Quarantine area?

Tell me about the area you use to quarantine new additions to your herd (or sick rabbits). Do you have another shed, or is it just a separate area of your barn?

I'm hoping to purchase some new rabbits in the near future and I'm not sure where I'll be putting them for the first few weeks. I don't have a building yet - just predator-proofed hutches. I definitely don't want to have potentially sick rabbits in my wood hutches. The safest place for me to put wire cages is in the chicken run. I'd like to set up some way to hang the hutches inside the coop. Free-Ranging Bunny sleeps in his wire cage in the chicken run, so I plan on putting quarantined bunnies at the other end of the run, but I'm not sure how I would keep FRB from going underneath the cage (I probably wouldn't be using drop pans, so everything would be going down there).

And for those who are concerned about rabbits in the chicken run - our chickens are healthy. We've never had a case of cocci in our main flock. My concern would be the chickens catching something from the rabbits. BUT I plan to only buy from breeders who really seem to know what they're doing, and have clean, healthy rabbits.

So:
What is your quarantine area like?
Where should I quarantine my rabbits?
If I use the chicken run - got any ideas for keeping FRB out from under the cages (short of locking him up)?

Hello, I have six rabbits know that I bought from 2 places. I know both breeders so I took the chance and put them in the rabbit area without any quarantine. I myself cought the bunny bug I only have room for one hold back. This will not work so I am going to have to set up another area. My area know is 9x12 feet the new area is going to be 10x20 feet and the old area will be for quarantine and the new area will hold more as of right know I have six extra cages to fill. When I do set up the new site the old will be for quarantine and someplace for the sick. I will be doing at least 30 day quarantine.

Well we have 2 sheds + an indoor cage we can quarrantine in. Luckily I haven't had to yet, since I only have 3 buns & 2 came from the same place and live together.

Quarantine needs to be complete or it is just a waste of time, if you or other rabbits are spreading the , "possible infection" to other areas or other animals, it is not quarantine at all . Quarantine areas should be in a separate area away from any of your animals, they should have a drop pan, and manure from them disposed of in the trash not in your garden, or on your property- and you should care for them after you have completed caring for all other animals, then your clothes should be tossed in the wash, not just worn out to care for non quarantine animals later in the day. Pasteurella, or coccidia , are nothing to mess with, and coccidia, once brought to your place can survive in the soil for over 50 years. Once you have it ,dealing with it must be a part of your animal husbandry protocol for ever, -- If you are bringing new rabbits to your place you might consider a coccidiocide, [not coccidiostat ] and benebac as part of your incoming protocol.

michaels4gardens":3o73241f said:

Quarantine needs to be complete or it is just a waste of time, if you or other rabbits are spreading the , "possible infection" to other areas or other animals, it is not quarantine at all . Quarantine areas should be in a separate area away from any of your animals, they should have a drop pan, and manure from them disposed of in the trash not in your garden, or on your property- and you should care for them after you have completed caring for all other animals, then your clothes should be tossed in the wash, not just worn out to care for non quarantine animals later in the day. Pasteurella, or coccidia , are nothing to mess with, and coccidia, once brought to your place can survive in the soil for over 50 years. Once you have it ,dealing with it must be a part of your animal husbandry protocol for ever, -- If you are bringing new rabbits to your place you might consider a coccidiocide, [not coccidiostat ] and benebac as part of your incoming protocol.

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Thank you! You mentioned some things I hadn't thought about.
I guess I won't be buying rabbits anytime in the next few years.

I suppose buying rabbits from well-known show breeders who have a great knowledge of rabbits and the breed they raise is no health guarantee... *sigh*

It's not that people sell diseased animals but that they will have disease your buns are not use to and don't have immunity to and conversely your animals will expose the new arrivals to new germs.

Often show animals have the best immune systems because they are carted around the country and exposed to small, non infectious, doses of wide variety of pathogens. Animals that have been raised in a "bubble" are less prepared to fight off novel disease and often get a more severe case of the disease.

If you want to sell live animals or breeding stock it would be a better choice to breed for strong immune systems and resistance rather than enact extreme biosecurity measures or complete isolation as your stock is more likely to become ill at their new home

Dood":1fzngknh said:

Often show animals have the best immune systems because they are carted around the country and exposed to small, non infectious, doses of wide variety of pathogens.

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I believe this too. Plus they have to be able to withstand stress pretty well since they are traveling in a vehicle and then brought to a noisy showroom.

When traveling to distant shows (like Oregon), I carpool with my "rabbit partner" and at least two other breeders, and all of our rabbits are loaded together in the back of an enclosed truck, which rather blows "quarantine" out the window. :roll: All of those other breeders have Satins, and here in CA the Satin breeders are very close knit and will often let one another borrow rabbits to breed to use in their programs, so they are going from barn to barn anyway and no-one quarantines.

Early on I quarantined new stock in the house... but recently I got four Rex from Arizona and I just put them in the growout area on a bottom tier which has no cages directly across the aisle on the same level. My main breeding stock is in my bunnybarn, so I am only (only! :x ) risking up and coming show/breeding prospects.

When I bring a new rabbit home from my partner's barn I don't bother with quarantine at all because our rabbits are always intermingling anyway and we haven't had any outbreaks. They are also rabbits that have been shown, so are used to the stress of new environments.

Ideally, I would like to have a dedicated show barn where the current show string is housed just in case they are exposed to some virulent disease at a show, but sadly that is not a practical option at this time.

Both my bunnybarn and growout area are open air, which I believe makes a big difference. If they were housed in a fully enclosed building any airborne diseases would be more concentrated and more likely to infect other rabbits. Another factor is the amount of ammonia they are exposed to- keeping the rabbitry clean to minimize ammonia fumes goes a long way to maintaining a healthy respiratory system.

The most dangerous disease is, of course, Pasteurella, which requires direct contact with globules of mucous (or items that have been in contact with the infected rabbit- hands, clothes, food bowls, etc.) for transmission (or in the case of systemic Paseurella can be introduced through breaks in the skin), so it is good practice to house new rabbits in such a way that they can't sneeze and propel snot into another rabbit's cage. Tarps or cardboard can be used as temporary barriers if housing new rabbits in a totally separate area is not an option.

michaels4gardens":1fzngknh said:

Quarantine needs to be complete or it is just a waste of time, if you or other rabbits are spreading the , "possible infection" to other areas or other animals, it is not quarantine at all . Quarantine areas should be in a separate area away from any of your animals, they should have a drop pan, and manure from them disposed of in the trash not in your garden, or on your property- and you should care for them after you have completed caring for all other animals, then your clothes should be tossed in the wash, not just worn out to care for non quarantine animals later in the day.

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At some point though they need to be exposed to limited "doses" of germs from one another. If both herds have been living in a "bubble" and then the new stock is suddenly brought into the main herd without a lessening of the strict quarantine protocol, they wont have had an opportunity to develop an immunity to whatever is present in the other rabbits.

Okay, thanks! That's very encouraging.

Just for clarification, I would be buying Holland Lops from dedicated show breeders - *not* meat rabbits from someone's backyard (well, you know what I mean by backyard...) I think that might be a safer bet.

As of right now, I hardly have any animals to endanger anyway. The main animals I'd be concerned about would be the chickens (and Free Ranging Bunny. But it's a gamble letting him loose every day in the first place.) I don't care quite as much about my other rabbits (I'm considering selling the few I have anyway).

I just about gave up on rabbits right there... I don't know. I've been reading some very discouraging things (Holland Lops are so hard to breed, so much competition, etc., etc....) But I can't imagine not having bunnies in the nestbox anymore (or even raising a different breed! I was almost thinking about doing Dutch, but they hardly exist in my state and my mom said I shouldn't. So.)

So would it be okay to quarantine the rabbits in the coop? They would be far away from FRB's wire cage, and I do have a cage with a solid (metal) bottom that I could probably hang up. Not a drop pan, but a solid bottom (and it has an upper level so the rabbit can sit on wire, as well. And I could probably leave a trashcan out there to dump the bedding in. I would resist handling the rabbit (better not to at first anyway) and I would definitely care for it last.

I don't have any other place to put wire cages without a big risk of them getting pulled through the wire by our nasty raccoons. And building a predator-proof shed is very much out of the question.

MamaSheepdog":7lv8nl7m said:

Dood":7lv8nl7m said:

Often show animals have the best immune systems because they are carted around the country and exposed to small, non infectious, doses of wide variety of pathogens.

Click to expand...

I believe this too. Plus they have to be able to withstand stress pretty well since they are traveling in a vehicle and then brought to a noisy showroom.

When traveling to distant shows (like Oregon), I carpool with my "rabbit partner" and at least two other breeders, and all of our rabbits are loaded together in the back of an enclosed truck, which rather blows "quarantine" out the window. :roll: All of those other breeders have Satins, and here in CA the Satin breeders are very close knit and will often let one another borrow rabbits to breed to use in their programs, so they are going from barn to barn anyway and no-one quarantines.

Early on I quarantined new stock in the house... but recently I got four Rex from Arizona and I just put them in the growout area on a bottom tier which has no cages directly across the aisle on the same level. My main breeding stock is in my bunnybarn, so I am only (only! :x ) risking up and coming show/breeding prospects.

When I bring a new rabbit home from my partner's barn I don't bother with quarantine at all because our rabbits are always intermingling anyway and we haven't had any outbreaks. They are also rabbits that have been shown, so are used to the stress of new environments.

Ideally, I would like to have a dedicated show barn where the current show string is housed just in case they are exposed to some virulent disease at a show, but sadly that is not a practical option at this time.

Both my bunnybarn and growout area are open air, which I believe makes a big difference. If they were housed in a fully enclosed building any airborne diseases would be more concentrated and more likely to infect other rabbits. Another factor is the amount of ammonia they are exposed to- keeping the rabbitry clean to minimize ammonia fumes goes a long way to maintaining a healthy respiratory system.

The most dangerous disease is, of course, Pasteurella, which requires direct contact with globules of mucous (or items that have been in contact with the infected rabbit- hands, clothes, food bowls, etc.) for transmission (or in the case of systemic Paseurella can be introduced through breaks in the skin), so it is good practice to house new rabbits in such a way that they can't sneeze and propel snot into another rabbit's cage. Tarps or cardboard can be used as temporary barriers if housing new rabbits in a totally separate area is not an option.

michaels4gardens":7lv8nl7m said:

Quarantine needs to be complete or it is just a waste of time, if you or other rabbits are spreading the , "possible infection" to other areas or other animals, it is not quarantine at all . Quarantine areas should be in a separate area away from any of your animals, they should have a drop pan, and manure from them disposed of in the trash not in your garden, or on your property- and you should care for them after you have completed caring for all other animals, then your clothes should be tossed in the wash, not just worn out to care for non quarantine animals later in the day.

Click to expand...

At some point though they need to be exposed to limited "doses" of germs from one another. If both herds have been living in a "bubble" and then the new stock is suddenly brought into the main herd without a lessening of the strict quarantine protocol, they wont have had an opportunity to develop an immunity to whatever is present in the other rabbits.

Click to expand...

This is a very valid point, I would still be concerned with quarantine, of new animals, especially once you have a sizable population , and investment . The stress of moving will often cause hidden disease to manifest its symptoms , and having them isolated from other animals , and not spreading the "possible disease" to your "clean" animals , is a big plus. --After you are fairly sure they do not have Pasteurella, [or hepatic ,or intestinal coccidiosis , which is easy to treat, so I prophylactically treat all incoming animals during the quarantine period , with garlic, or ponazuril, and panacur ] -- then housing them near your other rabbits will allow a gradual introduction of germs to to the other rabbits , so you have a better chance of developing immunity, and not a disease outbreak.

Okay. I only plan on purchasing rabbits from experienced breeders (probably not youth breeders like me ), so hopefully that will cut down on awful diseases. (I know I can't rely on that, though.)

I'm only planning on purchasing one or two rabbits at once. I would put them in hanging cages with solid bottoms or drop pans. I would be very careful about them for 2-4 weeks. I would avoid spreading germs to the others (maybe even leave some hand sanitizer by the cages?) and I would watch them closely for signs of disease.
After the 2-4 weeks, I would move them into my big wooden hutch, where I would continue to monitor them for disease (as I do with all my rabbits, of course).

Free Ranging Bunny probably has built up stronger immunities than most rabbits, what with him loose all the time. But I doubt he has any immunity to bad bunny diseases.