Is it Coccidiosis?

[Schipperkesue]

Other than dealing with the occasional case of snuffles I have had no problems will illness, and as a result I have only paid a passing interest to discussions on rabbits and sickness. I has a kit die yesterday and it was a total surprise since she appeared very healthy right up until the day before.

My rabbits are pretty colored meat crosses. Beautiful and tasty!

They are housed outside on raised wire cages. There is a roof, but the sides of the rabbitry are open. They have 24/7 access to pelleted feed and water. We have just come out of a cold snap where the temperatures were down to -20 to -30 Celsius overnight (I water morning and evening when it is below 0 and each rabbit has a block of ice to chew as well). This past week we have been back up to 0 and above. The kit was a doe, living with her mom, in a 3.5'x2.5' cage. She was born the first day of October in a colony on the ground in a nice nest with 13 other kits. When the others were weaned I gave them to a friend and moved the kit and her mom to the wire cages. She thrived and grew.

When I found her yesterday she was laying on her side, and still soft and pliable. Her vent, lower abdomen and hocks were wet and there was a little clumping of soft feces on her rear end. I could only see normal feces beneath the cage and there was nothing sticking to the wire.

Any ideas about what happened to her?

 

[michaels4gardens]

Feeding some Onion tops, garlic chives, or garlic tops, will kill cocci- but-- there are several things to think about as a cause, including just having an abnormality in the gut . and there are just going to be unexplained deaths sometimes, -- but ,-keep a regular check on the rest of them, if it is cocci, you can have wet or dry vents, high or low temps, and some sudden crashes, -- and green onions [or Corid] are cheep.

 

[sunrise]

When you say green onion tops, do you mean the tops of scallions or something else? Thanks

 

[Dood]

Animals often urinate and defecate once dead as the muscles relax so the wetness and poop might not be a symptom.

Can you do a necropsy and inspect the organs and GI tract?

 

[Zass]

Bacteria can cause severe diahrea in kits with compromised immune systems.

Sometimes, it's a fairly common bacteria that rabbits are normally resistant to, like E-coli or Clostridium.

 

[Schipperkesue]

Thank you all so far. No I cannot do a necropsy as I have disposed of the body.

So she may have just died and the moisture /feces expelled after death? My major worry is it may by contagious and I have to watch the rest of the rabbits for illness.

 

[michaels4gardens]

When you say green onion tops, do you mean the tops of scallions or something else? Thanks

All allium family plants have "anti- coccidial" properties, but the tops are the most palatable to rabbits.[although some of mine like sliced raw onion bulbs] - this time of year, [for most folks] it is probably only easy to get green onions / scallions from the grocer

 

[sunrise]

Thanks for the info, the only green things I can get right now are from the grocery :lol:

 

[Zass]

I have a kit right now with mucoid enteritis. Symptoms started just yesterday.
She's...11 or 12 weeks. She's pretty sprightly still for a kit passing a lot of mucous...If she seems in pain, I'll euthanize, but for now I want to see if there is anything I can do. She's been switched off pellets and onto hay and oats.
She's getting smethicone gas drops and willow bark. She loves both.
I'm also giving her garlic and onion tops, since bacterial enteritis is often paired with cocci. It looked like a good time to give it a try. She also munches that stuff down pretty happily.
Waiting for the bene-bac to arrive in the mail.
Really wish I'd saved some raspberry leaf...

 

[michaels4gardens]

I have a kit right now with mucoid enteritis. Symptoms started just yesterday.
She's...11 or 12 weeks. She's pretty sprightly still for a kit passing a lot of mucous...If she seems in pain, I'll euthanize, but for now I want to see if there is anything I can do. She's been switched off pellets and onto hay and oats.
She's getting smethicone gas drops and willow bark. She loves both.
I'm also giving her garlic and onion tops, since bacterial enteritis is often paired with cocci. It looked like a good time to give it a try. She also munches that stuff down pretty happily.
Waiting for the bene-bac to arrive in the mail.
Really wish I'd saved some raspberry leaf...

interested to see how this turns out---

 

[Zass]

interested to see how this turns out---

Yesterday, I would have called her a gonner.
Lots of yellow-green semi transparent stuff that I had to clean off her backside.
I gave pedialyte along with the other herbs/medicine. She guzzled it. Seems to have a strong will to live.

I try to stay away from chemical medicines, preferring natural ones, but I like using the infant smethicone drops when I suspect inflammation, and mucous always means inflammation.

See, I also have an inflammatory bowel condition. I'm aware that simple gas pain can be magnified to ridiculous proportions. My theory is that by keeping any potential gas pain under control, it can help with getting the buns to take food willingly.

Anything to avoid force feeding, right?

There are TONS of herbal remedies that reduce gas.
From here: http://www.med.nyu.edu/content?ChunkIID=38618

Certain herbs called carminatives are traditionally believed to aid the movement of gas. These include anise, caraway , cardamom, chamomile , coriander, cumin, dill, fennel , garlic , ginger , parsley , and spearmint.

It's just that the little bottles of smethicone are very convenient for me year round. I tend to give them in addition to any of those herbs I might have on hand.

Today, her bottom is cleared up and she's produced some semi-firm stool. :shock:

With mucoid enteritis, I don't expect it to drag on too long. Either she'll get better or pass away within a few days.
If she does survive, I'll never know if it was due to any one thing I did, or a combination of all of it. :shrug:

 

[michaels4gardens]

what-ever works, -- with me-- if they will eat the medicinal plants-- they have better then 75% chance of survival---- if a sick rabbit won't eat garlic tops, they are almost surely a dead rabbit.