Hutch Sanitizing - Cold Weather

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SoDak Thriver

SoDak Thriver

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Location
South Dakota near the river.
Issue: I need suggestions for sanitizing my wood hutch with removable metal cages before I receive new rabbits. The temperature outside will be 15-20 F here in South Dakota and I don't want my cleaner to freeze on the wood and stay there.

More details: I have to cull all my rabbits for pasturella. The breeder I'm buying my next rabbits from will hold them for a couple weeks, so if I get any sun here, I'll also be able to open the cleaned hutch to the sun and get some UV disinfectant. I have considered buying bulk rubbing alcohol and dumping over everything and/or smoking the hutch with juniper branches (hey, it worked on the Mayflower).

Any other suggestions will be so helpful.
 
Do you have a heated garage or out building? If so scrub with 50/50 vinegar/water. And then set in front of a window to allow sunlight to help dry. If not there is always the kitchen. Well if you better half will allow. :p :lol: :lol: For me this task would take about a week to get done. One tiny kitchen, and two DH would have a cow. :lol: Also I would use dawn dish soap first then the vinegar solution. There is no such thing as too clean. :lol:

Just thought about a small blow torch too. Fire is always good too.

Best of luck,
Cathy
 
Well, the cages I can remove and do in the bathtub while the missus is at work, but the hutch itself is a wooden structure I built outside and that's where I'll have to clean it. I am going to test some 50/50 vinegar solution outside tonight to see if it freezes, though. If it doesn't that might be the trick.

And yeah, fire. The manure goes right to the ground in this setup. I'm seriously thinking about smoking this thing with green juniper branches from a little pit fire underneath.
 
Hold on a minute here. If you're fighting Pasteurella then use ammonia not vinegar to clean your hutches. Vinegar will not kill the gram-negative bacteria.

If you can't move the hutches in then put a tarp/s over them and use a space heater to warm them up. ;)
 
What Homer said. And I would go so far as to say if the winter weather makes it difficult to feel confident that everything has been sanitized to your liking, I would wait until spring and start over. I would hate to have anyone go through your troubles twice.
 
Okay, well ammonia/water mixture is not flammable and did not freeze overnight, so I'm going to use a strong ammonia mixture, let it dry as much as it will, then close it up and smoke it with my little charcoal grill and green juniper and cedar branches.

If I wait until Spring, I'm afraid that I will have difficulty overcoming inertia and getting started again. We need to see some success.
 
SoDak Thriver":594a9jps said:
Okay, well ammonia/water mixture is not flammable and did not freeze overnight, so I'm going to use a strong ammonia mixture, let it dry as much as it will, then close it up and smoke it with my little charcoal grill and green juniper and cedar branches.

If I wait until Spring, I'm afraid that I will have difficulty overcoming inertia and getting started again. We need to see some success.
Click to expand...

Just don't "burn the house down" playing with the smoker. :lol: You don't have a propane space heater? Those things will dry anything out.

Torpedo%20Heater%20%20Propane%20150,000BTU.jpg
 
SoDak Thriver":3ttmiwqd said:
If I wait until Spring, I'm afraid that I will have difficulty overcoming inertia and getting started again. We need to see some success.
Click to expand...

*puts on her Little Miss Sunshine hat*

Now that you're back into rabbits, come spring you will be amazed at all the rabbits for sale. You will likely have a lot of choices. As a bonus, spring kits are ready to be bred come fall.

*fingers crossed* you can get started sooner, but if not, all is not lost.
 
technical-sheet-re-pasteurella-multicoda-t15511.html

According to the study in the link above:

P. multocida is a fragile organism, which does not survive long outside a host (<24 hours in transport media at room temperature).

Due to its fragility in the environment, stringent environmental decontamination is not necessary. Regular cleaning and the use of a high-level disinfectant should suffice to rid the environment of P. multocida

Sorry to hear you had to cull your entire herd and start over, but painful and disheartening as it no doubt was, it was a wise choice. Wishing you better luck with your new stock! :clover:
 
MamaSheepdog":2wb4dfqz said:
P. multocida is a fragile organism, which does not survive long outside a host (<24 hours in transport media at room temperature).
Click to expand...

That technical data is fantastic! Thank you. Makes me less nervous now. I will just give the hutch a thorough bucket and brush cleaning with a disinfecting agent then and let it sit empty for a while.

Marinea":2wb4dfqz said:
Now that you're back into rabbits, come spring you will be amazed at all the rabbits for sale.
Click to expand...

That was certainly in my calculus for starting over now. If these don't work out, I'll try again with cheaper spring bunnies.

Homer":2wb4dfqz said:
You don't have a propane space heater?
Click to expand...

The rabbit hutch is my only outbuilding, so, no. :lol:
 

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