OK, SO, the story goes something like this. I bought a SF doe from someone who had them on pasture.
She was delivered to me by the breeder.
Obviously unthrify, but she had a great coat and nice personality...SO yeah, thought I'd try.
It took me a while to sort out everything wrong with her, as she had a poorly healed leg injury as well as a thin waste and enlarged stomach area. Dood suggested hepatic coccidiosis. (something I had never dealt with before)
I culled her and autopsy revealed a few small white spots on her liver, nothing conclusive, right?
Well, anyway, she was kept in one of my an outdoor pens(since she was originally a pasture rabbit).
I decided to place a few growout bucks in the same pen, several weeks after culling her.
The does from the same litter were placed in a wire pen.
It became fairly obvious something was pretty wrong with the bucks, as they sickened and died, all but two, who began to get the same wasted, enlarged belly look as the SF doe.
All the does from the same litter that were kept in the wire pen look great, although I haven't culled one yet to compare directly, none show any sign of illness. (although I'm suspecting the sex change fairy may have visited one of em)
So anyway, I culled the bucks, and this time the autopsy was a bit more conclusive I think:
Both bucks were the same age and about the same size.
This is pretty obviously hepatic coccidiosis, right?
I believe the disease was destroyed with those two bucklings, as that doe was never exposed to anyone else, but I'm SURE it's going to linger in that pen, since the bucklings were infected weeks after the original carrier was culled. It's on the ground so sterilization isn't an option. How long should I let things sit before I put another rabbit in there?
Also I'm always paranoid about disease (with good reason!)
Does anyone have experience or wisdom that might be valuable to me?
I was seeing a few sites mentioning natural prevenitives and treatments
Branches and leaves high in tannin for prevention:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_disease ... occ_en.htm
Garlic for treatment:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18383795
Would it be smart to keep my buns on tannins for a while? How about caffeine free tea in their water bottles for tannins, just to make sure? Or am I worrying needlessly?
Any visually unwell animal I will obviously always cull, because I'm a meat breeder, and natural hardiness is a must, but I'd like to know...
Is this something that I will have to cull every rabbit I suspect might be carrying or can it be "cured". And for future reference, if a litter gets sick with this, should I cull the doe or treat her?
She was delivered to me by the breeder.
Obviously unthrify, but she had a great coat and nice personality...SO yeah, thought I'd try.
It took me a while to sort out everything wrong with her, as she had a poorly healed leg injury as well as a thin waste and enlarged stomach area. Dood suggested hepatic coccidiosis. (something I had never dealt with before)
I culled her and autopsy revealed a few small white spots on her liver, nothing conclusive, right?
Well, anyway, she was kept in one of my an outdoor pens(since she was originally a pasture rabbit).
I decided to place a few growout bucks in the same pen, several weeks after culling her.
The does from the same litter were placed in a wire pen.
It became fairly obvious something was pretty wrong with the bucks, as they sickened and died, all but two, who began to get the same wasted, enlarged belly look as the SF doe.
All the does from the same litter that were kept in the wire pen look great, although I haven't culled one yet to compare directly, none show any sign of illness. (although I'm suspecting the sex change fairy may have visited one of em)
So anyway, I culled the bucks, and this time the autopsy was a bit more conclusive I think:
Both bucks were the same age and about the same size.
This is pretty obviously hepatic coccidiosis, right?
I believe the disease was destroyed with those two bucklings, as that doe was never exposed to anyone else, but I'm SURE it's going to linger in that pen, since the bucklings were infected weeks after the original carrier was culled. It's on the ground so sterilization isn't an option. How long should I let things sit before I put another rabbit in there?
Also I'm always paranoid about disease (with good reason!)
Does anyone have experience or wisdom that might be valuable to me?
I was seeing a few sites mentioning natural prevenitives and treatments
Branches and leaves high in tannin for prevention:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_disease ... occ_en.htm
Garlic for treatment:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18383795
Would it be smart to keep my buns on tannins for a while? How about caffeine free tea in their water bottles for tannins, just to make sure? Or am I worrying needlessly?
Any visually unwell animal I will obviously always cull, because I'm a meat breeder, and natural hardiness is a must, but I'd like to know...
Is this something that I will have to cull every rabbit I suspect might be carrying or can it be "cured". And for future reference, if a litter gets sick with this, should I cull the doe or treat her?