shazza
Well-known member
this morning i had to put down a growout. this kit had been doing fine yesterday and last night, and this morning we go out and it's thrashing around on its site/back in its cage. the symptoms were similar to a kit i had to euthanize last year, so i was wondering if anyone knew what was going on and how to prevent these seemingly random deaths.
Kit #1: NZ mutt, given to me by a friend of a friend who wanted to get out of rabbits. it was about 6 weeks old. it was the middle of july and i had lost its two siblings to heat, despite my best efforts, so i brought this last one inside. she was happy, healthy, eating, drinking, running around and playing that morning. at around 3am that night my husband woke me up because the kit was thrashing and screaming in her cage. she appeared to be gasping for breath, unable to stand, head pulled back as far as it could go. necropsy revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
Kit #2: mini lop/a&m mutt. about 7 weeks old. had developed splay leg around weaning, and was given special treatment for this. he had broken off a toe earlier in the week from catching it on something and was being treated by cleaning with betadine, wrapping the leg, and pen-g injections. he was responding to treatment and the injury was healing well. he was eating, drinking, "running around" (as best he could with splay leg and one foot wrapped up.) it got kinda cool last night and i gave him a box full of hay in his cage if he wanted to snuggle up. this morning we found him laying on his side, thrashing, head as far back as it would go. he wasn't screaming, or gasping for air. looked a lot similar to a heat stroke but it was in the 50s last night and he is in the shade. i felt along his spine and felt what could have been an injury. no necropsy yet but i don't expect to find anything out of the ordinary outside of that possible injury.
freak accidents or something else going on? all of my other 20-something growouts are healthy and fat, not injuring themselves and growing rapidly as they should.
-- Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:56 am --
update. found another kit in the growout colony that had no balance and a third that looked lethargic. both also had very poopy butts. i quarantined them both but they don't seem interested in eating or drinking. all the other rabbits in that pen look fine. e. cuniculi or something else? what can i do to prevent this is my remaining healthy kits? i have nowhere else to put these rabbits as the colony pen was our solution to save space on housing for our growouts that we intend to eat as we don't have a lot of space for cages. if it's a problem with something in the ground i'm basically royally screwed i guess. i raised two other litters in the pen with absolutely no problems, and now suddenly i've lost two kits, now maybe four, in a couple of days. one, however, was unrelated to this issue - he had an infected foot that i didn't see and developed sepsis. additionally - some of the kits in this pen are also rabbits that i intend to keep as breeders. i was letting them grow with their siblings which i get their cages ready, and for the companionship while they still enjoy that sort of thing. i would very much like to not lose these rabbits or potentially have problems with their kits down the line.
a few things to note though are that last week we had some heavy rains and that pen can get pretty muddy. i typically lay hay down and it helps keep them from being too dirty, but right before one rain i noticed my hay had gone mouldy and i removed it. they had maybe 10 minutes of time with the mouldy hay before removal. they had a full day or so in the muddy pen with no hay until i could buy more. from what i've read though mould toxins cause liver failure, not balance problems. i also regularly put AVC in their water. worth noting though i guess.
i will likely treat the rabbits with fenbendazole just as a precaution. i have access to a variety of different methods - medicated pellets, paste, and powder. it would not be difficult to separate each rabbit with a bowl of pellets (i would put a few medicated ones in a bowl of their normal pellets and let them finish the bowl.) the paste is for horses and i know dosages can be difficult, plus i wouldn't be able to use the majority of the tube so if it spoils it'd be a waste of money. the powder is formulated for dogs (so easier to dose,) and i could just mix it with water and syringe it into every rabbit's mouth. i'm leaning towards either the pellets or powder as it'd be easiest to administer the right dosage. if there's a preferred method please let me know though!
Kit #1: NZ mutt, given to me by a friend of a friend who wanted to get out of rabbits. it was about 6 weeks old. it was the middle of july and i had lost its two siblings to heat, despite my best efforts, so i brought this last one inside. she was happy, healthy, eating, drinking, running around and playing that morning. at around 3am that night my husband woke me up because the kit was thrashing and screaming in her cage. she appeared to be gasping for breath, unable to stand, head pulled back as far as it could go. necropsy revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
Kit #2: mini lop/a&m mutt. about 7 weeks old. had developed splay leg around weaning, and was given special treatment for this. he had broken off a toe earlier in the week from catching it on something and was being treated by cleaning with betadine, wrapping the leg, and pen-g injections. he was responding to treatment and the injury was healing well. he was eating, drinking, "running around" (as best he could with splay leg and one foot wrapped up.) it got kinda cool last night and i gave him a box full of hay in his cage if he wanted to snuggle up. this morning we found him laying on his side, thrashing, head as far back as it would go. he wasn't screaming, or gasping for air. looked a lot similar to a heat stroke but it was in the 50s last night and he is in the shade. i felt along his spine and felt what could have been an injury. no necropsy yet but i don't expect to find anything out of the ordinary outside of that possible injury.
freak accidents or something else going on? all of my other 20-something growouts are healthy and fat, not injuring themselves and growing rapidly as they should.
-- Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:56 am --
update. found another kit in the growout colony that had no balance and a third that looked lethargic. both also had very poopy butts. i quarantined them both but they don't seem interested in eating or drinking. all the other rabbits in that pen look fine. e. cuniculi or something else? what can i do to prevent this is my remaining healthy kits? i have nowhere else to put these rabbits as the colony pen was our solution to save space on housing for our growouts that we intend to eat as we don't have a lot of space for cages. if it's a problem with something in the ground i'm basically royally screwed i guess. i raised two other litters in the pen with absolutely no problems, and now suddenly i've lost two kits, now maybe four, in a couple of days. one, however, was unrelated to this issue - he had an infected foot that i didn't see and developed sepsis. additionally - some of the kits in this pen are also rabbits that i intend to keep as breeders. i was letting them grow with their siblings which i get their cages ready, and for the companionship while they still enjoy that sort of thing. i would very much like to not lose these rabbits or potentially have problems with their kits down the line.
a few things to note though are that last week we had some heavy rains and that pen can get pretty muddy. i typically lay hay down and it helps keep them from being too dirty, but right before one rain i noticed my hay had gone mouldy and i removed it. they had maybe 10 minutes of time with the mouldy hay before removal. they had a full day or so in the muddy pen with no hay until i could buy more. from what i've read though mould toxins cause liver failure, not balance problems. i also regularly put AVC in their water. worth noting though i guess.
i will likely treat the rabbits with fenbendazole just as a precaution. i have access to a variety of different methods - medicated pellets, paste, and powder. it would not be difficult to separate each rabbit with a bowl of pellets (i would put a few medicated ones in a bowl of their normal pellets and let them finish the bowl.) the paste is for horses and i know dosages can be difficult, plus i wouldn't be able to use the majority of the tube so if it spoils it'd be a waste of money. the powder is formulated for dogs (so easier to dose,) and i could just mix it with water and syringe it into every rabbit's mouth. i'm leaning towards either the pellets or powder as it'd be easiest to administer the right dosage. if there's a preferred method please let me know though!