Rabbit kit and human milk?

I found myself in trouble last night. Our doe, Snowy, had nine babies five days ago. She is doing a fabulous job but unfortunately there is a definite runt. This kit nursed the first morning, but the second morning it had missed out. We took mama out that day and held her down until he had nursed himself to sleep. Things were looking up! Then things turned sour. We kept trying to get baby to nurse but after that first time he never seemed get full. He would fall asleep and give up with an empty tummy. We often found ourselves doing this at night (life is hectic when two kids and one newborn are awake) and I wasn't being vigilant about whether or not the rabbit was really filling up. 

Anyway, on night number five it was obvious that this little guy was probably going to be dead in the morning. He had not grown at all. He was a like a sack of bones and his wrinkles stood up firm when you squeezed them, from dehydration.  He was too weak to even try to nurse on mom.

 So what to do? I had no kitten formula, but maybe I could give him water? Sugar water? Would that give him diarrhea?Should I leave him to die snuggled in with his enormous siblings?  I decided I should try everything I could to keep him alive. I'm not the kind of person who could have killed Wilbur.

 I brought him into the house and put him on a baggie of hot water with wool on top of him. Luckily his mom is an angora so I have bags and bags of her wool in my craft bin. As I started to fill a syringe with water I suddenly thought: "what about breast milk!"  I googled it and Google had nothing to tell me. I guess most people aren't champing at the bit to nurse their rabbits. I filled up the syringe with my milk and held him in a wool burrito and starting putting drops of milk on his mouth and waiting for them to disappear. Then I started pushing his mouth open and putting a drop into his mouth. He would sometimes swallow. Mostly his fur was wicking the milk away and making him damp. Every once in a while he would actually try to nurse and seemed to be getting some in, but his stomach was not filling up and the whole thing seemed hopeless. I did this for an hour and a half, fully aware of how crazy I was being. Eventually I decided enough was enough and took him back to the nest box, fully expecting him to be dead in the morning.  

BUT! He wasn't! He had miraculously nursed on his own when I checked on the babies. His belly was round and his wrinkles were loose. A few hours later we held mama while he nursed and this time he energetically nursed until he was full again. Then he fell asleep. He's still teeny and might not make it. I did better googling today and human milk is not a good substitute for rabbit milk, it's too thin and high in sugar. But apparently in an emergency it can give a kit the energy it needs to at least nurse properly. 

Take a look at this pathetic thing next to his healthy sibling:

We'll see if he makes it. And next time I'll know that the runt needs to nurse more often and I'll be more vigilant about whether or not it is actually getting full.