07/29/2026
This hobby will chew up your plans and spit them out real fast. A few weeks ago, bloat severely hit my rabbitry—many rabbits, all at once—for the first time ever. I lost 14 growouts and two breeders, one being our herd buck, Texas. I was so excited about several juniors from pairings I’ll now never get to do again. After getting a f***l run and considering the way everything went down, we’re pretty sure this was due to bacterial overgrowth (likely E. coli or clostridium) from toting our unfiltered well water to the barn in plastic water jugs, or possibly flies. Virginia issued a code red for a few days two weeks ago due to smoke from Canada, and I’m thinking the stress from the poor air quality was the catalyst for an opportunistic infection, because everyone started going down the next day.
While this has been a miserable and painful experience, I find myself more grateful for the little things now. I have a newfound appreciation for each of our rabbits. I’m grateful for their health, and for the privilege to tend to each of their little lives.
Resolutions I’ve made, if they’re of any help to any other rabbitry:
🐇 Don’t provide unfiltered well water to rabbits if you can help it. Get it tested if you can’t. I’ve now heard multiple breeders share their experiences with providing either city water or well water to their rabbits, and issues arising due to bacteria or some other toxicity.
🐇 Check trays/waste regularly for the first signs of gut imbalance. I’m now dumping trays every other day as opposed to every few days. Be concerned if someone isn’t eating or drinking. I could have saved more of our rabbits had I caught the signs sooner.
🐇 Provide hay. I’ve always been in the “hay isn’t necessary for my rabbits” camp, but after thinking back on the last several litters of this season, I’ve provided hay pretty consistently to every one minus this last batch.
🐇 Have fly management. Hang the strips, the bags, dump trays regularly, and keep the environment as dry as possible. Our rabbitry is in an old, open air barn with a cement floor, and I’m finding that using pine pellets in trays and on the ground around stackers is seriously helping keep the flies down.
🐇 Have a heart of gratitude, always. Thank God. Nothing is promised.
Pictured is Tex Mex, my Del Taco x Texas buck, who will hopefully fill our precious Texas’s shoes.
