Coccidia GRAPHIC PICS

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Desert Rose Rabbits

Desert Rose Rabbits

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So, today I ended up culling the runt. When I was out sexing everyone he was very listless, and felt like a skeleton, and his eyes were incredibly dull. When I weighed him, he'd gone from 10oz on the 10th to just barely 7oz today. On top of that, when I turned him over he had a prolapsed rectum, so I did what needed to be done.

When I got into him, though, everything looked like what I expected for the most part... intestines were full of air, and there were additional bubbles of something around his poops. Lungs looked good, heart looked good, etc. What caught me, was that his kidneys looked really pale (forgot to get pics), and one of the lobes of his liver had this white track line through it and there were one or two specs of white on one other lobe. I took some pictures of his liver to see what you guys thought.

Everyone else looks to be doing fine and is gaining weight like I'd expect. I don't know if I should take a wait and see approach, or if I should medicate. The oldest of my kits (they've all been running around together) is just coming up on 7 weeks so I have time to treat and wait it out. I figure that I'll probably treat both of my does once they have their litters this week, just not sure what to do with the kits.

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It doesn't look like coccidia to me.

Sometimes a rabbit just fails to thrive, I suspect the runt was born with some unknown defect and was doomed from the start.
 
If he had additional globs of stuff around his fecal pellets, it could have possibly been enteritis. Can't be sure as I have an extremely small rabbitry and mostly trade out stock with my friends (know everyone's health intimately, we all trouble shoot ideas off one another), so I've never seen it, but that's what I would guess if I had those symptoms.
 
Yay! I won't freak out, then. I figured it was just enteritis at first and then i saw the white on the liver and freaked out a little. I'll stop worrying now! Thanks, guys!
 
I had kits with tracks like that in the liver. They are cause by tapeworm larvae. The rabbit is the intermediate host of the canid tapeworm. You may have seen the cysts in the abdominal cavity- they are clear globs with a white blob at one end. This link has pictures of the cysts, as well as other information.

http://www.raising-rabbits.com/tapeworm-life-cycle.html

The link above does not show a liver with the "tracks" in it. Here is a picture of the liver from one of my kits:

IMG_9967.JPG
 
Ugh... Totally grossed out now! So, my best bet is to go ahead and treat everyone, dog included. Do you think it's wise to treat the house cats as well? No one ever goes outside so their only contact would be through the dog.

All the websites I found on a quick look say to contact my rabbit savvy vet for treatment... Not going to happen. So, what would be my best course of action?
 
The link gave a treatment protocol:

Treatment:
Mebendazole, 1 gm/kg of feed for 14 days (approx 50 mg/kg bodyweight per day), should kill both mature and immature tapeworm cysts of T.pisiformis. Withdrawal time is 48 hours.

I haven't treated mine, and have seen no signs of it since the original two rabbits. Also, according to the link, it rarely causes problems in domestic rabbits, and people cannot get them. My two that had it had hindquarter paralysis though, so sometimes there obviously CAN be complications.

I think it would be most worrisome if feeding whole rabbits raw to your dogs or cats. Since my discovery, I have been sure to dress out all rabbits intended as food for the dogs and cats, looking carefully for cysts and tracks in the liver.

I believe mine probably got it from forage that I fed them.
 
Ahh... gotcha. Couldn't get the link to work on my phone. My biggest concern is that the dog goes out with me and when I'm feeding she sneaks bunny poop treats. I haven't been giving the dog anything but dressed rabbits, so maybe I'll just keep it that way. She can get her organs elsewhere. :) I was wondering if the forage might be the culprit over here. Our new backyard is pretty silty dirt and the neighborhood cats frequently use it and the one next door because it's been empty for over 20 years (long story), in addition, I've been seeing some weird ant nests at the base of the dandelion plants I've been harvesting. Wondering if that might have something to do with it.

Anyways, coolbeans, MSD! Thank you!
 
Your dogs can't get it from eating the rabbit poop, they have to eat the rabbit.

Are you familiar with the typical tapeworms that dogs and cats get? The intermediate host is the flea. The flea larvae eat the dried tapeworm segments that the dogs and cats pass. When the dog or cat swallows the (now adult) flea while grooming, the tapeworm starts its adult stage.

In this case, the intermediate host of the worm is the rabbit. When a dog or cat poops near a plant, the egg bearing segments crawl up onto the plant, hoping to be eaten by a passing rabbit. If the neighborhood cats have been hunting the local wildlife, and are pottying in your yard, that is probably the source.
 
We don't have fleas up here so it's not something that I've had to worry about as a transmission source.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but does that mean that tapeworm infected rabbits can't be fed raw to dogs, then? Or is it just the removal of the innards that's required?
 
The tapeworm larva in cysts can be anywhere in the body of the rabbit. The tracts in the liver are just scar tissue showing the worm crawled through the organ. Cooking and freezing the meat for 21 days will kill the larva in the cysts making it safe for humans and as raw diet for pets.

The rabbits could have gotten it from soil, dirt spray on forage or from the bottom of your shoe. The only rabbit I've had with tape worm liver tracts was one who was running loose for 3 days and likey picked it up in my neighbors garden that doubles as a litter box for stray cats.
 
Dood":et9mw4x8 said:
The tapeworm larva in cysts can be anywhere in the body of the rabbit. The tracts in the liver are just scar tissue showing the worm crawled through the organ. Cooking and freezing the meat for 21 days will kill the larva in the cysts making it safe for humans and as raw diet for pets.

The rabbits could have gotten it from soil, dirt spray on forage or from the bottom of your shoe. The only rabbit I've had with tape worm liver tracts was one who was running loose for 3 days and likey picked it up in my neighbors garden that doubles as a litter box for stray cats.
Click to expand...

Well, I gave everything but the internal organs to the dog right when I butchered, so I'll take a wait and see approach with the dog since she seems to be allergic to everything (can't even get vaccinated, which is fine 'cause her titers are good). None of the kits from these two litters has touched the ground - ever. So my only likely suspect is forage that I'd been feeding. Only the does have ever been on the ground and that was before I got a hold of them.

You know... I'm not squeamish about much, but anything parasitic-worm related seriously grosses/freaks/creeps me out. *shudder*
 

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