Finally got some Rex Update: bad news

[Deer Heart]

Just thought I'd share a bit of my excitement at finally finding (and acquiring) a trio of Standard Rex's. It was a 1.5 hr drive but soooo worth every minute of it.

The opal is a buck, the broken black and broken castor are both does. Their parents were gorgeous, huge, and had thick velvet coats(no sore hocks anywhere!). I know they say not to breed castor and opal together but I don't care, I'm breeding for pelts & meat, not shows and some variety in colors is a bonus there. The breeder said opal runs in all of their lines anyway, as does black (otter), red, and castor. I did see a single broken chinchilla from the litter I got the broken castor from so it's somewhere in their lines, fingers crossed.

They are all very friendly too (the broken castor is the shyest but she still wasn't jumpy once placed in her new cage).

Hopefully this means I'll be bouncing back after that bear attack really soon. Wish me luck guys, still got a month long quarantine to pass.

UPDATE 2/10/16

Crap. Opal buck started sneezing. I thought it was just because I had just put Hydrated lime and kitty litter down in the area to clear up a massive mud issue (this was Sunday and there was a LOT of dust despite my best efforts to keep it to a minimum). Today, he was still sneezing and now has yellow crust around his nostrils and slightly rough dry fur along the sides of his paws(the actual discharge is clear though). He's now separated from everyone else but I feel like considering all of this person's small herd was in the one area, were bred and raised there, that all of them should already have it if one of them does? I don't know if it helps, but it has been extremely windy here every day since I cleaned and laid that junk down. This is so upsetting I don't even know what to say.

 

[alforddm]

Congratulations!

 

[Oscar]

What beauty's!

 

[FourRingCircus]

That broken castor is so pretty! Hope the quarantine phase goes well!

 

[caroline]

Great!
I breed opal and castor together. Opal is just the dilute of castor.
If you are not concerned about getting "recognized" color then no worries.

I too like variety and even though I have pretty much stopped going to shows to avoid stressing the bunz and bringing home disease, I have tried to breed so that I don't get REALLY funky colors, like torted otter, since I do sell stock to people who may care about showing.

I have found that it's best to keep the chin gene to its self, and can also breed it with REW.
I often use REW to "test" if a non-chin rabbit carries the gene .

I also try to keep red to itself, and with harlequin, or tri color, otherwise you can get some "interesting" unrecognized varieties, like tortoise shell [which is actually very pretty, just not recognized in standard Rex].

 

[Ramjet]

Glad you found what you were looking for .... I know how hard it is to find Rex much less good ones.

 

[dfr1973]

Bravo! They look so soft. Did this breeder have any blues?

 

[Ramjet]

Bravo! They look so soft. Did this breeder have any blues?

I have blue .... and black & chocolate & lilac ..... and one tri doe that there is no telling what she'll give me.

 

[Deer Heart]

The breeder called me on friday. She found another breeder and they have blues! She was heading there for a couple to improve their herd she was asking if she should grab some for me. I asked for just 2 (a buck and a doe) preferably blue but opal okay. I get there yesterday and she had gotten a broken opal buck and 2 does for me to pick from (solid opal doe and broken blue doe) ... I went home with all 3. I couldn't help myself. She thought the broken was an opal but I blew into the fur. There is no way it's an opal, the bands are white to blue with no brown band but there is a very slight rusty tinge at the nape and at the nose. I'm thinking Broken Blue Otter? Will get y'all pics in just a few.

__________ Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:32 pm __________

Inc Pictures. <br /><br /> __________ Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:35 pm __________ <br /><br /> Last picture

 

[ZachsRabbits]

I like dilutes so much more interesting than dense colors.

 

[Oscar]

They look sooooooooo soft!

 

[Deer Heart]

Crap. Opal buck started sneezing. I thought it was just because I had just put Hydrated lime and kitty litter down in the area to clear up a massive mud issue (this was Sunday and there was a LOT of dust despite my best efforts to keep it to a minimum). Today, he was still sneezing and now has yellow crust around his nostrils and slightly rough dry fur along the sides of his paws(the actual discharge is clear though). He's now separated from everyone else but I feel like considering all of this person's small herd was in the one area, were bred and raised there, that all of them should already have it if one of them does? I don't know if it helps, but it has been extremely windy here every day since I cleaned and laid that junk down. This is so upsetting I don't even know what to say.

 

[EnglishSpot]

My heart goes out to you during this time of trying to decide what course to take!!! I had to cull a favorite buck of mine two weeks ago due to questionable health, and while I am sad, I am not regretful since it protects the rest of my herd.

Hugs to you!!!!!

 

[Zass]

My procedure would be:
Quarantine,
Check areas carefully for irritants. (Water or hay up nose, mold, dust, smoke, etc)
Wait and watch.

It may be lime dust irritating him, or stress...or disease.
If it IS disease, it's possible that only one rabbit breaks with it even if all have been exposed.
When that happens, you at least know which one has the most compromised immune system, right?

 

[dfr1973]

Aw, Sali, I am sorry to hear this. I am really hoping it's a combination of weather and the lime - he is a cute fellow.

 

[Deer Heart]

it is quite possibly the lime, I was wearing thick rubber gloves and still somehow got it all over the back of both hands to the point I have a painful rash on both that is still trying to clear up. He literally started sneezing as I finished that (it was a very long string of dry-sounding sneezes) and before I got the pine bark down on top of everything. Because of the timing, I did not immediately remove his presence. If it turns out to be pasteurella, I could very likely lose 90% of my herd as I culled very heavily to make room for the rexes and all of the rex are from the same source and were exposed directly to him in one way or another.

I don't know if I should remove his cage neighbor's as a precaution, especially when one was seen trying to "catch his nose" through the bars after the first sneezes and before crusty nose. <br /><br /> __________ Thu Feb 11, 2016 8:34 pm __________ <br /><br /> If he gets better on his own without antibiotics, does that mean it wasn't the p-word? He's sneezing less today and his nose looks dry again?? :/

 

[imajpm]

It kinda sounds like it was the lime. I'd keep him quarantined and watch him closely. The thing I would worry about is how much lime he got up his nose and if he managed to inhale it. Hopefully that won't cause any problems with a future resp infection.

 

[Deer Heart]

Okay, now his nose is dry, still crusty, inner forelegs are dry and properly groomed (you can't tell they ever were dirty). But now almost all of my other rabbits have dry lightly clumped fur on their inner forelegs, including my original NZWs, but none of them are sneezing, wet nosed, anything that I can see. Just the one??? I don't get it. I'm starting to defo think it was the lime and he's better because I moved him to a much more ventilated space away from where this happened (he's under a tree in a lonely little cage w/ feed bag roof right now). I could kick myself.

__________ Wed Feb 17, 2016 9:06 pm __________

How long should I keep him separated from the others? His nose has been dry since the day after I removed him from the area, no swirly matts on the inside of his paws, but one - oddly enough - on his throat/jaw area (it looks like he rubbed his throat area on something that was wet, it's the strangest thing since I can't figure out how he could physically leak anything himself onto that specific spot without any surrounding fur being wet)

No crusty nostrils, eyes are bright and clear and there's been no hairloss, no snorting, no breathing noises, and the sneeze fit I did hear was very dry sounding. My gut says he's fine but the last thing I want to do is get all of my stock sick.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Glad to hear he looks better.

I would give him 30 days from the last day any symptoms were noticed.