Wildlife Rehab Failure

Amidst the chaos of everyday life, last week our jovial adolescent Basset Hound found a few new 'toys' in the front yard.  Junior (and Maggie, too, for that matter) have a huge coprophagy problem (we've tried lots of ways to correct it.... all have failed... so, sadly, we've resigned to the fact that it's something the dogs are just naturally-- or unnaturally-- going to do) so when my boyfriend noticed Junior chomping on something, he didn't really think twice about it-- until he noticed the shape of it.

Junior had found a nest of baby bunnies.  Lucky us.  I'd like to take this time to mention that I have had very little experience with rabbits.  I think I've highlighted that in previous posts, but just wanted to clarify once again.  I have had experience raising abandoned baby animals with some success (saved a kitten that was only a few days old-- kind of bittersweet story that I'll have to get into sometime....).  We found the nest where said chew toy (err... baby bunny) came from and put the little guy back.  No, he didn't appear to be harmed, but the trauma of being manhandled by a dog could've done the little guy in.

We watched the nest and did what we could to puppy-proof the area (Junior was the only dog interested in rabbit search and rescue.... Maggie still was doped up on pain meds and barely walking, so the likelihood of her chowing down on rabbits was slim to none.

The parents were nearby and, at the time, seemed to be very attentive to caring for their young. 

The next morning, I got the chance to check on the little guys and found that their body temperatures were... well... extremely low.  The five little bunnies weren't moving and all had their mouths open.  Wrapped them in a towel, put them in a shoebox with a warm water bottle and let them 'thaw out'.  We returned them to the nest that night. 

The next morning, bunny-cicles again.  Grabbed the same towel, shoebox and warm water bottle to let them warm up again.  Sadly, four of the five had frozen to death and didn't warm up.

Returned lone rabbit to the nest that night.  Watched, and watched... no sign of parents around.  Left the baby outside for the night.  Early the next morning the little guy wasn't moving.  Thought he was a goner, too.  Began to rub him (much like you do with stillborn puppies/kittens) frantically.  Finally the little guy came to.  Contacted the Ohio Wildlife Center to get recommendations of feeding and nutrition, fed him a little (terrified to over-feed the little guy) and tried to keep him quiet.  He made it another day and night but couldn't hold on any longer than that. 

I keep beating myself up over this whole incident with all of the "what ifs" and "should I have done ____ instead?"  I feel awful that they all ended up dead but I guess that's nature.  I keep finding on-line that the mortality rate for caring for abandoned wild rabbits hovers around 90% (can't find the literature to document it fully)... but I'd believe it.  I did what I thought was right and tried to help as best I could. 

That's going to be an important lesson that I'll be learning and re-learning from here until the day I die-- sadly, you cannot save them all.