Need some help with sterilizing a colony set up

[Iggysbabysitter]

Last night one of Queen BB's daughters kindled... due to being in a colony I didn't know for sure that she was pregnant until Tuesday. There are many places to use as nests (boxes, tunels and solid walled cages), and lots of fresh hay was layed out for her... I thought I had a few more days.
This morning I smelt the problem before I saw it. I saw the fur pulled and felt around for some kits, then heard more that were not in the nest. 2 were COLD on the hay, but still squeeking, one in a well built nest. But momma was dead on the floor in the corner beneath the cage she used as a nest box. Now I have Black bunny in that cage all locked up in hopes to make her foster those 3 with her 4. I now have to deal with the smell. Black Bunny is a new mom, and didn't clean up her afterbirth, and there was a smell in the air, but now with the trauma White Bunny went through I have more blood on an unfinished wood floor. How can I clean it up? Bleach? Watered down? I have to fix this smell fast.

Thanks for any input you have to offer

 

[MaggieJ]

I'd suggest white vinegar, full strength. Brush it in well with a scrub brush or scouring pad, soak up all you can with rags or paper towels and repeat. Vinegar is excellent for deoderizing and sanitizing.

Sorry you lost the doe. I hope Black Bunny fosters the kits successfully. :clover: :clover: :clover:

 

[Iggysbabysitter]

I'll let you know around noon when I check for warm full tummies. I was amazed that one wet kit, cold and alone was still moving. I hope it makes it. They were all very small compared to what Queen BB always had, I suspect they came early.

 

[MaggieJ]

Well, she's a young doe. Our Samantha had an OOPS litter younger than I like and the kits were very small, but they did well in spite of it. I think as long as they get regular full bellies and stay warm they will do okay.

Brian is working on our water problem today so I will be on here kind of off and on. There is not much I can do to help him, but I may not be checking in as much as usual. So if anything comes up that you need fast input on, don't hesitate to phone.

Did the vinegar work?

 

[Iggysbabysitter]

The smell is noticably less, I'll be out again after supper working on some smaller crevaces.

So I checked on the nest, and was greeted with yet another surprise... Black Bunny had dug up a few more kits in amongst the hay. I guess I missed a few So there are 6 kits to add to her own 4. I made sure all the new ones have full white tummies before I packed them up to stay in the house. I'll have to watch them for "cement butt" too. I'll be switching up the cages on the upper level of the colony (on the bunk bed hay rack!) to give this poor mommy more room to escape 10 kits. Her mom was a large producer (9-13 per litter), so I think Black Bunny will be ok raising all of them.

 

[MaggieJ]

Good for Black Bunny. :goodjob:

Hope the next application of vinegar does the trick. The wood may have to thoroughly dry out afterwards before the smell fades away.

 

[akane]

I would think a bare wood floor will be absolutely disgusting within a couple years. Lots of bunny pee and messes from birthing and occasional dead kits. Some of the stuff I've missed and found too late in colonies makes me very glad to have rubber mats down which I can just scrape clean and it usually is enough but bleach can be applied quickly if needed. For our foaling stalls we even made sure to seal the walls of the stall so that it could be properly disinfected between mares and colts. Being lower to the ground I haven't seen the need for that with the rabbits although the wall the cages are against was already varnished years ago. In the chicken coop we first tried painting the plywood floor and then ended up putting cheap linoleum over it.

 

[MaggieJ]

I have bare wood floors in the goose and rabbit house. As long as there is a good layer of shavings put down after clean-outs and then hay or straw, there does not seem to be a problem. My rabbits are very healthy and their livers, upon butchering, have been perfect. There is virtually no odour. Rubber stall mats may be a good idea, but to my way of thinking they hold the moisture in, allowing bacteria growth to prosper. Wood breathes.

 

[akane]

When we had dirt and then packed aglime stalls it slowed things down but no amount of bedding kept the floor from absorbing some moisture. If not stirred often it would grow mold from the moisture held in to the floor. Dirt stalls were so horrible because they absorbed moisture. 1 good rainstorm and the humidity would be high enough to soak the bedding from top to several inches in to the floor. They were impossible to keep truly clean. One spring we spent a week stripping the top layer of dirt off and putting down new. The mats may end up with the top of the bedding wetter sooner but it takes half as much bedding, 1/10th the amount of time to clean, is easy to sanitize, does not end up pulling moisture from the layer underneath, and because of that actually prevents mold much easier than trying to strip down other more absorbent or breathable types of floor. I've spent the past month pulling bedding out and disinfecting the aglime side of the rabbit colony when it takes me 2days to do the mat side of the colony. Trying to keep the wood floored chicken coops completely dry was also a nightmare. It didn't matter if I put 6" of bedding in there and stirred it daily. There would be wet sections and then I had 6" of bedding to clean out. With linoleum I had 2-3" of bedding to clean out and could scrape the worst spots once weekly and empty the whole mess in a couple hours resulting in a much cleaner coop.

 

[Iggysbabysitter]

Akane, I expect to replace the wood floor every other year. I am using deepbedding, and it has gone well. I have roofing shingles in the areas I expect the most moisture (under the water pots and a few corners) to help prevent it from rotting faster than the rest of the floor... I wonder, would rubber flooring work for deepbedding,as I only have to totally clean out 2 or 3 times a year.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

Rubber mats are great cushioning for horses and cattle, but, their very nature breeds fungal spores and bacteria Youmay put down a mat with a sleek, shiny surface, but that surface breaks down very easily. deep bedding or no, linoleum would be a lot less expensive torreplace, and easier to disinfect...