Death of three 6 weeks old rabbits.

Question
Hi, our rabbit recently gave birth to four babies, they all grew well, had a
huge appetite and generally acted healthy and well. Then all of a sudden on
Wednesday night we found our smallest baby dead on the floor of the hutch,
we put it down to the fact that it was the smallest and possibly not getting
enough milk and food. However 3 nights later on Saturday, I went out to feed
the rest of them and discovered two laying on the floor of the hutch looking
very unwell, they were lethargic and didn't seem to be able to sit up or move.
So we rushed them to the vet, who told us they had no hope and advised that
we put them down. By this time one of the babies was not moving at all and
the other seemed to be having some sort of fit. We followed the vets advice
and he did a post mortem on the two babies, and said he suspected VHD, as
they had the symptoms, but he couldn't find any trace of evidence in their
bodies, however there was no trace of anything else, so it was most likely
VHD. He also advised us that our remaining baby was probably infected and
had a very slim chance of survival, but at the moment seems fine. Now what
I'm wondering is if the vet was right to diagnose VHD with no visible evidence
and also what the chances are for our remaining baby. Thank you very much.

Answer
Dear Louise,

VHD is generally associated with hemorrhaging of internal organs, and bleeding from the various orifices (ears, eyes, nose, vent, etc.).  If the babies did not show these symptoms, then I would wonder why the vet diagnosed this as VHD.  The only way to confirm would be to send tissue samples to an appropriate lab for histopathology.

Is it possible that the babies were exposed to some environmental toxin?  Pesticide?  Excessive heat?  Did they eat tainted food?  All these are other possibilities that could be considered.

Also, if the babies had VHD but the mother did not, I would wonder.  Is she vaccinated?  If not, then she, too, would be expected to succumb to the virus.

I hope some of this helps.  You can find another rabbit vet for a second opinion here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Good luck,

Dana