Blocked/Swollen Vent - graphic - Updated

[dltc96]

When we arrived home from worship this evening, we found one of our Mini Rex kits had a blocked and extremely swollen vent. It has been a crazy week (4H and county fair), I am not sure how long it has been that way. We lost an entire litter last week due to the heat and it has been even hotter this week, so we have been bringing all 3 of our current litters inside each morning.

We decided to get some q-tips and clean it off hoping it would be fine. Now it has what appears to be a gaping hole where the vent should be. The kit is still very active. We looked closer at the rest of the litter and a couple of them seem to be slightly swollen too, but we can't get anything to come out (we are being as gentle as possible). None of our other litters (Standard Rex) show any signs of the same condition.

This doe has had one previous litter without any problems (she even fostered one for us). Could this just be a genetic problem? Could it be due to the heat, or from us bringing them in each day (she isn't getting a chance to clean them well enough)? Could it be some contagious disease?

I'm afraid the kit is going to get infected. It has the best makings from the bunch, but we don't want to breed this into our lines or expose any others to a possible contagion. Do I need to just cull now? What about the others that have the slightly swollen vents (or the rest of the litter for that matter)?

Sorry if this is rambling and doesn't make sense; as I said, it has been a loooooong week and my coffee wore off a couple hours ago.

__________ Mon Jul 15, 2013 1:13 pm __________

Just a quick update ... I checked the kits this morning, this one seems to be doing OK. The gaping hole is less gaping now, and the bunny seems to be active and strong. I'll continue to monitor the progress and make sure (as much as I can) no infection takes hold. Like I said, this one has the best pattern of all of them. We'd hate to lose it.

 

[MamaMandy]

I don't have any info for you but I'm curious to see if anyone can help here! My friend has had a couple litters do this too. Most of the kits ended up dying. We cannot figure out a cause! Very frustrating!

 

[Marinea]

I don't have an answer either, but a few questions that might help.

How old is the kit? What is it eating? Has it been "pooing" normally?

*fingers crossed it continues to improve*

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Ouch! That looks painful. Poor little guy.

I would be concerned about rabbit syphilis, also known as "vent disease". It can be transmitted to the young in utero.

Many animals are asymptomatic, and show no signs, but do any of your adult rabbits have crusty lesions on their genitals or face? That would be a good indicator that you have syphilis in your herd.

 

[dltc96]

How old is the kit? What is it eating? Has it been "pooing" normally?

It is 1 week today, so it has been nursing. I assumed everything else has been normal, but since momma takes care of all of that...we did not know otherwise until last night. The blockage looked like crusted feces that had bound itself to the flesh of the vent. It was difficult to clear it, but when we did an abnormally large amount of stuff instantly came out.

I would be concerned about rabbit syphilis, also known as "vent disease". It can be transmitted to the young in utero.

Many animals are asymptomatic, and show no signs, but do any of your adult rabbits have crusty lesions on their genitals or face? That would be a good indicator that you have syphilis in your herd.

We haven't seen any signs of vent disease anywhere else in the herd. Every ones faces and genitalia look fine.

I wish I had taken a photo of the blockage last night, but I didn't think about that until afterward. It looked like an adult sized dropping initially. When we started cleaning with the q-tip (dipped in warm water) a mixture of urine and feces came out, but a large chunk of dried feces also came with it. Perhaps the doe has not been able to clean them off properly since we were bringing them inside, and that caused a blockage. It looks like this one may be getting blocked up again a little bit, we'll bring it in later and double check. The others all appear fine this afternoon.

Here's an updated photo from a few minutes ago.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

It looks much better already.

Hopefully it is just an irritation from the urine and feces.

For now I would just keep it clean, and make sure to check the other kits as well.

 

[dltc96]

Thanks, MSD.
We just cleaned it off again and there was some blockage in the anus. It is clear for the moment. Poor thing looks pretty sore. We also checked all of its liter mates, and they all appear to be fine. None of them are swollen or blocked as far as we can tell.

 

[ladysown]

clean it up. Put a DROP of penicillin on it and it heals up just fine.

most likely had some poop stuck to it, and it got hurt when the poop was removed.

They TEND TO heal up just fine. I would advise you to monitor carefully. I had one that the vent healed up incorrectly (which I saw but didn't think was too bad... and should have thought more about the need for the vent to expand upon childbirth) and ripped when she birthed kits and was then petted out to a home that promptly spayed her *upon my strong advice to do so* as she was a lovely tempered doe but not one that should kindle kits.

Live and learn

 

[dltc96]

Here is the latest picture. Looks OK to me.

 

[ladysown]

looking like 99% of mine that end up with an owie.

YEAH!

 

[Peach]

Looking better now! I sometimes have babies that have poop stick to their butt and I gotta clean them off with a luke warm rag.

 

[Marinea]

So rabbit babies can get the dreaded pasty butt...good to know.

Glad yours is doing so much better, dltc96.