Coccidia/coccidiosis

[karenm99]

About coccidia/coccidiosis in rabbits...
I am somewhat familiar with the bacteria in other animals; as a kitten/puppy foster I know that coccidia is a bacteria that often inhabits the intestines of adult cats and dogs and is usually only considered a problem for very young animals, and then only then if there is some other stressor that causes it to turn into coccidiosis.
So if I have always had cats and dogs in my yard and now I'm allowing my rabbits to eat the grass and weeds in same yard am I exposing my rabbits to a bacteria that will always cause problems?
Do I need to do something different if I want to allow my rabbits to eat greens from the yard as opposed to just pellets and grocery store food?
Thanks for your help!

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Coccidia is not a bacteria, it is a parasite. Here is some more information for you....

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/exotic_ ... bbits.html

Hope that helps!

 

[Legacy Lane]

From what I have read cocci will not spread through different species.

 

[karenm99]

Coccidia is not a bacteria, it is a parasite.

Of course, you are right; I knew that :roll:
Thank you for the link

 

[Dood]

From what I have read cocci will not spread through different species.

Correct, so dog and cat coccidia will not cause disease in your rabbits, however, wild cotton tails and hares will. I suspect my rabbits got Hepatic Coccidia this way as I started feeding forage from my fields.

Coccidia usually is not a problem for healthy adult rabbits but young, old and sickly ones can quickly get a lethal load and die.

The parasite is not very hardy and is killed by UV, dehydration, and extreme cold so keeping your rabbits in a dry area that gets full sun will help prevent an overload of the parasites in the lawn.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_disease ... occ_en.htm

 

[Cottie]

I would be careful about the areas you let them eat the greens from. While cocci is generally species specific, it can cross species. There are several different varieties of parasites that cause coccidiosis. For example, rabbits can become infected from poultry. If you have other vermin that run through your yard (possum, mouse, etc) their droppings could carry oocytes, which would then be transmitted to the rabbits.

One of the big mistakes I made with my herd was not following a good course of prophylactic treatment for parasites, particularly because they received so many greens from the yard.

 

[MaggieJ]

I've been feeding gathered greens from our land since 2005. I could count on my fingers the number of spotty livers I have seen. We have wild cottontails, tons of wild rodents, occasional feral cats, free range poultry... but the population density is low. It has never been a real problem here.