January 9
Ttoday was full of the unexpected. I got up early to be ready to make an hour trip, one way, to pick up a large walk-in cooler. The cooler turned out to be two units, one freezer and one cooler, which is not what we need for our processing area, but that’s not the focus of today’s diary entry. After filling the wood stove, I decided to make an early run to the barn to check on the rabbits. They were fed late last night, and although it was cold, there water would not be frozen. However, there are two does that consistently turn over their water dishes, so I wanted to make sure they got water before mid-day. When I check, sure enough, they had tipped their water, but one had managed to turn her water over INTO the nest box with the new babies. Being in the upper 20’s, and soaking wet, was most certainly a death sentence. I was surprised to see movement in some of the babies when I removed them from the nest box. I quickly scooped them into my shirt, under my coat, and finished up chores. I then set out to see if I could save even one of the youngest of our rabbits.
After drying the babies off the best I could with a towel, I filled a couple of ziploc bags with hot tap water, sealed them, and wrapped them in towels. I placed the improvised “hot water bottles” in the bottom of a large bowl and added a rice bag that was heated in the microwave. The idea was create heat under the bunnies that would rise and help to raise their body temperature. I didn’t want a heat source that would possibly burn them, just provide some passive warming to counter the hypothermia they were suffering from. I used a bowl to keep everything tightly contained, hoping the shape would allow the babies to be placed in close together so that as each body warmed, it would help maintain the warmth of the all. I also needed a way to make the babies portable. I was pretty certain that if I left them behind in the house during our trip to look at the cooler, Mr. Fluffy Pants (my house cat who loves to catch mice) would have a tender treat he couldn’t resist.
The babies were carefully placed in the bowl onto the towels that were wrapping the hot water in the ziploc bags. They were then covered with a couple of dry towels. When we got into the truck to head out, Jessa took charge of the bowl and placed it on the floor board of the truck near the heater outlet. She checked on them from time to time, but for the most part we let them warm up with as little handling and stress as possible. It wasn’t long before we noticed more activity from most of the bunnies, a couple were so active that they got out of the bowl and had to be put back in. I began to have hopes that at least some of them might actually survive.
When we got back home a couple of hours later, six of the seven babies had not only survived up to this point, but were warm to the touch and actively moved around when a hand was placed near them, just as they would when trying to find a teat to nurse from their mother. The results were better than expected, even though it was still too early to know for sure if our efforts would work to allow them to survive their ordeal. I made the decision to get them back with their mother as quickly as possible. So I took the six remaining babies back to the barn, cleaned out the nest box and placed clean dry straw in it. I then gently placed the babies back into the nest box and anxiously waited to see what the doe would do. She was nervous, and after sniffing around on the babies for a bit, she did hop in the nest box. She did not stay, however, and this was concerning. I knew the babies needed to eat, and even though I seldom, if ever see the does nurse their babies, I wanted to make sure they got some warm milk in their bellies. I finally chose to hold the mama in the nest box to make sure the babies nursed, at least a little. I could actually hear them suckling. After being satisfied they had eaten something, I decided to wait and see how things went before I intervened any further. I checked them multiple times throughout the afternoon, and they were warm to the touch and seemed content. Time will tell whether the stress of the cold will be more than they can recover from, but, at the time I am writing this I am hopeful that we managed to save six of them, which is a much better success than I dared to expect when I found their cold bodies first thing this morning. I will update how they are doing in a few days.
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