pasturella

[Dood]

it poses no threat (so long as it's under pharmaceutical management) to a(nother) rabbit, and the affected rabbit won't die prematurely.

unless the rabbit has a mild flare up, or chronic discharge, and his owner forgets to wash up and handles a friends / pet store / fair / rabbit show and gives those buns the strain

Or they sell the rabbit / hutch / cage / equipment on Craig's list and the buyers rabbit gets P

Or the rabbit is sent to the shelter / rescue and infects everyone there !

 

[OneAcreFarm]

it poses no threat (so long as it's under pharmaceutical management) to a(nother) rabbit, and the affected rabbit won't die prematurely.

unless the rabbit has a mild flare up, or chronic discharge, and his owner forgets to wash up and handles a friends / pet store / fair / rabbit show and gives those buns the strain

Or they sell the rabbit / hutch / cage / equipment on Craig's list and the buyers rabbit gets P

Or the rabbit is sent to the shelter / rescue and infects everyone there !

:yeahthat:

 

[sam]

I looked outside today in the barn and the "Reeper" was standing in the middle of my barn. I came to the conclusion that it would be best for all of the herd if all those that I got from that guy would go on a little journey to freezerville. Just wanting to make sure, is it ok to eat the rabbits with snotty noses? It's the last thing I want to do is get my 5 kids sick. Oh and my wife to, I kinda like her and all :mrgreen: . You guys have been the best. Thanks for the hard truth. I will never make this mistake again, it's been a hard one.

Sam

 

[Zass]

I don't think rabbits carry anything that makes their meat inedible if it's ALL THE WAY COOKED.
With pasteurella I think the main human danger would be infection if you rubbed the pus into an open cut.

 

[3mina]

I have a few pasteurella culls in my freezer right now, marked for me not my critters since they get raw.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I looked outside today in the barn and the "Reeper" was standing in the middle of my barn. I came to the conclusion that it would be best for all of the herd if all those that I got from that guy would go on a little journey to freezerville. Just wanting to make sure, is it ok to eat the rabbits with snotty noses? It's the last thing I want to do is get my 5 kids sick. Oh and my wife to, I kinda like her and all :mrgreen: . You guys have been the best. Thanks for the hard truth. I will never make this mistake again, it's been a hard one.

Sam

Discard the lungs and cook well. Don't feed the offal raw to your animals. If you see any evidence of internal abcesses in the abdomen or the meat, I would discard it all. Otherwise, it's fine to cook and eat.

 

[sam]

your thoughts.

I have a guy who will give me money for the infected rabbits per pound and a set amount for small kits. I could take the money or use it toward some new stock he has that have extremely good lines. my dilemma is, do I just cull them all out now, disinfect everything, keep the meat and start over with new stock or wait and let them kit out and then sell all of them for credit towards new stock. I don't want to throw possible money out the window, as little as it may be, but I would like to get started building a more healthy smarter herd.

The other dilemma I have is do I just cull the ones from the one breeder or cull everything and start over after disinfecting just to make sure I'm not starting with one's that may have been exposed or keep some I think have been far enough away from the infected one's to start with them. Am I nieve to think they all have not been infected or exposed. I also know that all rabbits carry some form of pasturella so would I be getting rid of rabbits I don't need to? I am so lost on what the best road is to go. I am a general contractor by trade and not to toot my horn quite good, but I am usually so decisive on what to do and now I really need to get this decided. All views and opinions are truly welcomed.

Sam

 

[Zass]

Do you mean sell them to butcher or as snake food?

 

[Desert Rose Rabbits]

I was recently in your situation. I have some strain of pasteurella running through my herd right now despite stringent QT practices. Since most of the local rabbits are infected, I've opted to breed for resistance. I've only had to cull one rabbit so far (my herd sire who turned out to be prone to sore hocks anyways), the rest are only sneezy/snotty when stressed. I do have one other buck who I'll be culling in the next day or so who was the cause of the initial infection since I now have one of his get that, so far, doesn't seem to be showing any symptoms. I'll also be culling one doe in a few months after I get one more litter off of her. Aside from that, I simply haven't brought in any new rabbits and won't until I have 'clean' rabbits over here. At that point, I'm curious to see how a new rabbit would hold up to exposure.

I think I've lucked out because the strain I've been dealing with has been handled by the rabbits very well.

Kitty103, 'breeding for resistance' is culling anything that shows symptoms and only keeping/breeding those that NEVER show any symptoms. Animals that show symptoms and then they go way and only return when stressed are NOT resistant. They are infected and pose a risk to the rest of your herd, any new animals you bring in, and any one else that buys from you. I strongly suggest you cull any rabbit that displays symptoms, if you are wanting to breed for resistance.

I don't think I made myself very clear. I only started raising meat buns this year and opted for long QT times on all my buns so it took a while to get any litters. So far I have only my foundation stock and the four litters that I've bred so far. My foundation stock is what is infected and they will be culled, but I need new stock first and simply can't afford the prices people are wanting for rabbits in my area. My entire herd is infected courtesy of a NZR buck I brought in that wasn't showing any symptoms until nearly 30 days after a 6-7 week QT. All of my original stock WILL be culled once I have stock to replace them with. The only rabbits being held back are animals that are not showing any symptoms at cull time for the meat buns (any rabbit that sneezes in a growout pen gets a giant X on their ear and gets culled when they're big enough). Again, everything including foundation stock will be culled, eventually. I just need to get there. I have two bucks and three does from my litters that are symptom free, so far, and those will be held back and monitored. If they sneeze, they'll be culled with no questions asked.

I have two more litters (one recently weaned, another still with their dam) that will, hopefully, give me some more does that are showing up symptom free. At this point, I don't immediately cull in my litters since the WHOLE HERD is infected and I just can't justify wasting their meat potential since the rabbits are not suffering. I think this works, for me, simply because I don't have a very aggressive strain.

I don't sell to the public, and won't be bringing in new blood until this situation has been rectified. I feel it's irresponsible to do so.

PS. I apologize is this reply comes of snarky, but I've had a horrible few days and waiting for the week to be over.

Edited to add: The rabbit that was culled was blowing snot and suffered a temperament change. The NZR buck will be culled in a day or so now that I have two potential bucks, and my foundation does will be culled once my new does are old enough to breed and have had a successful litter... possibly sooner if they begin to suffer.

 

[sam]

Do you mean sell them to butcher or as snake food?

I would butcher for myself and he would use as snake food. sorry for not being clear.

 

[Zass]

Do you mean sell them to butcher or as snake food?

I would butcher for myself and he would use as snake food. sorry for not being clear.

Oh then, by all means, you could let them kindle, you wouldn't even need to quarantine if you intend to euthanize every rabbit in the place, sterilize everything and start over with a bit of cash, a sparkly clean rabbitry and a full freezer.

Sounds like a pretty tidy plan actually.

You could also try to save your stock I guess, some might be OK or even resistant.
It's a drawn out process of waiting and watching. Most of us who have been through this and saved who we could had a pretty painful time of it...it seems. When it happened to me, I was able to save my favorite buck, who happened to be housed very far away from all the other buns.

 

[skysthelimit]

I've had buns get sick, ones I bought from other people. No one else got sick. You can cull all, but you don't have to cull the ones that have shown no symptoms yet. But at the first sign, cull em.

I have one in the yard that is in indefinite QT, and only because I am waiting to harvest her wool, after which, she goes bye bye. She's been snotty from August when I bought her, till now, with a constant chunk of white snot on her nose. She has never entered the barn. And I probably could keep her in constant QT, but after a while, it wears on me. And I'm feeding a doe I can never breed.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I was recently in your situation. I have some strain of pasteurella running through my herd right now despite stringent QT practices. Since most of the local rabbits are infected, I've opted to breed for resistance. I've only had to cull one rabbit so far (my herd sire who turned out to be prone to sore hocks anyways), the rest are only sneezy/snotty when stressed. I do have one other buck who I'll be culling in the next day or so who was the cause of the initial infection since I now have one of his get that, so far, doesn't seem to be showing any symptoms. I'll also be culling one doe in a few months after I get one more litter off of her. Aside from that, I simply haven't brought in any new rabbits and won't until I have 'clean' rabbits over here. At that point, I'm curious to see how a new rabbit would hold up to exposure.

I think I've lucked out because the strain I've been dealing with has been handled by the rabbits very well.

Kitty103, 'breeding for resistance' is culling anything that shows symptoms and only keeping/breeding those that NEVER show any symptoms. Animals that show symptoms and then they go way and only return when stressed are NOT resistant. They are infected and pose a risk to the rest of your herd, any new animals you bring in, and any one else that buys from you. I strongly suggest you cull any rabbit that displays symptoms, if you are wanting to breed for resistance.

I don't think I made myself very clear. I only started raising meat buns this year and opted for long QT times on all my buns so it took a while to get any litters. So far I have only my foundation stock and the four litters that I've bred so far. My foundation stock is what is infected and they will be culled, but I need new stock first and simply can't afford the prices people are wanting for rabbits in my area. My entire herd is infected courtesy of a NZR buck I brought in that wasn't showing any symptoms until nearly 30 days after a 6-7 week QT. All of my original stock WILL be culled once I have stock to replace them with. The only rabbits being held back are animals that are not showing any symptoms at cull time for the meat buns (any rabbit that sneezes in a growout pen gets a giant X on their ear and gets culled when they're big enough). Again, everything including foundation stock will be culled, eventually. I just need to get there. I have two bucks and three does from my litters that are symptom free, so far, and those will be held back and monitored. If they sneeze, they'll be culled with no questions asked.

I have two more litters (one recently weaned, another still with their dam) that will, hopefully, give me some more does that are showing up symptom free. At this point, I don't immediately cull in my litters since the WHOLE HERD is infected and I just can't justify wasting their meat potential since the rabbits are not suffering. I think this works, for me, simply because I don't have a very aggressive strain.

I don't sell to the public, and won't be bringing in new blood until this situation has been rectified. I feel it's irresponsible to do so.

PS. I apologize is this reply comes of snarky, but I've had a horrible few days and waiting for the week to be over.

Edited to add: The rabbit that was culled was blowing snot and suffered a temperament change. The NZR buck will be culled in a day or so now that I have two potential bucks, and my foundation does will be culled once my new does are old enough to breed and have had a successful litter... possibly sooner if they begin to suffer.

No, no snarky at all, and I appreciate the explanation as it wasn't clear in your original post. I have been in your shoes and it STINKS....really bad, so I can completely empathize with what you are going thru. Hang in there, it will get better eventually.

 

[ottersatin]

I am of the opinion that the only way to go
once your herd is stricken by Pasteurella,
is to breed toward disease resistance.
I mean that any rabbit showing any sign of illness
or weakness is CULLED. It may sound harsh and possibly even cruel,
but isn't it more cruel to place your whole herd at risk?
If you do not take some sort of action, it is quite possible
that you may have to cull the entire herd! DON'T get rid of
any animals indiscriminately, but certainly take quick action
at the first sure sign of any illness. Quick action may help
to save the majority of your herd.
Ottersatin. ldtimer: