Tumors or growths?

[TheChad]

I need some help identifying what is going on with my meat rabbits. I noticed three of the 7 grow outs from one of my does has these small growths. One has a spot on his nose, one near the foot, and the last has one in the anal area. One of them was bleeding.

I haven’t introduced anything new. The mother is fine. They are about 5 weeks old. Thanks for any help you can provide. Also want to make sure it will not affect the meat.

 

[Dood]

Normally growths found on rabbits are from vent disease AKA rabbit syphyilis but this nose looks more like ringworm - which is a actually a fungus - to me

 

[shazza]

does ringworm usually make growths though? typically i would just see it just make a patch of red, scaly skin with little or no hair.

i would think syphilis first too but i'm not sure. it looks similar to keloids or those fatty tumours that animals sometimes get. not sure if you'd really know for sure without getting a vet to send it to a lab. from what i understand, even malignant tumours shouldn't render the rest of the animal inedible?

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

Not sure what the cause is, just important to clarify though, are they a meaty mass or an absess?
One of my friend's rabbits had a similar looking mass on her nose, she called me over, it was an absess and once drained and flushed we gave her a shot of pennicilin. Had to repeat the process on a much smaller absess a week later and then she got back to normal. Another had a huge pingpong ball sized absess near her genitals. same deal here, drained the puss, flushed with salt water, pennicilin. I also cut the dead skin to leave a gaping hole so it could keep draining as it healed. My friend only had to maintain the pennicilin treatment for a couple weeks after that and she got back to normal.

If it's they're just for meat you dont need to treat em I guess, just letting you know. The meat should be fine as long as the organs are fine.

 

[alforddm]

Myxomatosis can cause growths such as this but it's generally deadly to domestics.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_disea ... o/Myxo.htm

 

[Ozarkansas]

I had rabbits get Myxomatosis when I lived in California. Although it can cause growths you will likely have a dead rabbit before any time for growths. Sorry Chad I really have no idea of what it could be

 

[akane]

Mycosis can present many ways depending on the exact fungus they pick up (40 varieties of fungi can cause "ringworm") and often will only hit the slightly weaker or slower to develop young animals with immature immune systems out of a group. A lot of fungi or mold will show up under blacklight but not all. Fungi also tend to spread with some type of curved edge along what body part it's following, which is why ringworm is such a common name for multiple fungal infections. If it's more individually contained fluid filled bumps or abscesses that grow in height or break to drain from one spot instead of solid material build up with outward spread then it could be bacteria instead but it still does seem with it's limited numbers so far to be some opportunistic infection from the environment that happened to find a way to infect only specific animals. If it starts to show up elsewhere or create several draining lumps you need to re-evaluate. Quite commonly a bacteria and fungi will use the damage of the other to spread while increasing the difficulty to diagnose and figure out what to concentrate on treating. I've had it with horses before that solid lumpy growths which drained after cracking were a combination pair and abscesses form on untreated fungal infections. Actually mouthwash cleared up the problem we had in horses. I needed some type of wide acting topical and while we think of the antiseptic purpose thrush can easily be triggered as an even worse contributor to all sorts of oral problems so most mouthwashes contain antifungals in a myriad of essential oils and chemicals.

I'd probably separate any that get symptoms from direct contact just to not overwhelm the immune system of the others who might be successfully fighting it off for now and help keep it self limiting while deciding to just cull, wait, or without being able to see it in person probably try fungal treatment first given all the variations in presentation and the fact it can be so limited in what it infects. Plus you only need to do some initial clipping or cleaning of the surface for quick application and it's less of an issue for withdrawal periods from meat animals than attempting systemic antibiotics first. Even just minor skin damage in the wrong conditions with a fungus outbreak present can let it keep populating a new spot or new animal and small numbers of unnoticed biting pests can both weaken immune systems and create surface damage openings for infections. Dealing with some type of fungus now I know once it takes hold it's tenacious stuff even if it's easily killed temporarily in one spot or animal/human. It might clear up on it's own or if you butcher those that could just be the end of it and you could see if there is anything systemic going on when you look over the organs and meat.

If treating I'd probably start with clotrimazole. There are several options but that's my current favorite as I found other common ones are not working as well and it's now available for a myriad of human body parts over the counter so there are a lot of forms easy to get from human or livestock supplies. I also have it combined with something in a prescription cream for the mystery fungal infection that established after multiple broad spectrum antibiotics. The fungus multiplied enough that while it remains contained to small areas on the body most ideal for growth it keeps overwhelming even typical healthy systems now and I can't manage to kill it off everyone and everything in the house all at the same time to avoid it popping back up every few months. Combine the right conditions and suddenly there's a new spread of irritated red areas that can grow both single larger lumps or lots of little dots depending what rubbing of skin or other details apply to that location even with the exact same fungus causing the initial damage and fungus is not very picky of its' host. Medirabbit suggests oral griseofulvin (25-50 mg/kg every 24hrs or half every 12hrs) for widespread systemic coverage of all animals but if you've got only a few spots a topical sold everywhere is an easy test. If it responds but doesn't fully eliminate you at least confirmed that you do need to look at antifungals for further treatment.

 

[TheChad]

I am going to look them over this weekend a little better as I get a chance. I will keep these things in mind. They are about four weeks from processing. I would prefer to cull than treat. My does are a week away from their next litters. Once they have them, I am going to move them out and clean the top cages really well. The does show no signs of masses, so that is a good sign. Thanks for the feedback.