hepatic coccidiosis - ADVICE?

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Zass

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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:
image.php

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?
 
I had a cocci scare and used Sulmet. Instead of doing the "drinking solution" I gave it directly to the rabbits in their mouth.
 
I de-worm everyone with Sulfamethazine (Sulmet - dose should be 1-5 mg/ml in the drinking water) and the breeders get a dose each month.

I am also breeding for resistance but still do get the occasional diseased liver.
 
I've seem signs of hepatic coccidiosis in fryers on a couple of occasions, but none were sick and the livers were not as spotted as those in your photograph. It has never been a chronic problem here and I have never treated the other rabbits for it. I've never seen it in subsequent butcherings.

Disinfecting the run with a solution of household ammonia should kill the cocci parasite. Bleach, apparently, will not do it. I'd treat the area twice at intervals, just to be sure.

The meat from afflicted rabbits is still good to eat but be sure to discard the organs. Do not feed them to your pets.
 
MaggieJ":2gthhanv said:
I've seem signs of hepatic coccidiosis in fryers on a couple of occasions, but none were sick and the livers were not as spotted as those in your photograph. It has never been a chronic problem here and I have never treated the other rabbits for it. I've never seen it in subsequent butcherings.

Disinfecting the run with a solution of household ammonia should kill the cocci parasite. Bleach, apparently, will not do it. I'd treat the area twice at intervals, just to be sure.

The meat from afflicted rabbits is still good to eat but be sure to discard the organs. Do not feed them to your pets.

I'm also being careful as to how I dispose of raw parts or organs. I don't want them composted in any way that might contaminate my garden.
 
Because of chickens, goats, sheep, etc etc cocci is a normal part of life here.

Dood, you have noticed that the rabbits drink less water when you add the sulmet? Some of mine REFUSE to drink from the bottle and I end up pouring it out after 6-7 hours and refilling it with normal water. That's why I just treat by mouth.
 
Yes, they dislike it but I remove their water for 24 hours before giving them the treated so they don't have much choice but to drink the medicine .
 
Burn and turn and burn the soil if you can. Repeat a few times to be sure. Ammonia is also supposed to kill it.

Cocci can dwell in he soil for more than a year, some say 18 months.

Dood: I must ask.. you treat your rabbits monthly to prevent cocci/with a drug against cocci? And you still get it occasionally? Isn't that.. well.. not really working then? Seems to me the coccidiosis has become restistent from constant treatment... and honstly I wouldn't be surprised if the worms got resistent too. I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm just very much against preventative treatment, especially as often as every month.
Am I wrong to think you have wire cages? (I may be, I don't keep track on people set ups) but have you tried treating all the rabbits with a strong cocci-drug once and torch all cages (cocci dies at 60°C) really well to simply get rid of the problem once and for all? Where else would it come from if you effecively killed it? It has worked for people here at least. Wooden hutches and all...
 
Zab":21clvf36 said:
Burn and turn and burn the soil if you can. Repeat a few times to be sure. Ammonia is also supposed to kill it.

Cocci can dwell in he soil for more than a year, some say 18 months.

So...since burning and dousing the soil with ammonia isn't an option for me, maybe in two years I'll use that pen again.

I can add regular cleaning of cages with ammonia to the regime as well. They get the parasites that cause it through contact with feces, right? q
 
preventative treatment (prophylatic?) is generally not a good idea as it leads to drug resistant bugs.

When I had cocci in my herd I first culled everyone I didn't need.
Then I hand medicated everyone (wouldn't drink the water). Did that twice within two months.
And then I did it again one year later as I had a scare with a rabbit I brought in and didn't realize had it until I'd had her for a good while.

Treatment with Sulmet does the trick nicely.
 
Once they get hepatic cocci they are carriers for life.

My breeders are in cages but the growouts are in a colony. Everyone has it since it came in with the forages I harvested from the local fields.

The adults don't show show symptoms but does pass it onto their kits who are wormed at 4 weeks (monthly) so they dont get it bad, some still do hence the diseased livers.

I want to stick with the forage diet over the summers so I am selecting replacement does who seem ed to be the most resistant to the disease, unfortunately the only way to know for certain is to kill them and look at the liver so its not an easy thing to select for.

When I first got it in April-May I dewormed everyone and did a through disinfecting with ammonia of the rabbitry which is brick, concrete and metal so very easy to scrub clean, but it came back, I did a second disinfecting and did a torching, for the first time ever :) , and it came back so I am living with it and breeding for resistance.

My rabbits were not from pasture raised stock so I am chalking it up to genetics. The replacement does just had their first litters and I won't be medicating them to see how they do without, hopefully i can then pick the best if this bunch for summer kits.
 
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