Possible Treponema-vent disease UPDATE

[caroline]

Well if it isn't one thing, it's another. I'm looking for why this latest is a "good thing"
but having a little trouble finding it yet.

I have two apparently healthy 11 month old Rex bucks who have "pimples" on their sheathes.
I was concerned enough to take one [it cost $60/ animal] to the local vet for a diagnosis.
The vet was very nice, even works at UC Santa Cruz doing research on rabbits.
But he could not either confirm or rule out my fear of vent disease.
He did print out some things from the medvet website and recommended that
I call UC Davis [6 hour RT drive from here]to have it evaluated.
Well I waited over the weekend and tried to call this am. Guess they must be closed for the holidays

I am REALLY bummed because when I look at my breeding records, many animals in my herd
have either been bred to one of these bucks, or bred to a doe that they had bred. I have kits from them too.
The confusing thing is that I haven't brought any new animals into my herd for well over a year
so I'm having trouble figuring out how this could have happened.

I have contacted several customers to let them know I will not be selling any rabbits
until I get this figured out and am sure I have healthy stock to sell.

The vet did NOT recommend treatment until I know if I'm dealing with treponema
but I decided that I don't just want to sit on my hands and so am reaching out
to anyone who has experience with this, like: how many animals did you treat?
What was your treatment regimen? Would you follow that regimen again? What were the results?

 

[DogCatMom]

I just "took a tour" of the UC Davis Veterinary School website. This page ("How to Schedule an Appointment") displays the regular hours, the regular phone contact number, and the "365/24/7" emergency contact number. Maybe the Emergency people can give you advice on making an appointment during regular hours this week?

I hope it works out! Rather alarming symptoms, with a more-or-less "closed" herd.

 

[lilrabbitry715]

Use pen G from your tractor trailer store. 1/10 ml per pound inject once a week for three weeks. I just got through this one and spent 300 at the vet for something it costs under 20 to cure!

 

[caroline]

Use pen G from your tractor trailer store. 1/10 ml per pound inject once a week for three weeks. I just got through this one and spent 300 at the vet for something it costs under 20 to cure!

Yes, it sounds like it's very treatable. I'm glad of that.
The difficulty is, do I need to treat?
If so, I will have to treat dozens of animals: the 2 suspects,
any does they were bred to, any bucks those does were bred to AFTER being exposed to the "carrier",
any does THOSE bucks were bred to after that breeding,
any kits resulting from any of those breedings....
It's a little daunting.
So I want to determine what I'm dealing with before I start treating

And I'm still puzzled about when/where it came from, IF it is treponema.
I don't breed outside does, or use outside bucks.
The last new animal I brought into my herd was over a year ago.
If it came from him, and he show no signs of it, then I have an even bigger group to treat.
That's MORE than daunting.

 

[Lastfling]

Could they possibly have just a pimple, similar to a whitehead? Pop the sucker and put some antibiotic cream on it and see if it reappears or heals and goes away. Most pics of vent disease I've seen have shown crusty looking sores, not pimples.

 

[ladysown]

it may just be a pimple. Vent disease usually ends up with rabbits with gunk on their heads as well (from cleaning themselves). Rabbits do get pimples sometimes....

 

[caroline]

it may just be a pimple. Vent disease usually ends up with rabbits with gunk on their heads as well (from cleaning themselves). Rabbits do get pimples sometimes....

That would be the best and I have a LONG history of thinking that preparing for THE WORST will somehow save me from pain. Of course it doesn't really work that way. The pain comes if I believe my stressful thoughts, whither they end up being "objective reality" or not. I'm struggling right now with being excited about the 7 does that are building nest and due to kindle tomorrow. The "what if the does and their kits are already infected?" thoughts do slip in periodically though. So... I'm breathing and waiting for the vet school to call me back when they return.

 

[lilrabbitry715]

I pray for your sake its not vent. I had to treat my whole herd. As the vet told me with out the injections you will have a recurring problem and it will effect breeding. It is transferred from Dam to Kit. You must use the antibiotics. I hated giving them shots.

 

[Diamond]

Use pen G from your tractor trailer store. 1/10 ml per pound inject once a week for three weeks. I just got through this one and spent 300 at the vet for something it costs under 20 to cure!

it has a 48 hour therapeutic window, so injecting every other day is more effective and continue treatment until 2 weeks after symptoms resolve. Commit yourself to doing the injections at about the same time every day and rotate injection sites, you can use the loose skin around the neck. When I have had to treat rabbits with Procaine Penicillin G, I add some "good" to the "Bad" and feed them a pinch of black oil sunflower seeds after the shot, to keep them friendly.

The rabbit syphillus can hide out if not treated aggressively, and become antibiotic resistant if treatment stops when symptoms disappear.

Usually it is a choice of commit vs. cull. If I do not have the time or motive to commit to 3 weeks or so of treatment, it is better to cull, because the disease will become embedded in the rabbitry over time.<br /><br />__________ Tue Dec 31, 2013 9:25 pm __________<br /><br />

it may just be a pimple. Vent disease usually ends up with rabbits with gunk on their heads as well (from cleaning themselves). Rabbits do get pimples sometimes....

agreed..... it does show up around the nose, like cold sores. Yeast and other bacteria can cause superficial infections, which will respond to some hygiene via baby wipes and a topical antifungal such as lotrimin cream

 

[Birds Buns N Bees]

Are the injections subcutaneous?

 

[caroline]

I won't go into all the machinations, phone calls,
and other stresses that I put myself through.
I just wanted to report that I took the 2 bucks with "pimples"
and a 3 week old kit with a scab on its face
[from one of their litters] to the final vet.

Although no seriological tests were run,
the vet said, "No, these look like the kind of pimples I've seen many
times in rabbits, not the crusty lesions from treponema."
She thought the kits face was from trauma, like a bite, not treponema.
She told me that crusty lesions would have formed within a few weeks
if it had been treponema. These bucks have had pimples for a couple of months!

While I would prefer that they NOT have the pimples, she did not believe they needed any treatment.

Needless to say, I am VERY relieved. Getting more so all the time as I allow myself
to believe this was a figment of my imagination :nightmare:

The other WONDERFUL part of this is that i can now enjoy the 7 litters [3 from these bucks]
and 79 kits that were kindled on New years' Day :thewave:

 

[DogCatMom]

Wow; that's a major relief!

thx for the update!