Sick Rabbit

One of my ten-week-old rabbits is real lethargic - looks bad for him. Still sitting up but that's about it. Won't eat hay. What could this be? Likely to recover? He's in a pen with nine others. The rest seem okay.

If it is feasible you need to take the rabbit to the vet to get medical attention ASAP.

Usually if a rabbit doesn't eat for more than 24 hours it means "end of rabbit". Rabbits have a very sensitive digestive system that needs constant feeding to keep its digestive bacterial population alive. You could try to coach the rabbit into eating with something like mint leaves, daffodil leafs. Our two rabbits also love oats stalks and young sunchoke leafs and young alfalfa.

Good luck

The little buck didn't make it. He was all limp but still breathing. When I moved him around, he appeared to have a seizure and flopped all around and was dead soon after.  I figure a little Darwinism going on.

Sorry to hear that. :(
Rabbits, it often seems, are born looking for a way to die.

Ken,

Really sorry to hear.  It’s sad when one of those guys passes.

I wish I had read this earlier, as I have a possible clue as to what was going on.  Rabbits have to eat pretty much nonstop.  If something interrupts their rhythm of eating, or if they get the wrong supply of fiber in their diet they can quickly go into a condition called GI stasis.  Bunnies can’t vomit or regurgitate their food, so whatever goes down the hatch is in for the whole ride.  Bunnies and susceptible to getting what amounts to a hair ball (fiber ball?) in their stomach.  When this happens they cannot regurgitate the ball.  When this happens, the little bunny loses its appetite (and bunnies are perpetually eating little snacks), get listless and eventually starve to death.

My daughter has as little bunny and she actually keeps a little organic garden to grow organic veggies just for him to eat—she is that picky about his food.  She especially grows kale, his absolute favorite food.  One day she ran up the stairs in tears and wanted me to take her and the bunny to the vet because she thought he had GI stasis.  I thought she was over reacting, but I caved.  Turns out she was correct.  While the bunny did not have GI stasis, it was in the process of developing.  The vet could feel a little hard spot on the bunnies gut and told us that we caught it at just the right time.

GI stasis is almost always fatal to bunnies.  My daughter just obsesses over that little rabbit, so she knows his habits and personality and was able to notice even minor changes to his movements and actions.  All I can suggest is that if you see the beginning of GI stasis, act on it very, very quickly.  The bunny can go downhill very quickly.

Sorry ‘bout your bunny,

Eric