Crap. Runny eyes..

So I'm really hoping that I'm not dealing with snuffles here, but we recently got our rabbit back from breeding at a friend's house (she was gone for 3 days) and in the past week I've noticed some causes for concern. She has watery marks under her eyes and I've noticed her doing something like sneezing - but not quite as extreme, they're like little "tsst" noises and she will do them 3-4 times in a row. It's not often that she does it, but I've seen it once or twice. Then today I saw one of my does (who has a two week old litter), making those same noises.. but no watery eyes or nose associated with snuffles. Could there be a reason for this? Being meat rabbits I know that my boyfriend won't be interested in taking them to the vet.. Is there anything I can do to fix this or do I have to consider this a loss?

First of all, how many rabbits do you have? In a rabbitry with many does, something like this is more serious because of the number of rabbits at risk. If these two does are your only ones, you can afford to take a wait and see attitude. If you have others, you will need strict quarantine procedures to safeguard the rabbits not affected but at risk.

You may be dealing with pasteurella or it could be something else. It does rather sound as though the doe picked up something at your friend's place, This doesn't imply any negligence on your friend's part . . . It is quite common for rabbits to be asymptomatic carriers of pasteurella or other diseases.

Because of this, I prefer a closed rabbitry where you maintain all your own your breeders and can control access to them. It is the only way I know to prevent problems of this sort.

My meat mutts were extremely healthy, as far as anyone could tell, but on the few occasions where I brought in new stock, the newcomers did not fare as well over the long haul. I came to the conclusion that there was "something" amiss that my rabbits had immunity to that the new rabbits did not. I know that this is no comfort to you at the present time, but it may provide some guidelines for the future.

We have 4 breeding does, 2 bucks, and 30 young rabbits between the ages of 2-15 weeks old (this number will go down this week when we process half of that number). All are in separate hutches, but some share a wall in between them. I've never experienced this before, as I'm still quite new, so I'm not sure how worried I should be, but I'm pretty nervous right now. Is there something I can do to stop this? Are my 2 week old kits at risk?

We don't normally send ours out to breed, but we wanted a purebred Flemish litter and don't currently have a pure Flemish buck - whereas they do. Figures the one time we do this it backfires :|

I have three rabbits in quarantine right now. Not due to illness, but because they are new to us. I don't have a lot of room to have cages far away from others, but I moved some buns around, and put up some plastic sheeting. I was fortunate in that this was planned and I could do this ahead of time.

If you have some space, and some time, maybe you can do some isolating. Pick a hutch/cage you can use for quarantine. Maybe start with the one doe with the eye issue, put her temporarily in a dog crate or something away from the other buns, and thoroughly clean her cage. Then change your clothes, wash your hands and arms, and move whichever bun out of the hutch you've picked for quarantine into her old cleaned cage. Then do the same thing with the doe with kits and keep your fingers crossed. Take care of the quarantined buns last.

If you are dealing with pasteurella, this might not keep it from spreading. Only you can decide how you prefer to deal with it. As a small rabbitry owner myself, I know how hard it can be to think about the potential losses.

*Fingers crossed*

There is no substitute for strict quarantine procedures and no shortcuts that I know of. If you are doing something risky like sending a doe out to be bred, she should automatically go into isolation on her return as a precaution.

It's tough that you got caught the one time you did this, but all you can do now is control the damage and hope it doesn't spread. It may not be Pasteurella, since the runny eyes are only wet, not showing white mucous. But whatever it is, you don't want to let it spread.

Regarding the sick doe with the two-week-old kits. They are going to need her milk for at least another week or ten days, but you might want to consider weaning them as young as possible by encouraging them to eat solid foods like kitchen oatmeal and hay as well as whatever you feed the adults. Once they can be removed from the doe, quarantine them separately from her and see how they do. I'd cull any that show even the slightest symptoms. The ones that do not have symptoms may have immunity to the problem.

There may be more to this than allowing the doe to contact new rabbits.
The stress of being moved back and forth can bring out any latent illness a rabbit may be carrying.

Not only is that dangerous for you, but also a danger for any rabbit she was exposed to in your friend's rabbitry as well.

Good point, Zass!

We always tend to think our rabbit "picked something up" when it is every bit as likely that stress brought out a latent illness and possibly spread it to others.

Mrr, how are your friend's rabbits doing at present? Any signs of illness there?

Thank you everyone for your help - and sorry for my absence.. this whole thing has been keeping me quite busy.

In answer to your question MaggieJ, my friends rabbits are looking fine, which just makes me more confused. Possibly an asymptomatic carrier?

The doe who was showing symptoms has completely cleared up - as did anyone else who was sneezing, but now our 8 week old Dutch Dwarf doe is sick. Runny eyes, discharge from the nose and occasional sneezes. We went to the vet yesterday and she doesn't think it's pasteurella, but she sent us home with a 2 week course of antibiotics and said that if it didn't clear up by then we would do further testing. In the meantime that doesn't is kept on the opposite end of the property for now.

I'm really hoping this works!