If it was just the abscess, I would have recommended lancing, draining, and letting it heal up, but knowing that he has white snot going on...I would definitely cull him. I'm really sorry

I explained the danger to them, but they still looked at me like I had two heads... especially Hubs. I think the problem is that up until this point, this has been more of a petting zoo than a producing ranch, and they are having a hard time dealing with the realities of production animals. They haven't had a problem with slaughtering in general, but we are all attached to Black Floyd. If it was one of our numerous other (unnamed) rabbits it would be a wholly different situation.

I haven't had one snotty nose ever, so hopefully I wont see it now. Fingers crossed.

Cait- no white snot since last April... but it could still be pasteurella.

Hmm. I'd say vet then maybe, because I've heard of discharge from abscesses near the head being squished out through the nose...I cry "vet" more often then a lot of other breeders though.

Sis, the only thing I can think to say is I am sorry. When you aspirate it, if it IS a pasteurella like abcess, then I would advise you to cull him immediately. Tell my BIL and the pups that their Auntie Shae lost her ENTIRE HERD (24 rabbits) because I was too attached to cull one animal immediately. I tried isolating, treating, watching, waiting for that illusive "resistance" to appear....it never did. Every single one eventually showed pasteurella symptoms and had to be dispatched. It is just not worth it for a single animal, unless you want to isolate, treat the abcess and then "pet" him out to another home. Don't keep him at your place because you could easily cross contaminate the rest of your herd...so sorry. {{{hugs}}}

Thanks, Sis.

I don't even want to aspirate it anywhere near the other rabbits. I personally am leaning toward culling him without aspirating and then dissecting the abscess in an area that can be sterilized.

If it is just a localized infection, and there are no other lesions elsewhere, and he looks normal otherwise, can he be used for meat for us or the animals?

I used all mine for meat, but they had the respiratory pasteurella, not the systemic kind that causes abcesses. I am not sure I would want to chance it, since cats and dogs can get pasteurella from infected rabbits.

WOW!!! I am so sorry that you are going through this right now. Can I mention an important point? You mentioned "petting zoo". One thing I would recommend is to stop all hand to rabbit contact for a bit, at least until you know what is going on. You can spread something if you are going cage to cage touching each rabbit. Its very hard........I know!! We also keep a hand sanitizing gel in the rabbitry, right in an easy access point.

I have a hubs who put up similar resistance, but unlike yours, it's just because he didn't want to deal with it. I was met with resistance along every step of the way, initially with quarantining, then building the rabbitry, and what we needed to do in the rabbitry, as well as sneezing and culling. I can tell you from experience, they will need to learn from experience, and go through something very ugly before they "get it". Early on we had some issues, and didn't handle them correctly. He saw first hand what I had been telling him, and he finally got it, so now when we need to handle something it's not met with such resistance anymore.

IMO, I think your thought to cull is correct. I firmly believe in having a strong healthy herd, and we have taken on a "cull hard" theory in order to get to that point. It's hard to do, and very sad, but it's just so much easier than fighting illness every step of the way.

I was afraid of that possibility. Great, now I need to bury a rabbit. At least I can use the pelt.

Fuzzy,

thanks for validating my viewpoint- I too intend to cull hard for health. I despise pharmaceutical drugs and don't trust them one whit, so the last thing I intend to do is medicate my meat.

Hubs also just doesn't want to deal with it. I knew it should have been done yesterday, especially because we knew this storm was blowing in. We had a gust of 59 this morning, steady winds in the high teens and twenties, 39 degrees without windchill, and precipitation on the way.

I'm going to take him into our valley and process him there. I want to get a good look at his organs and the mass on his neck. Prepare for graphic photos.

I wonder how many of the pups are up for a class in anatomy and physiology this morning?

MamaSheepdog, I think you are right on target with your plans. A simple abscess is one thing but with past symptoms of possible pasteurella, that does make one strongly consider culling. Once you have the hospital cage ready, you might as well aspirate the lump. I hope your Hubs and Pups understand that you are not being a mean ogre but rather trying to protect the herd. The greater good, so to speak.

pasturella doesn't survive cooking as far as I know... so there's no reason why you can't just cook him thoroughly. THEN the meat could go to the cat or dogs or even yourself. I won't eat meat around an abscess but I've also not had to deal with abscesses in my own stock. as long as overall the carcass looks fine, cook it up. toss all internal organs, then head and what not. Bury what won't be cooked or used in a non-animal feeding fashion.

Wow that's a terrible situation, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Oh, so far I've had to deal with the toothpaste type bumps etc.
how is pasturella different?
My understanding was that you keep your herd health and cull at any sign of respiratory pasturella and treat the herd.

Here is some info about the difference:

Pasteurellosis of rabbits may take many different forms. Respiratory disease, including pneumonia and infection of the nasal passages and sinuses, is very common. Infections of the eye membranes, middle ear, jawbone and uterus are most often the result of the Pasteurella organism. Abscesses are also common and occur when the Pasteurella organism settles in a specific location. The rabbit's body responds to this invasion with an influx of tremendous numbers of white blood cells to fight the infection. Pus results from the accumulation of dead and dying white blood cells and tissue cells in the area of the infection.

Abscesses: As mentioned in the previous section on Pasteurellosis, rabbits are very prone to abscess formation. The bacteria most often involved in these abscesses include Pasteurella multocida and Staphylococcus aureus. Abscesses represent focal areas of infection and may be in single or multiple locations. The most important consideration regarding this condition is the way in which abscesses must be treated. Because rabbit pus is roughly the consistency of toothpaste, lancing and draining abscesses are difficult and attempts to do so may be futile.

Link to where I found it.

Floyd's abscess was in the inguinal area (armpit), and it would have been impossible to evacuate all the pus. I practically cut his front leg off to remove the swelling. Even if it wasn't Pasteurella, his prognosis would have been very poor.

I am inclined to think that he did have pasteurella, since you noticed symptoms previously....