snuffles

We may have our first outbreak of snuffles. A few of the rabbits have started looking a little thin to me and one of the younger colony rabbits was a bit inactive but improved. A buck had a very dirty face the past week that we weren't sure what was going on. Now I have the sister of the previously inactive one inside and she has a runny nose with occasional sneezing. Our parakeets have also been off the past few days and are now on baytril for a potential respiratory infection with the worst 2 getting a doxycycline injection. We had no idea where they got that from and were suspecting the 2 rabbits kept in the same room as them.

So what to do.... I have enough baytril for the young rabbit I just brought inside because of the very bad weather and potential negative temps coming as well as 10 days worth for the parakeets. I'm wondering if the young ones didn't just get stressed by the cold when I moved them outside a month ago and succumbed to something they then passed around. I'm not sure who I want to treat with what or if I should take the young doe to the vet and try to determine exactly what it is but that's another $50-$100. I have the doe's mother, Twix, and a buck inside who will have to be housed near this one. Twix apparently did not get pregnant last month and had another false pregnancy to throw us off. I just put her and the buck together again. It's only his second attempt to breed, they are in a 3x6' cage, and Twix is acting submissive to him even if she isn't receptive to breeding yet so I was just planning to leave him there for awhile. The parakeets were moved out of the room just in case until they recover.

if it is indeed snuffles...you can't treat it. It will just hide itself and come back again.

If you have sneezers...hard as it is... cull them out. Check their front legs for mats from wiping their noses. Do not sell them, cull them and use the meat for food.

have you wormed or treated for coccidia?

The symptoms of snuffles is not always caused by pasteurella and from what I've read even then it is treatable but takes a long course (several weeks) of antibiotics. By now it's already in the entire herd since most are in a colony and a caged rabbit has shown symptoms so I'd have to cull every one of them for something that may not even be pasteurella. I would just leave it all to run it's course but the inside rabbits can infect the parakeets.

Pat Lamar put up an interesting link over on Homesteading Today a while back...I'll see if I can find it. About treating Pastuerella, and the simple fact that if bloodwork is done, they find it in something like 90% of the rabbits. It only causes the "cold" symptoms when the animal is stressed or a couple other factors. They were treating with Baytril or other broad spectrum sulfa drugs, if I remember correctly. 3 to 4 weeks. And had a huge success rate.

The biggest problem was catching it before it turns into pneumonia or the ear infection stage. AND the fact that you're killing bacteria in the gut..which is bad for digestion; so they feed huge amounts of good fibery hay to ensure things move through smoothly. And of course they can't treat nursing or pregnant does.

Since you're in a colony setting, worming is a good idea, I'd think. Easy to pass that along from bun to bun, too.

You may very well treat the symptoms if that is what you wish.
My feeling is that: Whatever you use to treat a supposed case of Pasteurella
will do nothing more than MASK the symptoms. At this time
there is NO reliable cure for Pasteurella.
If you plan on keeping the possibly infected rabbits
you should keep a closed herd and not sell any of the now residing animals
or their offspring as anything but a food source.
I hope you can find out exactly what the problem is
and hopefully it is something which CAN be successfully treated
and cured.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

If the birds have it, it sounds more like Bordatella (kennel cough) which although it's not pasturella yet it can cause it, fortunately Bordatella is curable.

We did board a dog over thanksgiving but she was vaccinated for bordetella and never showed symptoms after bringing her home. We caught every rabbit, looked them over, and dewormed them. No one really showed symptoms except the buck I mentioned that had a dirty face awhile back. He had a wet mouth and nose still. The doe I brought inside with the runny nose and sneezing looks better. I was going to start her on baytril today but her face is dry and I haven't seen her sneeze again. Her ears and other visible skin and mucous membranes are very bright red and hot so I think she may still have a fever. Other than that Amako, my first rabbit, was not the most active but it may just be how much of a pet she is that made her give up easily and not be in any hurry to get loose again.

I could understand a closed herd if you treated a serious outbreak that risked dead rabbits and/or had reoccurring symptoms in some rabbits, also possibly if you had something uncommon that nearly all rabbits would get sick from, but I don't see the reason for it with a respiratory infection that has gone undetected until now, is only present in young rabbits stressed by the cold weather, and has rabbits improving without meds even if I end up treating one or 2 to prevent spreading it to other species. I know for certain that many if not most people going to shows in the area have had outbreaks they've called snuffles without culling by killing and still buy, sell, and show. Pretty much everyone I've talked to says they had a problem x years ago with symptoms of a respiratory illness. Plus there are multiple sources saying that even if it is pasteurella up to 90% of rabbits already have the bacteria even if they don't show symptoms. I don't think I'd be adding anything that isn't already out there and most of my rabbits are proving immune or at least have overcome it on their own so far without alerting us. The buck showing symptoms was already going to be culled and the young doe is headed to a pet home over christmas if she's healthy by then. We'll have cultures done if anyone else develops a runny nose and antibiotics are put on hold for now.

All the parakeets are on baytril though. The sugar gliders we are debating the risks of both treating and not treating preventatively. They go downhill in an instant when they get sick and it's hard to find vets knowledgeable enough to treat them, particularly quickly, when they are severely ill. Not to mention the fact a vet bill on a glider is nearly always $100 minimum and an hour drive one way even if nothing is discovered or solved in that trip.