Thoughts on enteritis, preventive care and Bio Sponge

[dangerbunny]

I have been reading a lot recently on Weaning Enteritis and Mucoid Enteritis, it seems fairly widespread for breeders to have issues at weaning, death, faders or poor growth. I think good management and only breeding healthy animals can help but sometimes despite your best efforts you lose some especially with factors like extreme temperatures and it sucks. I got to thinking of how I would treat it if I were raising horses, since rabbits and horses have similar digestive system and I remembered Bio-Sponge. A friend of mine has used the product in the past on a horse with chronic diarrhea issues and it worked great, recently I was reading on a horse care forum about breeders using it on foals to prevent scour.

The ingredient in Platinum Performance Bio-Sponge is a type of clay, Di-Tri-Octahedral Smectite. It is safe to use and comes in a gel or powder.

Bio-Sponge
™
is an intestinal protectant designed to help support healthy intestinal
function. This formula has substantial capacity to adsorb toxins, viruses, bacteria
and free radicals. A university study showed that Bio-Sponge adsorbed 99% of
clostridium difficile and clostridium perfringens toxins in vitro

This is the information from Platinum Performance website
https://www.platinumperformance.co.nz/m ... lletin.pdf
http://www.platinumperformance.com/Equi ... fo/EBIOP4/

This article is talking about a similar product, http://www.rxvitamins.com/Resources/Rx% ... -20-13.pdf, http://www.amazon.com/Rx-Vitamins-Pets- ... B008F7M4KY
I found this study especially interesting

Decreases bacterial mucolysis and pathogenic destruction of mucosal barrier system
In an experimental diarrhea model in the rabbit,E. coli created an invasive and
toxicogenic effect that was effectively countered by the administration of diosmectite
clay. The clay was found to promote the reabsorption of water from the bowel without
altering electrolyte absorption. Enzyme levels of alkaline phosphatase and disaccharidase
were both elevated in this study, which are indications of the protective effect of the
clay on the epithelial mucosal luminal surface of the bowel. (Rateau 1982)

I haven't found a whole lot of information on using it on rabbits except for this post http://www.examiner.com/list/bio-sponge ... et-rabbits

I think I'm going to get some and feed it as a preventive during weaning and transitioning to solid food, I will report back after I give it a go.

 

[Dood]

I dont think there is anything toxic in the product so it shouldn't hurt

BUT

I think weaning enteritis is less common than the websites make it out to be.

I wean at 4-5 weeks and have had over 250 kits born here and have only lost 3 to what I would call weaning enteritis and 2 to broken backs. That's it for my kit mortality (excluding stillborns and a few runts who were all under 5 days old)

Even the hepatic coccidia outbreak didn't kill anyone.

Others experiences?

Grumpy ?

 

[akane]

I don't know how many rabbits we've had. I've gone through 2, 250 packs of bullets on the meat rabbits plus we sell to pet buyers, and we've sold a few show quality rabbits. We've never had diarrhea in kits. We often do back to back breedings so they wean by 4 weeks. We've lost a few young litters before they start eating solids and we had one hot, humid summer cause cocci infections in the colonies because we couldn't keep things dry. They had no symptoms though and just dropped dead. Except the netherlands for some reason. They survived anything.

Hay helps a ton I think. The fiber keeps the digestive tract moving correctly. I think that is the best preventative. If you do end up with diarrhea it is often easily solved by grass hay and old fashioned oatmeal for 5-7 days before slowly reintroducing pellets. There is also benebac or acidophilus capsules which aren't real expensive. Just mix a little in water and syringe in to the rabbit's mouth. The benebac paste they actually like the taste of and will eat it right off the tube or your finger. We used that for an orphaned litter to try and stop deaths with solid food introduction. Litters kept away from adult rabbits are not exposed to the bacteria needed for digestion of solid food when they leave the nest box.

 

[ladysown]

but some herds experience alot of issues with entropathic illnesses.

I have found focusing on good health (with or without the use of hay as a stabilizer) is the most important thing to do.

For those herds that have the odd outbreak I could see using a biosponge product during seasonal changes...

but I would still hesitate as I firmly believe the breeding for optimal health is the best preventative.

 

[skysthelimit]

Before the outbreak this summer, in the past two years, I've had at least 200 kits born here (I had 75 just this year between Feb and May), I only had 4 cases of enteritis, and two survived. I syringed electrolyte, massaged the belly and fed dandelion. Then I culled them from my breeding program.

One of the things that cued me in that the recent problems was not a normal course of weaning ME, was that it spread to all 4 breeds, and killed new adult rabbits that I brought in after my initial herd had been ravaged.

Still I do wonder if perhaps the bio sponge would have helped, but in my own thinking, I still would have culled the ones that got sick, as a matter of course, because there were many who id not get sick, and continued to reproduce during the whole ordeal.

All this to say that ME is common but not that common. good breeding and sanitation is the best preventative, though there is nothing wrong with a boost of probiotic goodness.