Unexpected bunnys death (3.5 years young)

Question
i came home tonight from work to find my healthy lop-eared bunny dead in his cage.  i'll first start by saying that this bunny ran free in the yard almost every evening (with close supervision, when we were home and outside sitting on the patio with him, which is a lot.), ate lots of carrots and a trail mix of good rabbit food.  he was big and beautiful, white and gray, and just very active, loving, never bit anyone, and just made me laugh with his crazy runs and flips.  he wasn't neutered, and definitely had an active sex drive, he had a rubber ball friend that he utilized often.  (sorry if that's weird, but true)  anyway, came home and he was gone.  he's always been an indoor/outdoor bunny, but if outdoors we kept him shaded with plenty of water and vegetables, in his cage.  today in columbia, mo, it got to be close to 90.  i'm sure he was hot, but he has been acclamated to these conditions his entire life.  it was breezy and the heat index was moderate.  i'm just wondering if you think it is likely he suffered from some sort of heat stroak or heart attack, or possibly some sort of insect infestation, or something else.  willie did fight for his life a little over a year ago when we came home to find him what seemed to be "paralyzed" in his back legs.  after going to the vet, and x-rays, he had suffered some spinal cord trauma, probably from being frightened by a neighborhood predator, throwing himself against his cage.  i nursed him back to health, overcoming a crooked walk and he even had some fly larvae that had been layed in his skin.  ultimately, he became 100% and has hopped and played and jumped since then.  he seemed so healthy, and i am really devastated tonight as to why my little pal is gone.  i think he was happy and had a fun life here at our home, he was such a huge priority for us.  like i said, he was healthy, hopped around outdoors all weekend long, and ate like he always had. it appeared he had eaten a lot of food since fed this morning at 10:30, but it's not for sure, as he does knock over his bowl quite often. he was normal as of 10:30 this morning as far as we know, but have now buried him in my back yard.  i guess i would just like some insight as to why perfectly healthy little boys like him die suddenly.  

sincerely,

Kristen

Answer
Hi Kristen,

very sorry to hear about the loss of your Willie boy.  I'm sorry you had to go through every pet owner's worst nightmares, coming home and finding your little guy like that.

First, the more technical stuff.  The only way to know for sure what caused Willie's death is a necropsy by a vet.  As you have buried him already, it may not be something you feel you have to do.

Without a necropsy, someone like me who has never seen Willie, is really just offering a 'best guess' speculation that may or may not be correct.  I can give you a number of possibilities and/or factors that may have come into play here, but that's about it.

As a bunny that spent time outdoors, there is always a chance that something outdoors was affecting him.  You had mentioned in the past he had fly larvae which he may have gotten outside, and that he had hurt himself outside in his cage.  Even the cleanest backyard can have insect eggs or parasites in the soils and even waiting on blades of grass for a passing animal.

The weather could have been a contributing factor, if it has recently got a lot hotter than the last few days.  Sometimes they don't drink as much as they should and they stay at the same activity level and get dehydrated and go into gut stasis.  If he ate a lot of food and was dehydrated it could have caused a gi tract problem that led to his death.  One of our guys this summer went into gi stasis when the weather got warmer and he didn't up his water intake.  It happened very fast, within a day.  he also could have overheated and gone into heatstroke.

You didn't mention in your above letter about hay.  Rabbits need to have the bulk of their diet in a good timothy hay.  It helps push everything through their gut.  Too much non-hay food leads to gut slowdown and gi stasis.  They require lots of fiber to push non-digestible matter through, like the fur they ingest from grooming.  Fur will for a blockage otherwise and they can die from this.  If he had been shedding hard lately this could have been a contributing factor.  

Also if he wasn't getting most of his food in hay, but carrots and greens and pellets, he may have been overweight as well, which would have put a strain on his body.

If he was outdoors at the time, he very easily could have been scared to death by a predator animal.  Heart attack.

It also is possible he could have had a stroke, or an embolism (blood vessel rupture).

All of these things could be a reason (or reasons) for why he passed away.  Without a necropsy you will not know for certain.  I'm sorry I can't pin it down more precisely for you.

If you decide to get a rabbit in the future, I would suggest:

1. Bunny proofing a room or part of your house and having an exclusive indoor house rabbit.  It eliminates being scared to death by outdoor predators, it elinimates picking up ticks, fleas, mites, and worms from the soil and droppings of other animals in the lawn, they will stay cooler in hot weather (air conditioning), and being indoors with you (proximity) you'd just have a better 'read' on them and possibly catch a problem faster than if they are outside.  They are litter-trainable.

2. Hay is the thing they need more than anything else.  A good fresh green timothy hay like Oxbow.

3.  Greens should be given no more than 1/2 cup per 5 pounds body weight.  Not every rabbit can handle every green well.  If they have problems with one, don't feed them that.  For example I do not give my guys cilantro because even though it's safe for them to eat, it tends to give them gas.  Each rabbit is different.

4. Pellets should be given no more than 1/4 cup per 5 pounds body weight, a little less for rex/mini-rex rabbits.  No extra 'junk' in it, just the pellets.  No corn, fruit, seeds or nuts.

5. Carrots should be given in very limited quantities, as well as any food that is either high in natural sugars or carbohydrates.  These foods cause bad bacteria in the gut to increase and cause problems for them that can lead to gut stasis.  Never feed them anything that has sugar added to it, or any kind of corn syrup.

6.  Have your rabbit fixed.  It cuts down on the risk of testicular cancer in males, and reduces sexual behaviors like spraying and excessive mounting, and for females, it will save her from dying young by uterine cancer.  

Again, I'm sorry you lost your little guy so young.  If you are like me, I believe we will see our beloved pets again.  He'll be waiting for you.

Write back anytime.  Lee