The pain is still pretty raw around here, i have lost 18 kits out of 29, which is hard enough. But when I woke up yesterday to find that my favorite rabbit (Physik) was going to die, I started crying… the losses were just too much! He gets his own post in the near future, when I am ready.

However, the mystery illness is back… I lost a buck to pasturella back in July, but that was the end of it, or so I thought.

The rabbits were all fine, and put on a nice, full, winter coat. Then the temperatures shot up to the 70s…. and then some of my rabbits quit eating as much.  Kept an eye on the situation, figured they needed less energy because of the heat…

Until Friday night,  when they stopped eating all together.

That spells death to a rabbit. By  Sunday, the ones that stopped eating were showing a loss of condition, and then pasturella.  As previously mentioned, all rabbits are believed to have it, and it comes out under stress. The rabbitry is clean,  but humid, damp air is enough to stress anyone.

So I had to make the choice to cull any rabbit that stopped eating,  or had white snot (not clear discharge from the eye or nose ). This is a horrid choice, because each of these animals is worth $35-$50, and I hand picked them as my breeding stock. Only to kill them.

I lost two American Blue does. Brat and Sauerkraut. Pretzel is in quarentine, as she has runny eyes, but is eating well.

The painful losses were my American Chinchillas… my first, my favorite breed, and one that is critically endangered on the livestock conservancy list. I lost Physik, culled Queste (she was an underperforming doe anyways), and lost their daughter Pathfinder.

Buckbeak, Warlock, and Buck all have runny eyes, but are eating well.

Magyk and Granain are being force fed, as I observed them eating less than normal. They do not appear to be sick.

I am keeping my fingers  crossed that this is temporary and associated with our awfully warm weather…. they are all getting VetRX for rabbits (herbal remedy for upper respiratory issues), spinach,  and ecinecia in their water.

Oh please let this be temporary…. the losses both financially and on my heart are too high.