Sick rabbit (EDIT: Confirmed myxomatosis in CA)

Hi all. Right now I'm dealing with a very sick bunny. I've taken him to the vet and he's currently being treated with antibiotics, but the vet doesn't know what's causing his symptoms. Hoping someone here has some insight.

The rabbit in question is an English angora rabbit. The illness started when his eyes started looking a little puffy. Next his nose, ears, and genitals became swollen, and the puffiness in his eyelids increased. (This is over the course of a couple days.) His skin looks pretty red, and he's losing a lot of his coat. At first I thought the loss of coat was just his natural shedding, but he's shedding excessively and getting bald patches.

The only thing I can find online that sounds close to his symptoms is myxomatosis, but I'm in California, and it looks like myxo is very rare in the States.

This is the second of my two angora rabbits to come down with this. The first rabbit showed the exact same symptoms, but at the time, the other rabbit was completely unaffected, so the vet diagnosed her as having an allergic reaction from an insect bite and a subsequent secondary infection. She was treated with antibiotics and benadryl, but after a few days of no improvement, went downhill quickly and ended up dying a week after I first noticed symptoms.

About a week later, the second rabbit started showing the same symptoms. (They were not housed together but their hutches were near each other.) It's been 6 or 7 days since I first noticed symptoms in him, which means he's doing better than the other rabbit was at this point in her illness, but he's not really showing signs of improvement. He's on the same antibiotic that the first rabbit was, plus a second antibiotic that the first one didn't receive.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. These guys are beloved pets and I was devastated to lose the first one. I also have a third rabbit and I'm concerned about him catching it as well. The third rabbit is a lionhead and is kept indoors, whereas the angoras were both in hutches outside.

That, apart from the fur loss, really sounds a lot like myxomatosis .
But it's the only illness I have experience with, so not sure what else it could be.

In my very first year with rabbits I lost 14 rabbits (all but one) to myxo in the course of 6 weeks, only my Black Fury survived, quarantined in my kitchen (had a rabbit in every room). They had pretty much that symptoms, although they got real problems with breathing too, at least the first ones when I didn't know what I was dealing with and due to some hope waited too long.

About a week incubation time also would fit.
With a second rabbit sick your vet was most likely wrong. I would call him ASAP, tell him about what you think, and ask what to do (I wouldn't bring a rabbit which potantially has Myxo anywhere before asking, don't know how many other rabbits get there). Also, I would call a second vet, here we have a pretty good and helpfull rescue organisation that would give advice and has a cheap vet, don't know what exists in your area.

I'm sorry I can't tell you something positive, but wish you good luck.

I too think myxomatosis is likely

There have been several outbreaks in California in resent years

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/vet/myxomatosis.htm

http://www.bunspace.com/forum/thread?ti ... gp_no=last

Thank you both for your responses. Unfortunately my second bunny had to be taken in today and euthanized. He wasn't eating as well and his breathing was labored, which was the point with my other rabbit when she started going downhill fast. Since tomorrow is Sunday and the vets offices will be closed, we didn't want him to suffer if he continued to get worse. We ended up taking him to a second vet, since my regular vet had closed early and couldn't be reached on her emergency line. I was at work so I didn't actually get to go with him to the vet, but as far as I've been told, the vet didn't think he was going to get better (and meanwhile, the original vet called back and basically said the same thing) so my mom made the decision to have him euthanized. She didn't ask about having him tested for myxomatosis, which was very important to me, so I'm going to try to preserve the body until monday so he can hopefully be tested.

Preitler- What a horrible way to start out with rabbits! I can't imagine how heartbreaking that must have been. What kind of procedures did you take with your remaining rabbit, or any new rabbits you brought in later? I still have my indoor bunny, and I do want to get more rabbits at some point, but if myxo is what my angoras had, I'd be so worried of any other rabbits I ever bought catching it as well. I really don't have space to keep more than just the one lionhead in the house, but I wouldn't do the outdoor hutches again without some kind of modifications to keep vector insects out. I'd also be worried about using the same hutches again (typical wood and wire single-bunny hutches) just in case.

Dood- It looks like those cases were a few years ago, but I'm on the central coast, so San Gabriel Valley is well south of me and Monterrey is a few hours north....so I guess it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that it could be here too. I live out in the country on 15 acres, and we do have cottontails and jackrabbits back in the hills. They usually stay in the hills, but I suppose the insects don't. The wild rabbits are something I only see occasionally, it's not like they're all over. And as far as I know I'm the only one nearby who has pet rabbits.

Just seems so random that my two rabbits out in the middle of nowhere would catch it. And of course it was my very expensive would-have-been breeding pair I had to have shipped from halfway across the country, as if the emotional heartbreak wasn't bad enough! Fingers crossed that at least my little pet store rabbit stays safe, I don't know what I'll do if he gets it too!

Oh, I'm sorry.

Preitler- What a horrible way to start out with rabbits! I can't imagine how heartbreaking that must have been. What kind of procedures did you take with your remaining rabbit, or any new rabbits you brought in later?

Click to expand...

Actually, it was a valuable lesson. I can't imagine my devastation if that would have happend after some years getting attached to my rabbits. Last year my buck died due to shock after a fox attacked, that struck me quite hard.

First thing I did was seperate each rabbit as far as possible, it happend in July/August and my Black Fury stayed in my appartment the whole winter to be sure that the hutches are safe again after more than 6 months. I bought a second "doe" in February, and "she" too lived in my kitchen, what a mess. They did get along fine, and my black Fury had her first litter there one month later :roll:

I build a fence with at least 1m distance to the hutches since wild rabbits were roaming my garden, and the population was very high before the outbreak (occurs every 5-6 years). A normal 60x60mm fence proofed useless, since wild rabbits with appr. 1.5-1.8kg could slip through, had to reinforce it with chicken wire after a wild male impregnated one of my does.
I tried to get forage from areas where no wild rabbits lived, but you never know for sure.

I started with rabbits in 2011, tired of living in rented apartments and having to move out every 5 years I bought an old house in a small valley where no wild rabbits live 1 1/2 years ago, I guess that pretty much solved that problem for me. I happily exchanged all these diseases with fox, marten, snakes, birds of prey - I can deal better with that.

I bring as little new rabbits in as absolutly necessery, that was only a new buck last year, and I just will stick to my current stock and keep offspring.

I brought my buck's body to the vet on monday, and she mailed it to the pathologist. I got a message from the vet today saying that the pathologist was still doing some more tests, but that it was confirmed that my rabbit had myxomatosis. The pathologist told my vet that there has been an increased number of myxo cases in wild rabbits in California. This was the first time my vet had treated a rabbit with myxomatosis.

I am in the northern part of Santa Barbara county, California. Rabbit keepers in the area, be careful with your bunnies, because myxomatosis is out there!

I still think it's so odd that my rabbits ended up with myxo. They were in hutches off the ground in a fenced backyard, under a tree. There is no one nearby who raises rabbits. There are cottontails and jackrabbits around, but not in large numbers and not near the house. We don't have mosquitos, and I've never noticed a large number of insects near where I keep the rabbits. Since the rabbits were angoras, I'd think that most insects that could have been carrying the virus wouldn't penetrate their thick wool coat anyway. I don't know if myxomatosis is just that easily spread, or I just had absolutely terrible luck.

Preitler- Were your rabbits outside when they caught the virus, and then brought inside and quarantined afterwards? Or had they always been in separate rooms in the house? After 6 months you were able to safely bring new rabbits in? It sounds like you kept rabbits in the same hutches again- no problems there?

The rabbits were outside, and fed forage gathered in a 1 mile radius. Lots of mosquitos. Lots of european rabbits around, and I had no fence then. Myxo spreads really easily, by many vectors.
I didn't realize right away what I was dealing with, and quarentined them too late, I had never heard of this new diseases, they didn't exist here 30 years ago when my Grandpa had rabbits.
As far as I know: Problem is that even when only exposed to a very, very small number of viruses a rabbit can be infected. The virus can survive up to 3 months in the open (so I never use hay that is not at least that old), after cleaning and more than 6 months exposed to the weather (I removed the roof) I was sure my wood hutches were safe again.

With the fence, and the drastically reduced wild population there were no Problems afterwards.