Kits dying, help ID'ing cause (graphic pictures added)

[MamaSheepdog]

I'm so sorry you have been hit with this, whatever it is.

I hope you get the results quickly.

All of the puppies are still healthy, I hope?

 

[Cottie]

Half the puppies became potbellied in the last 2 days. I've dewormed them. We're fasting them for 18 hours to see if it resolves at all, since it could be bloating from being weaned. If not, they're going to the vet. Yay.

I am not in a good place emotionally or mentally right now.

__________ Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:38 am __________

Excuse the rant.

I take GOOD CARE of my animals. I mean...obsessively good care. They're always clean and fed and watered and always receive the attention they need as soon as they need it.

Why can some people let their stock live in what is tantamount to squalor and have success?<br /><br />__________ Tue Sep 24, 2013 12:03 pm __________<br /><br />Talked to my aunt. Her daughter's husband is having the same problem with cattle. Fine one minute, dead the next. For 6 months. No cause found.

 

[Cattle Cait]

I'd blame Monsanto.

 

[Cottie]

Hard to do when they're dying no matter what I feed them.

 

[Dood]

That liver reminds me of Clostridium piliforme (Tyzzers disease) which can affect all sorts if species.

It normally kills an animal before getting a chance to desiccate a liver so that might explain why the others livers look mostly OK

Prognosis is not good

http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php ... _piliforme

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/digesti ... sease.html

 

[Cottie]

That liver reminds me of Clostridium piliforme which can affect all sorts if species.

It normally kills an animal before getting a chance to desiccate a liver so that might explain why the others livers look mostly OK

Prognosis is not good

http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php ... _piliforme

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/digesti ... sease.html

Are you on Facebook? Someone on there suggested Tyzzer's. Liver sure looks like it. It had a consistency akin to Jell-O left in the fridge for too long. That hard, dehydrated feel.

Why would it only be affecting the babies, though?

 

[skysthelimit]

I am not in a good place emotionally or mentally right now.

__________ Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:38 am __________

Excuse the rant.

I take GOOD CARE of my animals. I mean...obsessively good care. They're always clean and fed and watered and always receive the attention they need as soon as they need it.

Why can some people let their stock live in what is tantamount to squalor and have success?

This I understand.

And G-d knows I wonder the same thing.

 

[Cottie]

Another kit dead. One of South's 2 month olds. That's 5 today. I think I had an escapee, too. I don't even remember how many kits each doe should have at this point.

__________ Tue Sep 24, 2013 4:02 pm __________

We have SOMETHING diagnosed in one of the animals.

Rat Dog has "lung flukes." The vet said he'd never seen them before.

http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jh2922e/3.8.html

They can also develop to maturity in ectopic sites, particularly in the brain, where they may cause epilepsy, focal paresis and other signs of space-occupying lesions. Pulmonary paragonimiasis may produce clinical symptoms similar to or be associated with active tuberculosis.

We're having a fecal done on the rabbits in the morning.<br /><br />__________ Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:11 pm __________<br /><br />We scrubbed all the cages and cleaned all the dishes. Moved everyone into the garage for ease of medication. Processed my pretty gray buck *cry*. He started biting. When I opened him up, perfect organs but HUGE gallbladder and soft feces. Also, a lot of gas in his intestines. No wonder he got aggressive.

Lost another one of South's. She only has 3 now. I identified it as the next victim before it went. Got very lethargic, acted like it was trying to poop but no poop came. Roughly 2 hours later the seizing started while we were prcessing the gray buck. The seizing stopped after a few minutes, so we assumed it was dead. Nope, it lingered for another 20. We euth'd the poor thing.

The only common denominator has been the gas and the gallbladder. It's worse/bigger in some than others, just present/enlarged in all of them.

South has 3
Minnow has 4
Mrs Howell has 3
Pepper has 6

I had 28 kits and 3 grow-outs. Now I have 16 kits and no grow-outs.

 

[currituckbun]

So sad for all of your losses. I hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

 

[Cottie]

Thanks. I think getting the dog tested for worms really helped. It's opened up a whole new parasitic set of options. Yippee?

What I found tonight
http://www.nationalpetpharmacy.com/land ... worms.aspx

Liver flukes range from 5 to 9 mm in size and infect the liver, gall bladder and bile duct where, over long periods of time, they cause hardening of the tissues and eventually cancer. If left untreated, liver flukes can cause progressively greater weakening of the body followed by coma and death.

So...I only saw a hard liver in one, but...

 

[Dood]

I doubt the rabbits have liver flukes, unless they've been swimming in your local pond or eating water snails.

Most parasites, including flukes, are pretty species specific so the dog fluke likely only infects other canids or possibly raccoons and skunks and if they got into a herbivore they would die or at least not be able to mature and remain relatively harmless to them, waiting for the herbivore to be eaten by a carnivore so the parasite can complete its life cycle.

The duck probably doesn't have a fluke problem either they are definitely resistant to them as their main diet is aquatic animals.

 

[Cottie]

I doubt the rabbits have liver flukes, unless they've been swimming in your local pond or eating water snails.

Most parasites, including flukes, are pretty species specific so the dog fluke likely only infects other canids or possibly raccoons and skunks and if they got into a herbivore they would die or at least not be able to mature and remain relatively harmless to them, waiting for the herbivore to be eaten by a carnivore so the parasite can complete its life cycle.

The duck probably doesn't have a fluke problem either they are definitely resistant to them as their main diet is aquatic animals.

Y'know, Dood, I was really hopeful there would be a simple, obvious answer here. :lol:

Nobunny died overnight. Going to collect some bunny berries for the vet. I didn't think until AFTER we disposed of the bodies to remove a fecal sample from a dead one, so now I'm kicking myself.