we had a wild bunny named Mr. Rosie Cottontail, for close to four years. When he was a tiny baby his nest was destroyed by a weed eater at my husbands work, and he was the only survivor. Although wild animals should not be kept as pets, we consulted with the wildlife preserve and due to his contact though bottle feeding and his untimidness towards people, and constuction of commerial business on his home land, we did not rerelease him into the wild. We never held him, because he made it very clear he didnt want to be touched, but he let us scratch his nose and recently under his chin. He would hop up on us and say hi, and wasnt afraid of us. He was fine as long as he initiated the contact. Recently we adopted another bunny a domestic. We took her to the vet for her first exam, and upon advice of the vet, i agreed to bring our Mr. Cottontail for his first exam, to make sure he was the correct weight and everything was going fine. We had been feeding him designer rabbit food, with nuts and corn, and recently I learned these foods are not good for rabbits. I wanted to make sure that he was okay. I was concerned about his weight. Now i realize he had probably just lost his winter coat.
My husband thought the vet visit was a bad idea and that the stress would be too much for him. But i went ahead with it. He had been on plenty of car rides and we have traveled with him in the past. I warned the vet that he wasnt handled and that I feared he would have a heart attack. But they assured me he would be okay, that they were experienced with wild rabbits. I brought him in, they were after some effort able to catch him , wrap him, check his ears, look at his behind and weigh him. They put him back in his carry box, and I left. I didnt open the box in the car in fear he would leap out. I headed directly home, went over to his pen, and opened the box, he was dead in the box. I feel so guilty that i didnt trust my instict. I feel guilty that I caused him death and took him away from the rest of my family. Its hard for me to talk to my husband about this, because i feel so guilty, .. I am not sure how to cope. If i had only not taken him to the doctors today. Before we left the vet told me how healthy he looked. Bunnies are supposed to have a life span of 7 years. I feel like I took those years away. I meant to do the right thing, and i made an awful mistake. Maybe sometimes you can cause harm by doing too much. ...

Even experts have trouble with wild bunnies. They seem to have the 'prey behavior' so ingrained in them that they panic at almost any change in their environment. It was fortunate that you were able to raise him at all. I've read that wildlife rehabilitators only have a 30% success rate when trying to raise wild baby rabbits. I'm sorry that the vet trip was such a disaster. Hindsight is always 20/20 but you had to make a tough call based on his condition and needs. You did the best you could do given the situation and information you had.

I am very sorry for your loss. There is an email group called PetBunny I belong to where a number of members have had experiences of attempting to raise wild bunnies. They might be able to give you more insight into this. The website to join is http://www.petbunny.net

Take care,
Ken Albin

Your mistake was made out of love and concern. There was no way for you to see the future. Imagine if you had not brought your bunny to the vet and she had died of a treatable illness. You would have felt terrible.

You made the best decision you could based on the information you had at the time.


I am sorry for your loss. Remember that without your care, the bunny would have died as a baby.


Daisy's Mommy.

Thank you for the replies. I have been reading other stories about feelings of guilt and loss here, thinking the posters shouldn't blame themselves for their loss, but I havent been able to feel that way about my self yet. I have lost other pets, and I have experienced some guilt, for not doing enough in those cases. During those times I lived alone, and the emotions were my own. This time my entire family is affected. My husband is feeling very remorseful and regrets that I didnt take his advice. It was his baby that he brought home and I made the vet decision. He admits he is angry, but says he understands why I made the decision I did, but its hard for him because he loved our bunny very much. So far the hardest thing for our son is our emotions, but he is a tough little seven year old and has been supportive.
This just happened today, and its like a bad nightmare. I am not looking forward to waking up tomorrow and realizing it wasnt all a bad dream, and that the loss is real. He was the energy of our household full of bunny antics.
It is hard to read these other posts, but I can see that I am not alone.
Thank you for the website. It has a lot of resources that will be helpful, especially with our other bunny Raz. Small animals are fragile creatures, and as with all animal companions, I have been reminded that every moment and interaction counts.

I am so sorry for your loss. I know your instinct made you question the best action to take. But, as others have already said, we cannot predict the future. We make the best decisions for our pets at the time. You acted out of love and concern for your rabbit. You took the risk of taking him to the vet because you wanted to be sure that you were doing all that you could for him. Your wild rabbit had a great life as a result of your care. You kept him safe in a comfortable, loving environment. Most wild rabbits are not so fortunate. Please try to be kind and patient with yourself. In time, your pain and guilt will ease. I can promise you that.

Take care,

Sandy

I appreciate the encouragement.
Today was still hard. I keep reliving yesterday and different actions I might have taken for a better outcome. The vet called and said how sorry she was. During our conversation I blamed her, then I blamed myself, but that didnt make me feel any better. Nothing can bring him back.
I had a difficult time, cleaning up his bunny house and pen. We dont have a very big place and I thought about moving his house, but I just dont have anywhere from eyesight to put it. I broke out in tears when I saw a soda commercial with a bunny who looked like him. I had to change the wallpaper photo I have of him on my cell phone, because I cant bear to look at it. I dont want to forget anything about him, It is just so hard right now.
Talking about it seemed to help so I called my best friend who shared the painful news about the death of her mother, from a terminal illness, which put the things I was going through into a different perspective. (Which isn't to say I dont think of my animal companions as my family, because they are family too... but I have my mother. I called her today too. I feel so very sad, but I really didnt know what my friend was going through. She can't call her mother to talk to about how she feels today.
I am trying to keep busy. I spent extra time with our bunny Raz and cat Puji. I think they can sense I am sad. My husband seemed to be doing better today, but maybe he is just better at hiding his emotions.

Hi, eek, I feel much compassion for you, and you do write very very well. You communicate very good in your writing. You for sure did choose to do what you believed what right to do, as far as you knew in that moment. Most of us folks have been wounded by others and lied to about our intuition in our past, so that maybe was part of the cause of your not trusting your intuition more strongly. I have been there, too, and I am still needing to work on that. You got valuable truth that you can use for the good, from now on. You and your family do have a real tragedy to have to live thru. In some cases, the vet is wrong and our own intuition is right. I had a domesticated bunny when I was a child, and bunny got sick and then got killed in an unnecessary tragic way, caused by wrongdoings of other persons in my family, and I was only a child then. I felt very sad for him. He, too, was young, like your wild bunny, and could have lived a good happy life much longer, if not for the harm done to him. I will keep you in my prayers. What can I do to help? You have had a big true trauma, as you love your bunny and you knew that he was/is a living animal creature with feelings and a personal soul life. You must feel wretched, as you know that there is nothing you can do now to make him alive again now and undo the hurts. Another time, when I was a child, my cousin and I found a bunny is a similar disaster as you got your wild bunny. Also, another time, a wild bird. Both of these happened at my cousin's home. The adults did wrong, and we were caring for the wild bunny and the bird mostly alone on our own, and each one did die very soon, probably from the trauma of human captivity and handling. I learned from that. All that you did say is very allright and loving and healthy and wise and caring, and your talk is proof that your will is to do only good love, and that you are a very good loving person. I am willing to help. Poor innocent wild bunny. You did not know. You had a very hard decision to make in a time of pressure and influence and conflicting messages from others, and often times we are forced to make a decision when we do not know for sure what is right or wrong to do. So we choose what we believe is right, as far as we know then. Your friend, Maureen

Thank you for the nice things you said.
Mr. Cottontail was my first experience with a wild animal. I studied so many things about rabbits. I think I over studied. I found a lot of conflicting information out there on rabbit care and at the time I found very little information about living with a wild rabbit, possibly because it is frowned upon. We did it because we believed it to be in his best interest at the time. We were advised his life span with us would be much longer.
Despite the wonderful experiences we had with him, I wonder if he wouldnt have traded them for a shorter life outdoors among the fields and flowers. I also wonder if we had tried harder to hold him as a baby, if it would have made a difference.
We found him in Washington State. People later said he wasn't a true Cottontail. But his behavior fit the profile. I think I read once that cottontails only have direct physical contact even amongst each other 3 times in their life; mating, giving birth and nursing their young.
I always thought of him as such a fighter. We used to joke that he was a tiger in a rabbit's body. If he didn't want to be disturbed or felt I was getting to close to him, he would box me. We saw him chase the cat around the house. Mr. Cottontail was always drawn to whatever my son was doing, even when he was acting rambunctious. (My son was always good about not trying to touch him. ) I overestimated his strength. I should have known and the vet definately should have known that the physical contact with that particular type of rabbit, causes what I guess I would call a fight or flight reaction. It must be the reaction that takes over to keep them from feeling pain to predators. I should have known my bunny better. It makes me so sad that he died in fear, a way we spent his whole life trying to protect him from.

Eek, I am so terribly sorry to hear about Mr. Cottontail. Know though, that you did provide a loving environment for him, and more than likely increased his life by a few years. I honestly believe that he felt safe and loved, and I feel you did the right thing by taking him in and giving him a longer chance at life. My roommate brought home a tiny baby cottontail two years ago from a field near her workplace, that had been attacked by a cat, and had a big scar on his side and part of one of his ears chewed off, and thankfully he survived that. He was held a lot as a baby but has become very skittish in his last 18 months, so I am thinking the "wild" never leaves the wild bunny. I know the guilt you feel, as recently the same roommate brought yet another baby cottontail home, which fell off my arm two days ago and died within two hours. For the five days this baby bunny was in my life, I was very happy, as I believe he was. I feel like I was personally responsible for his demise, and I know what a horrible feeling that is. My church minister preached a sermon a couple of months ago addressing this issue, believing our pets will come back to us in eternal life. I don't know what your religious background is, and don't want to over-involve myself, but this hope is helping me, barely, to cope with the loss of the baby. I hope this thought may possibly help you to cope. Please know though, that you extended this bunny's life, and that you did the right thing for it. If the opportunity ever comes along again where you can rescue another wild bunny, I hope you won't hesitate to do that. You are providing it a chance at a longer, safer life by doing so. The life you gave it was better than the life it would have had being consumed by an inconsiderate human or wild animal. I'll be thinking of you and Mr. Cottontail.