Rabbits are dying, please help me understand why?

by Shannon
(TN)

Help please
Please help me understand. We have rabbits that we adore. Something is going on and we have rabbits dying. We have had a total of 6 die in about a week. They appear to get very bloated and have diarrhea. We had 3 cages and at this point all that have died were in 1 cage, but I fear that my male that was seperated is now sick too. We have thought through everything and all that we can figure is one of two things: Sat before last, my daughter bought 2 rabbits at the farm sale at tractor supply. Or Sunday before last, we cleaned our big rabbit cage. I am ashamed to say that there was lots of poop in the bottom of the cage and the smell was awful. Could we have brought a sick rabbit in? Both of the new rabbits have died but they were not the first to die. Or could we have stirred up some kind of bacteria when cleaning the cage? The rabbits were taken out when we cleaned it and then put back. I did not use any chemicals. I am so desperate to find out what is happening to my rabbits. Does anyone know?