Frosted Rabbits
Well-known member
I made a connection this week between unexplained abscesses located on the right side of a rabbit, just before the end of the rib cage---
Coccidiosis has a minimum of 9 species that call rabbits 'home', and each species has a specific location it likes to live in within the gut. One of the stages of the protozoan life cycle stimulates the protozoan to burrow in, making a fistula, or pouch, in the intestinal wall. Guess what-- the fistula can grow in size, permitting intestinal junk to enter-- and with no place to go but towards the skin, we wind up with a rabbit with a lump on it's side. I was able to verify this mode of abscess development when I palpated an abscess on a young doe I have, and felt the intestinal waste (yes, poop)under the skin. I know this rabbit has had no injuries to speak of, so it is not something caused by a bite from another animal. The location is identical to the first Rex I got several years ago, and to another white NZx rabbit that I had last summer. I have seen identically located abscesses on rabbits raised on the ground at other locations, with and without poultry present.
No doubt, if I were to take this animal to a vet, and ask for a culture, it would come back as 'pasteurella' because protozoans will not culture out- and are typically used to look for bacterial causes.
So folks, I little bit of info for your future reference. I do love researching stuff, and pulling things together...
Coccidiosis has a minimum of 9 species that call rabbits 'home', and each species has a specific location it likes to live in within the gut. One of the stages of the protozoan life cycle stimulates the protozoan to burrow in, making a fistula, or pouch, in the intestinal wall. Guess what-- the fistula can grow in size, permitting intestinal junk to enter-- and with no place to go but towards the skin, we wind up with a rabbit with a lump on it's side. I was able to verify this mode of abscess development when I palpated an abscess on a young doe I have, and felt the intestinal waste (yes, poop)under the skin. I know this rabbit has had no injuries to speak of, so it is not something caused by a bite from another animal. The location is identical to the first Rex I got several years ago, and to another white NZx rabbit that I had last summer. I have seen identically located abscesses on rabbits raised on the ground at other locations, with and without poultry present.
No doubt, if I were to take this animal to a vet, and ask for a culture, it would come back as 'pasteurella' because protozoans will not culture out- and are typically used to look for bacterial causes.
So folks, I little bit of info for your future reference. I do love researching stuff, and pulling things together...