we could have done for him.  Any thoughts?

ANSWER: Dear Kim,

I am so sorry about this terrible loss.

Unfortunately, it sounds as if the vet you saw might not have been very experienced with rabbits.  Whitish discharge coming from the eye indicates an infection (pus), and if the bunny was acting withdrawn and lethargic, his temperature should have been taken to determine whether he was developing a fever or systemic infection.  Please read this to know what should be done to determine the course of action for a sick bunny:

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

A rabbit with an infection needs antibiotics, not laxatone (which is useless for GI motility, by the way; it's a lubricant, not an intestinal motility drug.  This is another sign that the vet was probably more familiar with cats than with rabbits).

If your bunny was accidentally injured by a cat tooth, that could have caused a very serious infection by Pasteurella and/or Bartonella, both of which populate the cat mouth without affecting the cat, but which can be deadly to an animal bitten by the cat.

Given the information you have provided, I do not believe the bunny died from shock, especially if he was acting somewhat normal after the injury.  This sounds more like per-acute onset of toxemia/systemic infection, perhaps caused by an injury from one of the cats.

If there was not a cat injury, then I would suspect an infection of the molar roots, which can also cause very serious systemic infection if the bacteria cross into the bloodstream from the infected tissues.

That said, I was not there to examine the bunny or take his temperature. So what I've written here is an educated guess--no more.  But if you should ever bring another bunny into your house and heart, please use the list linked here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

to find a vet who is well-versed in rabbit medicine.  Such a vet might not have been able to save your bunny. There is no way to know that.  But other measures might have been taken to diagnose and treat the problem more aggressively, if the vet knew what s/he was seeing, and how serious this can be in a rabbit.

I know this comes too late to help your bunny, and I am so sorry about your loss.  But I hope this might shed a little light on what might have happened.

Take care,

Dana

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

QUESTION: Hello, thank you very much for your answer, although it makes me even more sick at heart that we didn't do more for our dear little bunny, in terms of finding out whether his temperature had been taken and the result.  We did take him to a vet that is on the list at www.rabbit.org/vets (Eastern Exotic Veterinary Center in Fairfax, VA).  Anyway, thank you again for your help.

Answer
Dear Kim,

Please don't blame yourself for any of this.  It's always what we tend to do.  The vet may have been completely right, and it might have been the kindest thing to do to let the bunny go peacefully.  I was not there to see his condition, so I really don't want to be second-guessing the vet.

Again, I am so sorry about your terrible loss.  I have been where you are too many times to count, and it never gets easier.  I am sending many healing thoughts to you and your family.

Dana