Rabbit Syphilis - Fact or fiction?

[jimmywalt]

We were told the following from a woman that purchased a baby bunny from us. I know the woman so I believe her, but I wonder if the vet diagnosed this properly?

Her nose has been running, she's been sneezing, and it looked like her nose was bleeding too. The vet told them that she has Rabbit Syphilis and she got that from the Mom. They caught it in time, and she has to have shots for 2 weeks with meds.They said that she has to stay away from other bunnies, cuz they can catch it too, as well as if you pet one and go to pet the other one. I wanted to let you know, so you were aware.

We haven't had problems with other bunnies from this litter, or previous litters for this doe. On top of that we kept 2 does from the same litter to use in our breeding stock and they seem to be growing happy and healthy too. They were born in late October.

What are your thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Deer Heart]

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_disea ... h_gen.html um... either she misunderstood the diagnosis or vet misdiagnosed the rabbit. Symptoms she stated are nothing like Rabbit Syphilis. Also cause is not 100% known because as stated in there, rabbits have gotten it suddenly without contact with other rabbits.

 

[ladysown]

Doesn't sound like syphilis to me... wrong symptoms.

So sitting here trying to think of alternatives.

Dust? Allergies? Run into something that caused some slight injury.

I would wonder if hurt a tooth (hence the sneezing and runny eyes). Would explain if there was a trace of blood as well.

Advise her to feed a good amount of hay if bunny is on meds.

 

[Deer Heart]

http://www.petmd.com/rabbit/conditions/ ... _epistaxis here's a good list of possible causes for nosebleeds in rabbits. I'm assuming the "shots" are injectable PenG which might help fight any possible infection related possibilities, but I'd be really concerned with that misdiagnosis there. Did the vet even look at the rabbits nose for foreign bodies? Check the teeth? Attempt to culture anything? (Someone needs a new vet that knows anything about rabbits for sure)

Some people also associate bleeding noses with heat stress but I highly doubt that this time of year :|

 

[Bad Habit]

Snuffles would be my guess.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

either she misunderstood the diagnosis

Snuffles would be my guess.

I think that they misunderstood the vet, and the owner misheard syphillis/snuffles. I suspect that many vets throw out a diagnosis of "snuffles" for sneezing and/or runny nose just as doctors diagnose eye irritation in humans as "pink eye".

Unless a culture was done on the nasal discharge there is really no way to know if the rabbit has Pasteurella, Bordatella, or something relatively benign like an allergy or a foreign body in the nose.