14 day old kits having seizures

[Diamond]

Just when I thought I had seen it all and found a way to prevent every possible disease and disorder....

I just noticed two 14 day old kits having siezures in the nestbox.

I had treated the doe routinely with fenbendazole (SafeGuard) prior to kindling, which destroys the active form of e. cuniculi.

What is different here: As part of routine herd maintenance, all rabbits including mama are being fed sulmethazine through their water system

Kits are 14 days old, eyes just now really open, and starting to pop out of the nest box to explore.

They were all healthy, wiggly, and lively this morning when I did my routine eye check to look for nest box eye

Thoughts I have: 1) environmental - could have gotten out of the box, been chilled, and not able to warm up

2) Parasitic: e. cuniculi (wry neck)

3) Chemical: sulmethazine is not proven safe in kits under 3 weeks old. However, I have not had any adverse effects from treating rabbits at any stage with sulmet (for coccidiosis prevention)

Any ideas? Suggestions?

Currently the 2 kits are still alive, I am warming them in my bra (yes, my bra :shock: ) and giving them 1cc oral boluses of an electrolyte solution. Not sure if they are going to make it.

 

[dayna]

I am currently dealing with this so I'm eager to hear about what answers you get.

 

[ladysown]

I've never treated pregnant nursing does and I'd be highly cautious of doing so anyways.

No need for routine treatments unless YOU KNOW you have an issue in your herd. You're just building drug resistance in anything you have around.

 

[Diamond]

I had an outbreak of coccidiosis in my herd and am on a 90-day treatment plan, have not had any adverse effect turn up so far. Began with the prescription strength sulmethazine given to all rabbits via oral bolus x 10 days, I treated kits as young as 3 weeks old and all of my brood does, including pregnant and nursing. I am following through with the 12.5% solution mixed in their water at 15 mL per gallon, in cycles of 7 days on and 14 days off, I have one more cycle to go through before completing the treatment...... all things considered, the benefits are worth the risks, because the coccidiosis is so lethal and heartbreaking.

So far none of the kits in the nestbox or at any age have appeared or behaved any differently than normal healthy babies.....

until now; if it shows up in another litter then I will get my vet involved and do a necropsy.

 

[akane]

Parasites rarely cause things like seizures. Even parasites known to infect the brain don't usually cause seizures unless there is a lot of them and then you kill majority. Infant animals have specially adapted systems to reduce brain damage in extreme situations. Not saying it can't happen but usually brain damage does not occur until the whole system has shut down too much to recover anyway. I was actually watching such situations in humans on netflix including a young child who froze solid overnight and was not breathing for no one is sure how long but it took them another 30mins to bring her temp up and restore respiration with no apparent brain damage. Just some extremity and skin damage. Baby animals tend to handle even more extreme situations on average than humans.

I would say it's either genetic or medication. When we had cocci I found the treatment really wasn't that effective. Cocci can never be fully killed. It is always present in the environment. I also found it was unnecessary to do treatment in adults because they had an immunity built up to it and did not get sick. We did play around with treatment but ultimately decided it was safest and most effective to just cull all rabbits young enough to get sick until the levels could be brought down in the environment through dividing rabbits in to a 2nd colony to reduce concentration, scraping the top layer off the colonies, drying things out better, and spraying down the cages. The problem came from a very hot humid summer that just would not quit and the use of frozen containers of water that collected condensation and dumped it on the floor. Add in a record number of rabbits in the area and the cocci was able to overwhelm the immune systems that were not fully developed. Prevention of those conditions did more to stop future cocci than treating the rabbits, especially adults, who were not the source of the problem. They merely helped spread the problem after it got started and killing all cocci in the rabbits was not going to kill it in the environment and prevent future generations from getting sick.

 

[Diamond]

Believe me, I have been highly proactive in the environmental aspect of coccidiosis treatment.... all rabbits get moved into clean wire cages (hanging) halfway through each treatment cycle; does get placed in clean cages prior to kindling and kits get weaned out in clean cages. I use a strong ammonia solution to soak the nestboxes in after they are used, and they get aired out for 2 to 3 weeks before being used again.

I think the ill kits I am dealing with right now have something else going on, quite possibly dehydration, they seemed to perk up when I had them warming up and was giving them boluses of an electrolyte solution. But I am not letting myself go look at them again until morning..... a policy I have had to adopt is "They will be either alive or dead by morning".... troubling myself all night long over sick kits has very little reward as the sickest will always die no mater what you do to save them.