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fuzzy9

fuzzy9

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We were just doing our whole herd nail trimming, and I'm pretty sure I spotted some type of worms on the pooper of one of our does. They were tiny little white worms, and she's pretty messy around that area. It wasn't hair, they were moving.

I need to know the safest wormer for meat rabbits, something without a long residual since I know we'll have to worm the whole herd. I feed raw rabbit to my kitties, a couple have allergies, and foods with chemicals in really irritate them.
 
Those sound like pin worms- I don't know if rabbits get them, but horses do. Or it could be tiny maggots, if you still have flies around. Sorry I can't recommend a wormer- we haven't needed to dose the rabbits so far. I feed Diatomaceous Earth to all of our critters, and that is supposed to kill parasites.
 
Pin worms is what I thought of too. No flies, it's been winter for a while.
 
I've heard of feeding pumpkin and squash seeds for worms, but I'm not sure how accurate it is with getting rid of worms, we have never had this problem before, so I am clueless. Best of luck though!
 
Pumpkin or squash seeds will paralyse the worms, making it easier for the rabbit to get rid of them. It's a good place to start, since they are also a very nutritious food and very safe. You want raw pumpkin seeds. Often you can find them in a health food or bulk food store and some people have found them at feed stores, marketed as squirrel food. Do not use seeds for planting... they are usually treated with fungicides.
 
Mama...........I have food grade Diatomaceous Earth here right now. How much do you feed, and I'm curious too, how would the kits be treated? I have all stages of growth here right now.

Maggie.......how many pumpkin seeds per rabbit? I'm going to actually look on-line to see if I can find them. Ok, found some. Do I want shell on, or the Pepitas no shell?

I'm willing to try anything. I'm also going to call my vet tomorrow, and ask his opinion.
 
I add about 1 cup DE to 50lbs of feed- just enough to lightly coat the kernels/kibbles/pellets. I don't know if it truly works at my dosages- I haven't done fecal exams- but our animals have good condition, for what that is worth. When I got lazy and stopped mixing it with the cat food we had very poor results with our weanling kittens.

If your rabbits are used to different forage, I bet you could free-feed the pumpkin seeds, and the rabbits would dose themselves accordingly. Otherwise, I'd start with 6-10 seeds, depending on the size of the rabbit- but I am only guessing at dosage- Maggie will likely have practical experience to back her opinion!

Bramble- my goats like orange peel too, but sometimes more than others- I wonder if they were worming themselves?

The shell-on seeds will provide more entertainment regardless of their nutritional value, and cost less too.
 
Just a reminder, folks, that the Rabbit Care forum is to help us learn better ways of raising rabbits and also for troubleshooting problems. Let's stay on topic here! Fun topics such as popple brags and kidding around belong in Random Rabbit Ramblings. Thank you!

Pumpkin seeds can be fed in the shell or out of the shell. The "active ingredient" is in the seed itself, not in the shell. I would suggest a teaspoon of shelled seeds, working up to a tablespoon daily for about two weeks.
 
MaggieJ, if I were to save my squash seeds for deworming, how would I preserve? Since raw is best, do I use a dry cool air flow instead of the hot dehydrator (which kinda cooks at a low temp)?
 
Just wash in tepid water to remove the pulp so it doesn't rot and then air dry. A mesh onion bag would work well, or a sheet of parchment paper. Once they are bone dry, they could be stored in a zip-lock baggie or jar.
 
We are worming our juniors, seniors, and one nest box litter with an oral wormer we got from our vet. It seemed the best option for now just to get rid of the parasites. We decided to go with the DE for our weanling litters, and anything close to being ready for processing in the near future. It seemed the best option to coat their pellets with DE to make sure everyone was getting a dose. I've ordered some raw pumpkin seeds to give as well, as an additional way of covering to make sure we are getting everything.

My question is, how long would the DE be required to make sure we are rid of adult worms, and eggs?

Also, is it harmful to the weanlings if I just put a dish of seeds in their for them to munch? I keep my grow out pen numbers down the 3 or 4 each cage, but to put enough in there to make sure they each get some, will it be more harmful if one eats more than it should?

We keep everything clean here, and I'm positive these came in from an outside breeder, so new protocol will be to worm all new incoming with an oral wormer.......which is something we should be doing any way I suppose.
 
Fuzzy, the weanlings would have to be introduced to the seeds the same way you would introduce any other new food-- best to have the weanlings eating a variety of other foods if you are not rationing on an individual basis.
Most people who use DE on their larger livestock use it every day---DE can supply some trace minerals, too.
 
Thank you Terry. :) We decided this weekend to just go ahead, and use the Panacur on everyone, including the weanlings. We'll just wait the extra time, and hope the residual time frame given by my vet is accurate. When we process, we'll just remove the insides, do a test batch, and freeze the rest whole. If the wormer effects my kitties to bad, we'll just quarter those we left whole, and put them in the freezer for us.

We had dosed our breeding line last week, and this weekend we did a body check on the ones that had them the worst, they had the messy bottoms. After one week it's cleared up in those rabbits, so it's working, and they'll get the follow up dose as well. That's kind of what pushed us to just go ahead, and dose, otherwise it's just a viscous cycle that keeps repeating. We'll clear the slate, and start fresh.

We'll continue with a few other more natural things to hopefully prevent this from happening. We'll start them on some pumpkin seeds, and we're going to use the DE in the litter pans as well.<br /><br />__________ Sun Jan 22, 2012 8:12 pm __________<br /><br />Question for you? When you worm, is dose 2 given on day 10, or day 14? We did day 14, which was today. Most look clear, but we still have a couple with poopy butt. Would this be typical, and will we see those clear up after this second dose?
 

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