The End of the Line

This has been a truly frustrating and disheartening experience.

I was so excited to start selling my mini lops and yes, Chrissie did produce some lovely kits. I hate to even look at them, they're so nice looking. Even with my ' pet quality' buck, some of these kits would be keepers.

Except they're not. Because momma came down with a slightly crusty nose 2 weeks after kindling. Holding out hope for the kits, I treated mom and separated them out as early as I could and the kits looked great... but as the weeks passed, one by one, I've seen them getting a little discolored mucous under their noses. There are still a couple of them, at 8 weeks, who I haven't seen any discharge that I know of, but at this point I feel like it's just a matter of time.

To top it off, my gorgeous litter from Sprinkles (bred back to her father) has been coming down with it. Sprinkles herself, and her mom River (the harlequin dutch), seem mostly unaffected. They do sneeze sometimes, but I've never seen any discolored mucous from them. River's litter looks ok so far, but I just can't be sure and I'm afraid to try and sell them at this point.

I feel like my only option is to raise all the kits for meat, see if I can find a caring home for Sprinkles (letting them know she shouldn't be bred or be in a home with other rabbits), eat Chrissie....

I can't get rid of our buck Scarlett, he's my son's beloved pet.

The harlequin mini lop doe I bought for breeding hasn't shown any signs of infection, but she also failed to get pregnant during two breeding attempts. If she ended up having a litter later on, I wouldn't be surprised if they all came down sick at this point.

I don't know whether Scarlett and or River are 'carriers', I remember being concerned about River sneezing with her last litter, but never had any other symptoms. Or, whether Chrissie brought it in... she arrived with a slightly crusty eye that kept coming back.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty disheartened right one about the whole rabbit thing. I love the rabbits, but it's hard for me to enjoy them in this circumstance. I've invested a lot of time and money into this and had lots of folks lined up, clamoring for baby rabbits. I posted yesterday saying I no longer have babies available. :/

Well, that's my update for now.

I'm so sorry, Susie . . . That is disheartening for certain.

Hard as it is, heavy culling is probably your best course of action. Rabbit meat is excellent so not a total loss and knowing that it is necessary to remove the rabbits showing symptoms will make it a bit easier to dispatch them. If you can find someone who has done this before to help you through the first round of butchering it will make it easier for you.

The rabbits that have not shown symptoms can likely be bred successfully and their kits sold as long as they too show no symptoms. I do think it is likely that the problem began with Chrissie. Sometimes a breeder sells what seems like a healthy rabbit only to have it show symptoms because of the stresses of a move.

Don't give up. (((HUGS))) Lots of other members have gone through this and, by persevering and heavy culling, have gone on to have healthy rabbits in the future. If you haven't already seen it, there is very good information about this in the "stickies" in the Illnesses, Injuries and Parasites forum.

MaggieJ":27vl73ye said:

I'm so sorry, Susie . . . That is disheartening for certain.

Hard as it is, heavy culling is probably your best course of action. Rabbit meat is excellent so not a total loss and knowing that it is necessary to remove the rabbits showing symptoms will make it a bit easier to dispatch them. If you can find someone who has done this before to help you through the first round of butchering it will make it easier for you.

The rabbits that have not shown symptoms can likely be bred successfully and their kits sold as long as they too show no symptoms. I do think it is likely that the problem began with Chrissie. Sometimes a breeder sells what seems like a healthy rabbit only to have it show symptoms because of the stresses of a move.

Don't give up. (((HUGS))) Lots of other members have gone through this and, by persevering and heavy culling, have gone on to have healthy rabbits in the future. If you haven't already seen it, there is very good information about this in the "stickies" in the Illnesses, Injuries and Parasites forum.

Click to expand...

Thanks Maggie. I'm continuing to remove any kits who show visible symptoms. I'm down to 2 kits from Chrissie's litter, 2 kits from Sprinkles litter and River's 6 kits, who all still seem symptom free, as far as I can tell. I'm afraid to offer THOSE kits to anyone though, since I'm wondering if they will start showing symptoms later. It turned out that River has been very generous with her kits and, at almost 8 weeks, was still regularly nursing them (I figured this out when I moved her to her own cage and she ended up with swollen teats). So, I've been weaning the kits off of her, placing her back in with them to nurse once a day, then once every 2 days, now up to 3 days and she doesn't seem to be 'engorged', but her teats are a little swollen, so I'll check her this evening and tomorrow to see if she needs to nurse them again. Anyway, I know that the nursing helps to prevent the kits from showing any symptoms, so I'm waiting to see.

One of my best does ever would nurse her kits for eight weeks too. She loved having kits and each time she kindled she'd come to the front of the cage and look smug, as if to say, "Just look! I did it again, Maggie!"

If you want to help River dry up, you could give her peppermint or sage leaves.

If her kits are still symptom-free when they have been weaned for a few weeks, it might be okay to sell them . . . especially to pet homes where they would be the only rabbits.

MaggieJ":1jkxbwvj said:

One of my best does ever would nurse her kits for eight weeks too. She loved having kits and each time she kindled she'd come to the front of the cage and look smug, as if to say, "Just look! I did it again, Maggie!"

If you want to help River dry up, you could give her peppermint or sage leaves.

If her kits are still symptom-free when they have been weaned for a few weeks, it might be okay to sell them . . . especially to pet homes where they would be the only rabbits.

Click to expand...

Yeah, she's a really good mom and I have to say, it's pretty hilarious to watch her get mugged by 8 week old kits... she cooperates with them and they just all shove themselves under her and lift her up, so she's floating on a sea of baby rabbits. :lol: I'm going to start giving her some mint if it looks like she's well on her way to drying up. Thanks for the encouragement... I need it. :/

see if I can find a caring home for Sprinkles (letting them know she shouldn't be bred or be in a home with other rabbits)

Click to expand...

My personal opinion is that pet-homing any contagious animal is very risky.

The new owners may promise to care for bunny forever and never breed her...and then breed her and sell sick kits, or maybe give her to a friend or friend's kid at some point and fail to mention that she's contagious... etc, etc.

And would the new owners be able to euthanize her if she became ill enough that she was suffering?

I'm so sorry for the trouble you've been having!

It seems with rabbits that either you start off awesomely with no issues at all, and then one day hit major issues you have to deal with, or you start off with all sorts of problems, and then everything smooths out.

:clover:

Susie - I am very sorry for what you are going through right now. These little buggers sure do grow on us. I have backyard meat rabbits and have yet to put any in my freezer. My family keeps naming and claiming them!

I'm not sure if this will help you to feel better. I hope it might help to put things into perspective. The breeder I got two of my does from told me that when she first got into rabbits, she bought someone's rabbitry only to find out the majority of them were sick. She culled the whole lot of them. Over 100. She started over and had probably just as many when I picked up my two. She initially wouldn't let me in her bunny barn until she was confident that I didn't have any rabbits at the time and that I hadn't been anywhere that I could be carrying anything into her new herd.

Wishing you all the best.

That just stinks! I know your frustrations, I sympathize with you.

Oh no That sounds awful, Susie - I'm sorry

Susie, I feel for you. My first round of stock would have put me off to rabbits forever if I wasn't so stubborn.

BTW, I just named one of my rabbits Susie. You know how some rabbits just insist upon a name? I fought it for a while because I had lots of different ideas for naming her, but she simply demanded I tattoo her "Susie".

Sorry to hear the buns are ill, Susie.

You could get the mucous cultured to see what the cause is- if it isn't the dreaded "P", you could treat them and sell the kits as pets. Pavlab (same company that makes the Pasteurella vaccine) does them for $30 I have heard. Phone 1-800-856-9655 E-Mail [email protected]

When I had been raising rabbits for less than a year I had an outbreak of snotty noses after attending a show (my second!) where an exhibitor kept having his rabbits DQ'd for snot, but then PUT THEM BACK ON THE TABLE in show B.

I had to cull at least a dozen rabbits, half of which were does on litters. :evil: It was heartbreaking, and I was also furious.

In retrospect, I think it was actually a blessing. By culling all of those rabbits that showed symptoms, I was left with only those that had strong immune systems.

I show my rabbits all of the time, and they never come home ill, and I rarely ever have had any rabbits show symptoms since.

Zinnia":131nakaw said:

Susie, I feel for you. My first round of stock would have put me off to rabbits forever if I wasn't so stubborn.

BTW, I just named one of my rabbits Susie. You know how some rabbits just insist upon a name? I fought it for a while because I had lots of different ideas for naming her, but she simply demanded I tattoo her "Susie".

Click to expand...

Aww thanks. I'm honored pic? <br /><br /> __________ Wed Sep 02, 2015 11:38 pm __________ <br /><br />

MamaSheepdog":131nakaw said:

Sorry to hear the buns are ill, Susie.

You could get the mucous cultured to see what the cause is- if it isn't the dreaded "P", you could treat them and sell the kits as pets. Pavlab (same company that makes the Pasteurella vaccine) does them for $30 I have heard. Phone 1-800-856-9655 E-Mail [email protected]

When I had been raising rabbits for less than a year I had an outbreak of snotty noses after attending a show (my second!) where an exhibitor kept having his rabbits DQ'd for snot, but then PUT THEM BACK ON THE TABLE in show B.

I had to cull at least a dozen rabbits, half of which were does on litters. :evil: It was heartbreaking, and I was also furious.

In retrospect, I think it was actually a blessing. By culling all of those rabbits that showed symptoms, I was left with only those that had strong immune systems.

I show my rabbits all of the time, and they never come home ill, and I rarely ever have had any rabbits show symptoms since.

Click to expand...

I understand the culture isn't very reliable, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I think it would be easier to cull the lot of them if they were overtly sick, acting sick, miserable... you know? They're all vivacious, eating like horses, playing, drinking... just with these damned slightly crusty noses, sometimes just wet, sometimes slightly yellowish, but nothing severe looking. I'm going to see if I can get some cultures just as a last shot. I had planned to have to eat some of them, just didn't want it to be all of them.

Worst case, I guess I'll end up with just Scarlett and keep him for his natural life.

Have you changed hay or food recently? Is there actual snot? I had green/yellow nostrils for a while. Just when I was thinking they were sick I got a new bale of hay and it vanished.

Here you go, Susie!

How are the buns doing now, Susie ?

I was wondering about you today Susie...

I've been in touch off and on with Susie and she's pretty shook up over the rabbits having snuffles. It is rather disheartening to get into a new breed and have that happen. Last I heard she was looking for someone to process the entire herd. Poor thing doesn't have the heart to deal with it herself.

I really don't know if we'll ever hear from her again. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

If she logs back on I hope she finds that we still send our love to her in this trying time. I am really sad about her rabbits, they are a nice bunch and whatever happens will be for the best for her herd. It's not fair but I hope her heart recovers. Hugs from Cleveland, Ohio!!

That is so sad , I'm sorry to hear this.