✴︎ Trigger warning
This article contains distressing information. Readers please be advised.
Maple had been excreting a clear/white mucus for a few days. I read online that it could either be a parasite or a blockage. She wasn’t feeling too well on the 16th, and I made the decision that if she was still sick in the morning (Monday, 17th) I’d race her to the Unusual Pet Vets in Frankston. She nibbled a little bit of food that night, but nothing substantial. She sat crouched in a corner. The boys left her alone.
I checked her at about 3am, and she was OK, moving around the pen with the boys. She seemed happy, so I went back to bed and got up at about 7am. She was crouched in the corner again, sunken eyes, ears flat on her back. Not good. Poor baby.
I had to wait until 8:30am to call the emergency line of the vet, it was the longest wait. The nurse on the other end said that she just had a cancellation, and could fit me in at 11am. I had less than 15 minutes to get the bunnies packed into the car because it was a 2+ hour trip to Frankston (one way). I decided to pack all the bunnies into the car because they are bonded and it really didn’t matter. Luckily for the past hour and half I had been preparing for their journey and put the carry boxes together and organised their food and water. I put Maple and Lunar in a box, and Buttons in the other. Then turned to doors to face each other so they could see each other in the car.
We arrived at the vet at 10:59am, and the vet nurse came out to collect Maple at about 11:05am. About 20 minutes later I got a call from the vet to say that she was fine, her gut was making sounds and she didn’t look like she had any parasites. There was no reason why she would be sick, because her poo was free of nasties. The vet couldn’t find any trace of mucus and couldn’t find a blockage. She said that she will give Maple rehydration liquids, because she was dehydrated, and I had a choice of whether to get blood tests or take home a trillion types of medicine for her. I chose the medicine, only because they wanted me back at the vet the following day to get the blood test results – I wasn’t going to travel 4+ hours in the car again to get results. The vet thought it was a colon inflammation, because it clearly wasn’t Calicivirus.
The vet brought Maple out with a bag of meds. Meloxicam for pain, Famotidine for the colon inflammation, and Colestyramine powder sachet, which is a toxin absorber and is to be fed with Critical Care. She told me to give Maple a dose of the Meloxicam, Famotidine and half the sachet of the Colestytramine when I get home. I also was told to give them a call in the morning for an update, and then book in another appointment in a week, once she had finished her meds.
We got home at about 3:30pm. I left the bunnies alone for about 30 minutes once we got home, so they could get over the stress of being in the car for may hours. During that time I cleaned their carry boxes and found that Maple had urinated in the box, a bright, nearly fluorescent orange colour. Even though she was in the box with Lunar, I didn’t think it would be Lunar. I thought that was very strange.
Fluro yellow coloured urine is a liver problem.
We gave Maple the medicine at about 4:45pm. About 10 minutes later she became paralysed in her front. She couldn’t use her arms to keep her body up. She struggled to breathe. I burritoed her in a blanket. She started shaking. It brought back memories of Cotton, she did the same thing. Maple’s eyes sunk into her head, and she stretched out in the blanket as long as she possibly could. She was dying. I decided to climb into the pen with the boys, let them be involved. Buttons had seen it before with Cotton and stayed away. Lunar was scared shitless. He was shaking with fear. Buttons saw that and went over to support him by laying next to him, I thought that was really cute. Suddenly Maple leaped out of the blanket and rolled towards the litter box. I picked her up and put her in there, just in case she needed to go. I’m not sure if she did. The boys started thumping really loudly and looking at her. A few minutes later, she flopped out of the litter box and landed on the floor. I picked her up and she squeaked. She squeaked about three more times, and she convulsed with her heart beating really fast and erratically, she started to seizure and her legs moved like she was running really fast, she started to spin in a circle, and I put my hand on her to stop her from hitting the pen fence. Then in less than a minute she was dead. I told her that I loved her and it’s OK. She died at 5:30pm.
It was the most awful thing I had ever witnessed. The poor bunny.
I left her body in the pen for a while so the boys could say their farewells. Buttons was the first to come over and stand over her. His front legs were on one side of her body, his tummy touched hers, and his back legs were on the other side. He nuzzled her cheek a little bit, then hopped away. He cocked his head to one side and sat. He was watching something intently. He followed it around and watched as it headed towards the kitchen and disappear. He saw Maple leave.
He then pushed Lunar around gently in the pen with his nose to get him to say goodbye to Maple. After a while of gentle prodding, Lunar ended up standing over her body in the same way Buttons did. But not as long. It clearly creeped him out. After a while Lunar nuzzled Maple’s tummy and then left her alone.
They had said their goodbyes.
My poor sweet Maple. This makes me so sad. I really wish it wasn’t like this.
22 September, 2022 – 17 April 2023.
When we picked Maple’s body up, it was stiff, like a board. We carried her outside and were about to put her in the dirt when my sister noticed that a huge long worm was coming out of her nose. It was about 15cm long, thin, black and curly on the end. It was stiff and sharp like a blade.
That was really gross but equally as interesting.
She had a parasite infection and it was misdiagnosed – and that was by a rabbit specialist vet. All because the vet didn’t listen to what I was said.
If your bunny has any form of mucus, get it to the vet asap and get a parasite test done. You will have about 2-4 days before your bunny could end up like Maple. No bunny needs that.
I phoned the Unusual Pet Vets in the morning and informed them about what happened. They were shocked and handed me over to the vet who misdiagnosed Maple to have a chat. Of course I was very upset about having to explain what happened the night before, but the vet did say something interesting… “we will have to look into that, because that is very strange. I’ve never heard of that before.”
EDIT: Dec 2022
Any vet, vet nurse or specialist rabbit person I’ve told about this has never heard of it before – and I have discussed this with over 25 different specialists.
One vet did say to me that they only know about 2% of all parasites that can affect rabbits. Then why don’t they do something about that?
Because there’s no money in it, that’s why. If it was sheep, chickens, cows or pigs, they’d know more.
A little bit of proof of the other side
The morning of Tuesday the 18th, the boys were sad. I put them outside because it was a nice day. They did their own thing, sometimes together, other times apart. They spent a lot of time sleeping. Maple was the glue that bound everyone together.
I decided to take photos of them. Buttons was sitting on Maple’s chair, which was impressive because he never had done that before, it was her thing.
I held my phone away from my body at arms length to get the camera closer to Buttons and I snapped some photos. I thought they were cute photos, and when I checked them they were all washed out. I was sad, because I’d never be able to get photos of that moment again.
Because it was an Apple phone, I had saved the photos as “Live” which means it records 2 seconds before the click of the shutter and then 2 seconds after it. So each washed out photo had 5 seconds of footage.
Later that day, something told me to watch the washed out photos because “Maple is in them”.
So I did.
In the video, I’m talking to Buttons, saying he looks proud about sitting on the chair. In the top left corner you can see a dark shape move around. That’s Maple’s eye! She came to say everything was alright.
The footage plays three times, the first time is normal speed, the second is half speed, and the third is 30% of the speed. I have slowed the footage down at the end so that it is easier to see.
Her eye appears in the top left corner moves around.
To support the fact that the light is not just the lens reacting to a strange beam of light on a dull day, the video below shows that it is a strip of light that is moving by itself. A beam of light would not behave that way, and there is no possible way that a hair was over the lens.
Just for kicks, here’s the video where I’m saying that he must be proud of himself sitting on the chair.
He sure does look proud.
All of these Live photos were takes at 3:42pm one after the other. They have not been edited other than the first one where I slowed the footage down to show the eye.
For kicks, here is a photo of Maple’s eye, just so you can compare the video eye with the real one:
You can even see the light areas towards her nose in the eye in the video.
Hello, Mapey. Gorgeous girl.
Lots of people have admitted that their pet rabbits see supernatural things. It seems to be part of their world. I have read lots of stories where people have seen their rabbits behave like they are being patted by an invisible person, play with something that the owner couldn’t see, and act strange. It’s not unusual for rabbits to see something you can’t. But is it unusual to see something in photos that wasn’t there in real life?
EDIT Oct 2023
Maple has come to play frequently since her death. I have written about it in several journal entries, and also written an article called invisible visitors to explore the topic further.
EDIT Jan 2024
Maple stopped visiting about 8 months after her death (around December ’23). Before that, she would visit frequently and often. Sometimes she would be inside running around even when Buttons was outside and the indoor pen was packed up for the day. Everyone in the family saw her, she especially loved laying in beams of sun under the window in the living room, in an area she was never allowed.
How are the boys doing?
When they came inside in the afternoon Lunar sniffed everything in the pen, looking for Maple. He got sad when he realised she wasn’t there. Buttons was sad, but not that sad, he was surprisingly ok. He prodded Lunar each time Lunar became sad. That got Lunar out of the depression and thinking about other things.
Lunar didn’t eat straight away. After Buttons prodded him several times he ended up in the litter box and ate a lot of hay. I was happy because the last thing I wanted was to have to deal with GI stasis too.
Wednesday 19th, it was a cold, windy, rainy day outside so they stayed inside. They were sad, but not too bad. Lunar was worse than Buttons. I spent a lot of time in their pen, patting and cuddling them. They perked up a little bit. I also spent a lot of time cuddling the bunnies all day.
After a while Buttons began grooming Lunar again, and they started doing things together. I guess their relationship will change now.
Lunar is not excited to eat, but his appetite will pick up again in a couple of days. He preferred hay, which was fine.
I’m thinking about the things I can do to change their lifestyle or their pen a bit to make it fresh. At this point in time, I’m not sure what I can do, because I have a very limited space in the house.
It is known that a rabbit who has been through a sibling/bonded death never forgets it, but they do help other rabbits through it. That’s what Buttons was doing when he was grooming Lunar, helping him through the emotional turmoil. From this, Lunar will have a stronger bond with Buttons.
Lunar
On the night of Thursday the 20th, Lunar started showing the same symptoms as Maple. We fed him some very watered down Critical Care, and that’s when his jaw clamped shut and he went down hill fast.
I remembered with Maple, her jaw clamped shut and she couldn’t eat any more. Her body just wouldn’t let her. Lunar had the same thing. He would nudge the food, but not be able to open his jaw to eat. It must have been so painful. He sat crunched in a ball and didn’t move.
In the morning we decided to take him to the vet to get put down. It was an awful decision, but after going through the same thing with Maple, I couldn’t let him die in pain. We just didn’t know what was happening with Maple, and now I could help him.
The vet took one look at him and agreed that it was the only option. He was severely dehydrated, his tummy was empty, and he was clearly in pain.
We explained the symptoms to her:
- Lethargic
- Sitting on one place and not moving
- Wants to eat, but can’t because the jaw won’t open
- Clearly in pain; eyes sunken and small
- Squeaks when picked up
- Breathing is slowed
- Floppy
- Not going to the toilet
- Spontaneously freaks out and jumps, then is statue-still again
We also explained to her what happened with Maple and the worm coming out of her nose. The vet, just like the Unusual Pet Vet had never heard of anything like that before. She asked whether she could do a study-autopsy on him, for her interest to see what was going on. She said that she would let us know her results. She also asked whether she could contact the Unusual Pet Vet in Frankston to see if they have found any information about it. She admitted that it was the strangest thing she has ever heard, and we agreed that it needs further exploration because it could be a new parasite. She also admitted that they don’t even have much idea about dog and cat worms and parasites, let alone rabbit ones. Vets don’t recommend worming rabbits because the worms don’t affect the rabbit in the same way they do for dogs and cats. Rabbits guts are made to have certain worms, bacteria and parasites and by worming them it can upset the balance and they can be prone to getting frequent GI stasis.
Even though it was yuck, it made me feel so much better to know that he wasn’t in pain any more. It was a relief for both of us.
This is a strange case of an unknown parasite. Both vets admitted they had no idea what it was and it needed much more study.
I have worked with over 8 vets from top veterinary clinics, Universities and government bodies to help solve this and find out where it came from, and what it was.
At that same time, I read on social media that a lot of rabbits are dying with very similar and equally strange symptoms. I can count about 5 rabbits a day are unexpectedly dying – they are OK and then an hour or so later they are not eating and die. People seemed to be writing in about it frequently. This needed to be figured out.
Lunar passed away at 10:52am, Friday 21st April.
22 September, 2022 – 21 April 2023
My gorgeous boy, have a safe journey over the rainbow bridge with Maple. My precious Loony-balloony, I will miss you every day. My little man.
Lunar was urinating fluro yellow liquid. He had severe liver problems, and that can only come from his breeding.
22nd April
One day later…
Happy 8 month birthday Mapey and Loony-balloony. I will always love you my honey-bunnies. Rest in peace my lovely souls. I’m really sorry that this had to happen to two of the most loving, cuddly, playful, caring bunnies, you didn’t need to go through that. You’re happy now, bouncing around leaving rainbows wherever you go. I love you.