Tumorous growths- what the heck?

[waymire]

We have a meat colony consisting of 20 does and a buck, along with young kits (probably around 25 right now) and fryers in grow out hutches ( currently about 50). So a lot of rabbits. We raised them for years before we moved, sold them all before we left, and have had the current "herd" for over a year. I have never seen anything like this... but then again I have never had so many total numbers of rabbits, and we now live in S. Louisiana... they have some crazy stuff down here when it comes to diseases and parasites.

All was fine until about two months ago, we noticed some blood on one of the bunk feeders in the colony, looked everyone over and found one of my best does had a huge growth in the inner corner of her eye. It came up really fast, within a few days. It was irregular shaped, weepy and prone to bleed, and about the size of a quarter. I quarantined her for a few days, applied topical ointment, flushed out the eye... and it was obviously not improving so we put her down. About a week later we found two kits from the same litter, about six weeks old, with large subcutaneous lumps. One baby had four on it's back and sides, the other had one on it's foot. I started doing some research and these appeared to be warbles, solid slightly oblong lumps right under the skin, about the size of a green grape. I did not try to remove them, hoping they would erupt on their own, but they grew so big and nasty we decided to put those two down as well. Two weeks ago I found another young kit with a lump in it's hind leg, somewhere within the thigh muscle. This one grew to about the size of a hens egg, the poor guy could no longer hop and was put down. Now just yesterday, I went to feed the fryers and found a baby with a huge lump on his nose, this one looks very similar to the original doe's lump, irregular and weepy, and it too has come up very fast... it was not noticeable even two days ago. Other than the lump he does not appear sick, none of the rabbits do. They are all extremely healthy, much more than any rabbits I have raised in the hutch, we don't even get ear mites, and I have never had this kind of production from my rabbits before, just babies everywhere. This sounds like a lot of sick rabbits.. but if I crunch the numbers I'm looking at about 5 out of 100... and that is not counting the huge number of fryers that have already been processed this spring. any ideas what the heck is going on? From my research the warbles are pretty common in this area if that is what they were, like I said they have crazy nasty parasites here. But the other tumors are really freaking me out. The doe I could understand, she was older... but babies do not just get tumors normally...

Another problem we have found is a Rex strain in our colony. We had one litter of curlies... thought they were cute, but they had some pretty serious problems. One wasn't right mentally, it appeared to be retarded and walked funny although otherwise healthy, and we lost three more before they were grown (out of a litter of six), one of those for certain had a seizure, I witnessed it. We have had one more litter that had two curlies in it, and both of those died by 12 weeks, one was found dead, the other was an other seizure. Again this is a very small percentage of our actual babies, but has anyone heard of the Rex gene carrying lethal genetic faults? I would cull the doe, but unfortunately I'm not exactly sure who she is, and many of our does co-parent or foster kits from others so even if she is nursing them, it doesn't mean she is genetically linked.

I appreciate any feedback.

 

[MaggieJ]

I've never seen anything like what you describe, but I do think you need to do more to find out the source of the problems. When a problem pops up more than one time, culling the afflicted rabbit may not be enough.

The ones you suspect of being caused by warbles can be verified. Warbles leave a tiny air hole at the site and with tweezers can be removed. Even if you plan to euthanize the rabbit, you could cut the lump open afterwards and see if it contains a warble.

The other lumps, the weepy, prone to bleed ones, could be a form of pasteurella or possibly of vent disease. You likely need to research these and other rabbit diseases and try to get a diagnosis. Otherwise, instead of a few isolated cases, you could see an explosion of disease in your colony.

I hope some of our other members, particularly those from the South, can give you some guidance as to the cause of these problems.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Those tumors sound like pasteurella to me...have you cut any of them open to see what they contain? I agree with MaggieJ, if it is a warble, you should see an airhole and be able to extract it carefully.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I am also concerned that they may be pasteurella. I had to cull my original herd buck due to a huge abscess which I suspect was pasteurella. I did a needle aspirate of the lump and extracted thick white pus, but did not dare open it further fearing too much contamination. Here is a link to the necropsy photos:

floyd-is-finished-graphic-necropsy-photos-t5919.html

I had a house rabbit years ago and she had an abscess in her eye. The vet told me that it is common in large populations of rabbits, and can be transferred through wounds.

 

[LindseysWoolies]

sounds like the "wolves" at least that is what i've always been told they are called that the squirrels get here in the spring, they are covered in pussy draining lumps which contain fly larvae.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

sounds like the "wolves" at least that is what i've always been told they are called that the squirrels get here in the spring, they are covered in pussy draining lumps which contain fly larvae.

You mean WARBLES?

 

[Diamond]

I am not incredibly experienced with rabbits at this point, but I have raised a lot of livestock and I see several red flags regarding the tumors. You are dealing with an epidemic, whatever it is, and need to act accordingly. Consider culling the whole herd and starting over in fresh cages with fresh stock while you can sanitize the existing colony grounds and equipment.

I would certainly STOP BREEDING at this point. Find your bucks and isolate them. Euthanize any animals who are showing symptoms.

Build new housing for the rabbits you have as soon as possible, separate animals as much as possible, and continue to cull animals who become symptomatic over the next 3 months.

Contact your local agricultural extension office (usually through state ag university) and describe your problem. Ask if a necropsy can be done, and how much it would cost (there may be ag students needing a project). If you are raising rabbits to feed yourself, then it is worth the money to invest in finding out what is affecting your population on this epidemic level.

It sounds to me to be most likely caused by bacteria, considering the locations of the abscesses. Warvils prefer fleshy areas, not toes, eyes, noses or vents. Once isolating your breeding stock consider IM penicillin injections (I am not a veterinarian nor claim to have extensive veterinary knowledge. IM penicillin is an over-the-counter treatment that can be bought at feed stores. It is a standby for people who raise livestock - as my husband says, if three shots of penicillin doesn't cure the illness, then a .22 shell will.) Titrate the dose to treat a 10 pound animal. The normal dose is 1 ml per 100 pounds. So 0.1 cc (same as 0.1 mL) will treat an average rabbit or cat. Err on the side of excess when measuring antibiotic doses. Eliminate bubbles in syringes (small ones won't harm the animal but they miscalculate the dose given)

The good news is that if you do have breeding stock who live through this epidemic without being symptomatic or who respond to treatment, they will have demonstrated natural selection and propogate more disease-resistant offspring. Good luck.

 

[ladysown]

i'd get those rabbits up off the ground and out of the colony at this point. Sounds like you have a significant parasite or disease issues going on.

 

[waymire]

I do not believe the problem is pasteurella, based on the symptoms and the appearance of the tumors. I have read quite a bit about it and viewed several samples of the typical abscesses.. and while 50% of rabbits carry it with no symptoms so there is the possibility some may have it...they look nothing like what I am seeing. They are not abscesses, filled with puss or blood, they are spongy masses attached to the surface of the skin, with dark pigmentation. The appear to have a large blood supply, since they do bleed easily if scraped, which is typical of a tumor. None of the rabbits are ill, no respiratory problems, which is the primary symptom.

I certainly do not have an epidemic... nor is culling my entire operation a reasonable solution. Two confirmed cases of a similar tumor in a population of 100, two months apart is not an epidemic by any means. It is worrisome, and I think at this point a biopsy may be in order.... not an extermination.

While researching I did find out there is a type of virus that is carried by mosquitoes, which although otherwise harmless, can cause warts and tumors on the head, face, feet and back of rabbits called Shope fibroma. That currently sounds like the most likely suspect considering my location and our immense mosquito population. The photos I have been able to find look like what I am seeing, they take a couple of different forms and one of them is very similar to what I thought were warbles, another looks very much like the nose tumor on the latest rabbit. The good news is only certain individuals are affected, in those that are is it is supposed to eventually go away leaving immunity to further outbreaks (young kits that are affected have been known to die though), it cannot be passed to humans, and the rabbits are safe for consumption.. the bad news is there is no vaccine or cure since it is not seen as a major health concern, and no way to prevent it except to keep them indoors 24/7.

 

[Rustina]

Please be sure to let us know the outcome of the biopsy, this is something I would like to know more about as there are many mosquitos in my area. Also if you have any pictures that would be a great help too !!!!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

If you have a high mosquito population, I would suggest encouraging a healthy bat population on your property. A few bat houses will provide roosting areas for them and bats have a huge appetite for insects.

 

[Diamond]

sounds like time for mosquito wars if that is indeed the cause. It is nearly impossible to get rid of all their breeding grounds (stagnat water) so perhaps making a screen shelter around your colony would help? Using a PVC pipe and rebar (set in the ground to slide the pipes over as anchors), you can make a hoop structure (I use this for temporary greenhouse structures) and put up mosquito mesh. You can buy plastic clips made for attaching plastic/ shade cloth to PVC greenhouse structures : http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-8293-snap- ... 2-pvc.aspx. I think that greenhouse shade cloth would even work as a mosquito barrier and may be cheaper than screen.

 

[waymire]

Thanks! Yes, I believe our next step will be screen. I spent some time yesterday researching and it is really the only way to protect them without causing more damage than the mosquitoes do. There is no way to remove the mosquitoes from the area, we are surrounded by standing water and have a creek that runs down one side of the property. They are so bad here that the city has a spraying program... which I hate. They have a big truck that drives down the road spraying "something" into the ditches as it goes.. not only are they spraying huge amounts of what I assume in an insecticide everywhere, but the end result it that it flushes them out of the ditches and into the property where the animals and people are. The colony will be easy to screen, it is already wired or walled all the way around,and has a solid bottom, but the grow out hutches will be much more difficult. Waiting for the husband to get home from offshore to see what we need to do, we may have to build some support structure around the area. I've been threatening to built a second colony for the grow outs anyway, we may wind up following through if it will be easier. This has been a terrible six months for mosquitoes, due to the weather (first drought, then flooding, with no freeze all winter) we have had a lot of salt marsh (much larger and more vicious that the normal variety) move in to the city area, it's made the paper a few times. We have seen something similar to this with our horses and the flies, a parasite called habronemiasis, which causes nasty ulcers that have to be surgically removed in horses that are sensitive to it. They call it "swamp cancer" if that gives you some idea of how horrible it is. Luckily we have fly predators to control the flies... but no such thing as mosquito predators, believe me, I asked. Good old Louisiana strikes again... I really don't know how people live here, it's been four years now and I can't wait to move. Between the parasites, fungus's, bacteria... it's like living on a strange planet (or a third-world country). My brother in law moved his family here last year, in six month they had two staph infections, constant allergies, and a horrible bout of ringworm, moved back to AZ.

I can't do picts of my own... but if you google "shope's fibroma" and select images there are a lot of photos. I tried to copy and paste here but it would not let me.

 

[MaggieJ]

Can you grow catnip? Bunches of catnip, bruised and placed on top of the cages, may help some. It is a great natural mosquito and fly repellent. Don't let pregnant or nursing does eat it though. It is not toxic, but it can cause them to abort or to lose their milk.

 

[Bugzy4Lady]

I just had to put down a buck last month that had developed a huge tumor on it's neck. I sure hope that I don't have more issues in the future. I sanitized the entire cage and dishes before using it again. The mass was rock hard but after culling him I did find it to contain white thick puss.

 

[Diamond]

Ugh. Sorry you have to stick it out down there. My dad was born and raised, fifth generation, in coastal Georgia. When he was 18 he joined the Air Force and never went back. He settled and raised his family (my sister and I) in Port Angeles, Washington, about as far from those Southern swamps, gators, skeeters, fire ants, water moccasins, and cockroaches as he could get. I went down there in my late teens to Georgia and Florida to 'see my roots' and was absolutely amazed and the quantity, size, and variety of icky crawly flying creepy insects!

 

[Lastfling]

sounds like the "wolves" at least that is what i've always been told they are called that the squirrels get here in the spring, they are covered in pussy draining lumps which contain fly larvae.

You mean WARBLES?

It's a regional thing :lol: That's what I've always heard them referred to as also and a term I've always used.