The sub title of this topic is: Deciding when to treat and when to [terminal] cull
When I was out in the barn today, engaged in one of my favorite daily task, feeding and watering the bunz, it occurred to me that in all 60 cages I was tending all the rabbits seemed healthy. I didn’t see any evidence of diarrhea or snotty noses. I didn’t hear any wet sneezing. I didn’t see any scratching and bare spots, or uncomfortable dancing about due to sore hocks or feet. There were no rabbits lying twisted with wry neck from the E. cuniculi parasite. No momma’s with caked sore mammary glands. And as I took this in and reflected on the past few years it occurred to me how grateful I was to have worked my way through all of these various “opportunities” and to now have a sense [IN MY HERD] of when it makes sense to treat and when it is kinder to cull the affected rabbit ASAP.
Initially my rabbits seemed healthy and I thought I could keep them that way by practicing good sanitation, feeding a variety of “natural” things, adding probiotics to their diets and choosing carefully and isolating new stock for 60 days before exposing to the herd, and giving them "comfy" sitting boards. So even though I only show infrequently and I brought only 3 new rabbits into the herd in the last 5 years, I began seeing all the above symptoms in a previously symptom-free herd.
I have treated: mites, coccidiosis, wry neck, sore hocks and mastitis using both antibiotics and other chemical treatments, as well as a number of alternative-herbal treatments. I have come to the conclusion that mites and coccidia respond well to treatment, although the whole herd may have to be treated. I have also decided that, for me, the best thing to do with a rabbit that develops bleeding sore hocks, wry neck, or the snotty sneezing that points to pasturella, is to terminally cull ASAP and to disinfect their cage before using again. I have also decided that I will not rebreed a doe who develops mastitis. And when I say "cull" I really do mean that I butcher the animal. I don't give it away, or sell it to someone else and prolong the problem.
This has not always been easy to follow. It has been hard to cull the doe that was FINALLY the color I’ve been working for, or the buck that had sired that litter of 19. But as I look at the rabbits that I have today, and think back over the years and the ones that I culled, I don’t regret the culls. I’m glad that they didn’t stick around to infect the rest of the herd, or to pass on their less than optimal immune system to another batch of kits that could end up providing me with more animals that weren’t healthy enough to live without inconvenient, expensive intervention.
When I was out in the barn today, engaged in one of my favorite daily task, feeding and watering the bunz, it occurred to me that in all 60 cages I was tending all the rabbits seemed healthy. I didn’t see any evidence of diarrhea or snotty noses. I didn’t hear any wet sneezing. I didn’t see any scratching and bare spots, or uncomfortable dancing about due to sore hocks or feet. There were no rabbits lying twisted with wry neck from the E. cuniculi parasite. No momma’s with caked sore mammary glands. And as I took this in and reflected on the past few years it occurred to me how grateful I was to have worked my way through all of these various “opportunities” and to now have a sense [IN MY HERD] of when it makes sense to treat and when it is kinder to cull the affected rabbit ASAP.
Initially my rabbits seemed healthy and I thought I could keep them that way by practicing good sanitation, feeding a variety of “natural” things, adding probiotics to their diets and choosing carefully and isolating new stock for 60 days before exposing to the herd, and giving them "comfy" sitting boards. So even though I only show infrequently and I brought only 3 new rabbits into the herd in the last 5 years, I began seeing all the above symptoms in a previously symptom-free herd.
I have treated: mites, coccidiosis, wry neck, sore hocks and mastitis using both antibiotics and other chemical treatments, as well as a number of alternative-herbal treatments. I have come to the conclusion that mites and coccidia respond well to treatment, although the whole herd may have to be treated. I have also decided that, for me, the best thing to do with a rabbit that develops bleeding sore hocks, wry neck, or the snotty sneezing that points to pasturella, is to terminally cull ASAP and to disinfect their cage before using again. I have also decided that I will not rebreed a doe who develops mastitis. And when I say "cull" I really do mean that I butcher the animal. I don't give it away, or sell it to someone else and prolong the problem.
This has not always been easy to follow. It has been hard to cull the doe that was FINALLY the color I’ve been working for, or the buck that had sired that litter of 19. But as I look at the rabbits that I have today, and think back over the years and the ones that I culled, I don’t regret the culls. I’m glad that they didn’t stick around to infect the rest of the herd, or to pass on their less than optimal immune system to another batch of kits that could end up providing me with more animals that weren’t healthy enough to live without inconvenient, expensive intervention.
ldtimer:
