Snuffles in remission?

A few months ago we brought a broken black NZ doe home from what I thought was a reputable breeder and also brought home a case of snuffles. I now know to quarantine in this situation, but we were and still are relatively new to keeping rabbits. She was sneezing a little after a few days and I didn't think any of it. Soon it started to spread and all but 5 of our 14 senior rabbits (12 does 2 bucks) began to sneeze, a couple displayed some snot. When I found out we should be culling it was too late, in addition there is attachment between the kids and a few of the infected. We decided to try and breed resistance as most of the does had kits, and cull the infected as convenient. The does and growing kits continuing to display symptoms are being culled.

Fast forward to today and we have isolated our 5 clean does and they continue to show no symptoms. Some of the infected have not sneezed or displayed other symptoms for several weeks now. Have they built of resistance or should we continue to isolate them and keep a place for them in the freezer? The reason I ask is that our two bucks are both no longer displaying symptoms. Should we breed them to our "clean" does and risk infection or cull them and get new bucks?

Appreciate any advice you can provide!

Any thing that sneezed before is NOT resistant, the bug has gone into hiding. IF you bring those any where near or by some chance of bad luck, cloths or other articles pass...they can infect the ones that are resistant.

Not knowing exactly what you are dealing with is a big problem. Snuffles is a catch all term for any snotty sneezy rabbit; could be any thing from bordetella to pneumonia or pastrella. Culture is only way to know for sure.

At the first sign, no gives no waits...an infected needs to be dispatched to have any chance of having a resistant strain. I have *never* tried this as I couldn't risk my entire rabbitry for a few. There are other threads in RT that discuss this, but all of them are a 1 snotty sneeze and you're terminated to insure best chances for a strain of healthy rabbits (use the search option on the side to find them).

If you are breeding for resistance then cull all breeding stock that got sick and replace with the healthiest kits, repeat every generation/6 months

You should not be quarantining anyone as you won't know who has the better immune systems without exposing them to the pathogen

The bucks need to be replaced but I would not bring in new stock so I'd use them only until you have a healthy ready to breed youngster to cover the does

PS it is very possible that the rabbit that brought the disease in was healthy at the owners barn but the stress of a new home allowed the opportunistic bacteria to go on a rampage

The purpose of quarantine is to allow a gradual aclimation to their new environment for both the new rabbit AND your rabbits who will still get exposure to any biota that new comers bring in BUT in tiny doses that your rabbits can easily fight off and build up an immune response to

Thanks for the responses, trying to make the best decision. Starting to think culling and washing everything down with bleach might be the best bet at this point. Trying to manage the kids and their attachments with whats best for the rabbitry.

The ones who sneezed have shown you that they have immune systems that are weak to it.
The ones who were exposed and never sneezed are your naturally resistant buns. Those would be the ones you wanted to breed the most.

I've seen snuffles (never had it cultured) go into remission for almost an entire year, but, it did come back.

Sometimes culling and sanitizing is the way to go. There can be SO MUCH stress when it comes to dealing with breeding infected rabbits, and seeing if the kits will be OK, or not. Keeping rabbits should be fun. I know that sounds selfish, but when you think about it, it's really not. No sense keeping sick buns around when we eat healthy ones by the dozen.

One thing you might try using to explain is that some times even though they look okay they really aren't, they were made to hide illness well and often time they are suffering and it is best to end that suffering, suffering as in always having problems/discomfort not that it is always in pain per say. I've used this with my cousins when they'd asked about kits I had to dispatch of (hippo kit and peanuts), they understand that it's selfish to want to keep an animal alive if its very sick or genetically unable to thrive and won't get better with time.