PLEASE ANSWER!

I did my weekly check up with my rabbits (Looking at their vents and ears) and I noticed my buck had a little white pimple thing on his penis. No pore hole that I could see, just looks like a small white ball under the skin... :?:
Its just on the side of his penis/skin. What could it be?

Vent disease :shrug:

It's on his penis, not his vent. I'll try taking pics tomorrow. :gnight:

Vent disease can be on any part of the genitals. It's the rabbit form of syphilis.

Some times they do literally get pimple like places on them, can be from urine/poo build up or other causes. It is a DQ in showing and some I've talked to think some lines are more prone to the issue than others. It isn't the same thing as vent. Its been mentioned a few times on the FB ARBA group as well and might be able to search for it there for more info.

My buck also looks like he may have a matted scent gland....? Like in the picture:


And this was sort of what the pimple looked like on my buck (But only one bigger one on the penis, not on the testicles.)


Also, today, I saw it had a pore opening, so I squeezed it, and a bunch of white chalky paste oozed out. (Just like a human pimple) Anyway, I squeezed all I could from it, and all that's left is a little white dot on the skin now.
His poo hole was also a little dirty this morning (it wasn't yesterday morning) but I couldn't find any diarrhea in the cage. Just hard poos.

Is there a cure for vent disease? How can you know for sure if your rabbit has it?

that may not be vent disease. It may just be a pimple. Give it a day or so.

vent disease is easily treated with long lasting bi-cillin. Make sure you feed a good fibre source along with it as it can upset bunny tummies.

Vent disease can also spread to areas like the face but that looks more like he's been slobbering water.

I got the pics from the internet. (Where it said: This is a matted scent gland, and THIS is vent disease. So it sort of looked the same w/ my rabbit.) But it was only one big pimple.

akane, I'm not sure if he was slobbering in water, because it was dry....would you just get a wet rag and clean it if it was matted?

How can you tell if a rabbit has vent disease????? What causes it? Is it serious? HELP!
I would love an answer as soon as you can give me one, cause I've been stressing out about this for a while. (Checking RabbitTalk out of control! )

It is treatable. However if he's been used on any does recently, they're probably infected to if it is vent. The kids from resulting litters as well. Treatment, or at least what I've used successfully, is long lasting Pen-G (can be purchased at most farm stores) at 0.1 cc per 1 lb of body weight under the skin at the nape of the neck (shoulder blade area, be careful of the spine...I pinch like going to scruff and give right under neath, they can jump or squeal). I give one shot according to body weight for 3 days and then once per week for 4 more weeks. Others have used the once per week treatment with success. It can cause GI upset, so probiotics are usually suggested but honestly I've not used them while on it though. There is also the possibility that he (or any other rabbit treated) will not deal with the Pen-G well, as with any other medication a rabbit (or any animal) can have a bad reaction that in extreme cases cause death even if its not seen that often.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF THEY HAVE IT FOR SURE OR NOT!?!??!!??!?! :help: :furious:

Well, I suspect the closest to 100% sure way to find out is to go to a vet. A vet can do a scraping and look under the microscope/run tests to find out (usually) for sure. I have not had any rabbits with vent disease and pray I continue not to so I have stayed out of this discussion to this point because I didn't have concrete advice. But all of the folks above have been very kind in giving you potential treatments if you think it is vent disease as well as other possible diagnoses. Rebel.Rose and Ladysown suggested it may have been just a pimple and that you give it a day or two to see if it began to heal. Did it? Vent disease, from what I have read, would continue to get crusty and worse, while a pimple would act like, well, a pimple. And then pop or disappear. Vent disease (rabbit syphilis) is a bacteria that is spread from contact--either through the animals, or from people touching an infected animal and then touching others, or by sharing with other rabbits uncleaned food dishes/other items that an infected animal used. It can appear as crusty scabby wounds on the reproductive parts on bucks or does, or on their nose and face (from grooming themselves, probably, or eating out of an infected bowl, etc.) The pictures you posted were from other rabbits on the internet, so it is very hard to give an opinion on what may have been happening with your rabbit without seeing it. You are going to be the best person to determine what is going on because you see him, feed him, and know his personality well and can tell what is not normal for him. Search the forum here to find other discussions about vent disease and what people did. You can then see if the symptoms sound familiar and exactly like what you are seeing. There are quite a few posts about it. This thread looked like the OP had similar symptoms:
possible-treponema-vent-disease-any-help-appreciated-t19378.html?hilit=vent%20disease#p211616
This site also had a description, and answers your questions of how/why/is it serious.
http://www.raising-rabbits.com/rabbit-syphilis.html

Quite often we don't know completely. It's too bad vets aren't more accommodating of breeders or testing equipment plus knowledge to use it isn't cheaper. Usually it's just your best guess what's wrong based on symptoms and you try a treatment to see if it works. Otherwise you can take them to a vet but these days there's often a $40+ examination fee before you get to the testing and treatment and basic meds will cost you 10 times or more what you could spend at a feed store for something that works well enough.

That's the sad thing, vets aren't usually willing to check or look for you...even the ones that ARE exotics or see them regularly (least here). If it does not go away in a day or two, or gets worse (scabbing appears worse, on nose, paws, mouth area, ears, or you see does that have similar markings on them) then IF it was me, I'd assume vent and treat as such. If it came back, then it could be some thing worse and would seek out a vet. It will take a while, even after it clears up do not breed for 30 days so that if is still present hopefully it will show itself. It doesn't always work and can hide. Cages, feeders, any thing they can come into contact with needs to be cleaned and cleaned well. Use wooden toys or nest boxes? Trash/burn them, they are next to impossible to disinfect completely. IF you already have an established vet and good relationship, then you may be able to skip the whole treatment and have the scrapping done if you can afford to. Like akane and the others said, some times you just have to try and work with what you have versus a more expensive method that may or may not even give you good/correct results to boot.

ok, so when I last checked 2 days ago, there was a little blood (About a 1/3rd of a drop) after I really squeezed the pimple. I checked right now, and all I could see was a little pinprick of white where it used to be. And another pinprick of white right next to it. No scab, no crusty blood. Is that a sign that he doesn't have vent disease? Oh, and what does vent disease do anyway? Does it hurt them? I recently bred my buck with my doe a month ago with no results. I can't see any signs with her.
This is my cage set up:



They have holes in all corners where they pee, and I sweep the poo out the holes and onto a tray twice a day. (Depositing the tray droppings on my roses about once a week or more.)


My bucks whole body looks good, except for those two pinpricks. (Which could have been a result of the one big pimple, because it could have had two openings when I popped it...he licked it for quite a while afterward. (I will try to get pics of his sheath tomorrow)

It's a rabbit STD. Mostly it causes physical discomfort and they will eventually refuse to breed. It can lead to infections and pregnancy or birthing complications in the doe. It will take about a month to show up on exposed rabbits. You should avoid breeding exposed rabbits until you see if the symptoms worsen to obvious vent disease.

Thanks akane! What are some of the other symptoms?