Is a snotty nose ever NOT pasturella?

[Tiny Buns]

We were given a doe to start a new color line. She's very typey.

Anyway, we've had her for less than a month and she's always had a random sneeze or two which I attributed to being in our closed shed. Winter ventalition isn't the same as wide open doors in then summer.

So she sneezed again last night but this morning I see that she has a very wet nose with yellow thick discharge out of one nostril.

I've quarantined her.

Spoke to the breeder I got her from and apparently the doe has had this before, when the breeder first got the doe from the rabbitry she was born in. I guess both the original breeder and the breeder who purchased her (and passed her on to me) felt it wasn't a big deal. I am much more paranoid lol

So it was cleared up before with 5 days of pen-G bought at the local feed store.

I am feeling nervous (as I always do when any rabbit has sneezes or colorful discharge). It could be nothing, like when my holland buck had some hay stuck up his nose and had subsequent white discharge.....or it could be the dreaded "p" word.

Is yellow discharge ever something simple that passes..........

 

[SoDak Thriver]

In one of my NZ does it came, and passed. Then came again. And passed quickly. Turned out my does were mostly asymptomatic pasturella carriers (proven by examining the lungs post-culling) and they killed every buck I brought to them. You are right to be wary and I would not let your guard down on this one.

There are other things that can cause sneezing, like dust, but not usually discharge. As the Rabbit Production book says, "There is no such thing as a cold in rabbits."

 

[ladysown]

yellow could be bordatella or an infection of some sort.
White is generally pasteurella.

I simply don't mess around with any type of snot. I cull quickly for health issues.

 

[3mina]

I'm in the 'it blows, it goes' camp as well. I've had some fairly pricey dinners.
I'm extremely happy my newest buck survived quarantine

 

[Zass]

White snot isn't always a symptom of pasteurellosis, but it's presence indicates a strong likelihood.

The reason breeders are so jumpy about it is because of the risk. IF it is a nasty strain of pasteurella, your entire herd can become ill.
New rabbits you try to bring in could get sick with something that is incurable. Pets you sell could have lifelong infections, require costly veterinary care, be contagious for life.

I'm pretty sure that most of us would rather lose one rabbit than lose them all. Or have and sell rabbits that are a danger to all other rabbits.

It feels bit contradictory when you consider that most rabbits have been exposed to some amount of pasteurella. Resistance is better than non-exposure...
Until it comes to one of those particularly nasty strains. We simply do not want our herd to experience one of those.
I know, I've been there, culling most of my herd for white snot and wheezing. All but a few rabbits who were lucky enough to have been kept far apart from the others.

I feel that the quick-to-cull-for-visible-symptoms philosophy helps both eliminate or at least reduce the spread of the worst strains, and also helps reduce the number of animals with immune systems that are weak to pasteurella, bordetella, and other bacterial diseases..


All that said, I did bring a buck home from a show, saw white snot and tried an antibiotic instead of culling him right away.
Azithromycin is my go-to broad spectrum antibiotic for rabbits because it's unlikely to kill off their GI bacteria. Unfortunately, it's available by prescription only.
http://www.rabbit.org/health/antibiotics.html
http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medicati ... iotics.htm
And from here:
http://www.drugs.com/azithromycin.html

Azithromycin is used to treat many different types of infections caused by bacteria, such as respiratory infections, skin infections, ear infections, and sexually transmitted diseases.

The antibiotic cleared up all symptoms, and after 6 months I was confident enough to bring him out of quarantine. No sneezing for other rabbits he's contacted, nor for his kits. Either my herd has resistance, or it wasn't pasteurella...or it's just been in remission for a year. Still, I have spent a year poised to terminally cull the second I hear even the littlest sneeze from anybunny...

It has been a bit stressful, and I can't say that I'm not just a bit happy that I'll be replacing him shortly. He won't be sold. It's one thing to expose my own herd to a known risk. Selling him to someone else would be really unfair.