Culled a kit today... a mystery

[ladysown]

So for the past three days I've been keeping a close eye on a (would be now 22 day old) kit.

It's been having a pussy (not a cat) --- how does one spell Pus ie? how???? .. pus coming out of it's bum.

I've never experienced this before. The kit overall seemed healthy enough until today when it suddenly was weak with an ever so slight head tilt...due I think to weakness (but not sure).

I'm really really hoping it wasn't something brought in by that horrid black doe...but I'm... really unsure about this.

It was NOT diarrhea. It was like thick pus. it was sticky, glommy and just odd. It had a "not poop" odour to it as well.

What would cause this?

It was quite a small kit so I did not do an autopsy. I would have totally mangled the body as I don't have fine enough tools to autopsy a really small kit.

It was nursing well as I saw it nurse at least once in the past few days. It was nibbling hay and had just started on some oatmeal.

Do anyone have any ideas on what the cause of this would be? Do I put it down to a one off or do I have a weird illness in my rabbitry???

 

[akane]

I had this in a chick once. The infection came in through the umbilical area and caused an abdominal wide infection which leaked through the intestines. Applying pressure to the abdomen would cause more puss to come out. It lived fine for 5 days on antibiotics and then got too weak to eat and died.

 

[TerriG]

Could it have been mucoid enteritis?

 

[ladysown]

nope, not mucous....it was pus.

 

[TerriG]

The reason I asked about Mucoid Enteritis is because the very first kit we lost, before we knew anything about Enteritis, had a pussie or mucousy butt. He stunk so bad. I read that Enteritis that strikes later (we lose lots of kits around 4 weeks old, but this was around 9 weeks) can turn into a secondary infection. I don't know if that kit had Mucoid enteritis or Enteritis with a secondary infection. I think based on smell, it was a secondary infection.

 

[Miss M]

how does one spell Pus ie? how????

I believe it's "pusy".

But wow, it does sound like a really bad infection for it to be pooping pus! It could have started with an abdominal injury, even... like being stepped on when just a popple.

 

[Tegan]

According to my old boss (A vet) "puss-y" is not a word. The correct word would be "purulent" (Containing, discharging, or causing the production of pus). So you could say he had a purulent anus.

As far as what caused it...sorry, no idea. I would put it down to a one off though, esp if no one else is showing any of the same signs.

 

[ladysown]

thank you... I think I'll use "purulent" from now on.

So either an injury or a one-off. I can live with that notion. Though I really wish I didn't need to. I wanted that colour in my herd....solid smoke pearl....such a pretty adult colour...

I know it's not entropathic illness since had no signs of such....I'm well acquainted, unfortunately with entropathic illness. BUT YEAH!! Have mostly bred that out of my herd. (knock on wood).

Next battle is getting rid of the kit weakness that black doe brought into my herd, and the buck that's not helping with that particular battle....