Is this pastueralla? Update - more pictures!

So my colony which had been sneezing and showing some mucus, continued to get worse. Three out of four had white or green mucus daily, and the sneezing became even more frequent. I culled one of them to take a look inside. Here is the picture I got of the lungs. It looks like there are more white spots in the picture then there really are because of the light glaring, but there were definitely a few small white spots at least. Is this pasteurella? Should I hurry up and cull the others today? If it isn't pasteurella, what is it and what should I do with the rest? Also, I got rid of all the organs, but was wondering if the meat would be safe to eat if cooked, and if the pelt is safe to tan and use?

sounds and looks like Pneumonia...
I am not to sure on the meat.. Someone else will chime in. but there furs you can tan no problem.

My understanding is that you can eat the meat, being sure to cook it well. I don't think it would be a good idea to feed it raw to dogs or cats, however. We generally don't use meat from ailing rabbits here... The coyotes get a present.

What would have caused pneumonia? Could it be that and pasteurella, or can I count pasteurella out? Is pneumonia even curable in rabbits? I'm not sure if I would treat it or just cull them, because I don't want to breed unhealthy stock. There is the one that seems unaffected though, so I might want to keep her if it isn't pasteurella. I'm just still a bit at a loss as far as what to do, I don't want to endanger my other rabbits or keep weak stock, but I some of these are the very best I have as far as size and type.

DarayTala":2g5yqh53 said:

What would have caused pneumonia? Could it be that and pasteurella, or can I count pasteurella out? Is pneumonia even curable in rabbits? I'm not sure if I would treat it or just cull them, because I don't want to breed unhealthy stock. There is the one that seems unaffected though, so I might want to keep her if it isn't pasteurella. I'm just still a bit at a loss as far as what to do, I don't want to endanger my other rabbits or keep weak stock, but I some of these are the very best I have as far as size and type.

Click to expand...

Pneumonia is usually a secondary infection, and is what happens when pasteurellosis moves from the upper respiratory tract(nasal passages, sinuses) to the lower respiratory tract (Bronchii and lungs). I would cull anything showing symptoms and keep the one doe that is symptom free isolated.

Alright, thank you very much. I will do so today if possible, or tomorrow at the latest. How long should I keep the other doe quarantined, and how long should I be carefully watching the rest of my herd for it?

And thank all of you for helping me through this, in this post and my previous one. This has been my first big hurdle with raising rabbits, and its been amazing to have so much advice and support. Thank you.

I feed whole rabbit, whether culled or died of something unknown, to my dogs, never had any issues.

I pull the infected lungs or liver and go ahead and feed the meat from the infected rabbits to the dogs or cats. Unless the rabbit is in really bad shape. If it's got so much snot, weight loss, or mess inside that I don't even want to handle it or isn't worth the amount of meat then it just gets thrown in the woods.

I processed two of the remaining three and am very glad I did, because they were definitely in bad health. Here are pictures of the lungs from both of them, and the liver from one as well. I am assuming this is still more signs of pasteuralla or pneumonia, and hopefully can be used to help others identify issues in the future. If this isn't one of those two, does anyone know what else it is? Clearly its some kind of illness, as I've never seen lungs this bad looking. Any input and extra info is greatly appreciated.

Lungs from the first one. They seem to have bruising or be filled with blood.


Lungs and liver from the second. This was the first liver I saw which looked bad, it had a number of small white dots, maybe scar tissue? The lungs were also the worst on this one.


So now I only have one rabbit left from the colony, the only one who didn't show any symptoms. Shes got a cage now and is quarantined away from all the other animals. If she continues not to show symptoms for a couple months, I'm hoping that's good news about her immune system and that her genetics are good enough to pass down to more of my stock. I'm still hesitant about putting her with one of my bucks though, even after a couple month quarantine period. I guess I will just wait and watch her and decide for sure later. What do you think, if she continues to not show signs should she be dispatched anyway, or bred to pass on stronger genetics to the rest of my herd?

White spots in the liver are coccidia...lungs do look bad, I would say pneumonia for sure. Could be pasteurella related, it usually is, but either way, weak immune systems and you don't want to deal with a bunch of sickly animals all the time. Discard the lungs and livers and feed the rest to the dogs.