rabbit anemia

Question
My daughter's rabbit died this morning.Yesterday he started to be very lethargic and refused his food.We took him to the vet during the evening and they were very concerned that he was very anemic.They were unable to extract blood.We were completely surprised as we didn't notice any changes prior to yesterday.Do you know what causes anemia,how we would have detected it,or if we could of prevented it?

Answer
Dear Anne,

I am sorry about the loss of your friend.

If the vets were unable to draw blood, then there is no way they could know if he was truly anemic.  Anemia is defined as a low blood cell count.  And you can't determine that without actually looking at the blood.  

It is not easy to draw blood from a rabbit if you are not experienced, and if this was an emergency vet or a vet who sees mostly dogs and cats, it's possible they just didn't have the experience to do this properly.  It is also possible that the bunny was extremely dehydrated, which would make it very difficult to draw blood.

In any case, there is no way to know whether "anemia" was the cause of death (I very much doubt it, from the information you gave me) And without more information from a proper necropsy performed by a vet experienced in rabbit medicine, it is impossible to know why the rabbit died.  It could have been any of dozens of different things.

I am sorry I could not have helped you sooner.  You can read more here, to see if anything "clicks":

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

and find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

if you still have your bunny's body and wish to have a post-mortem exam done for your own peace of mind.

I am sorry about your loss.

Sincerely,

Dana