rchealthcare

Health Problems

If you think anything is wrong with your rabbit, immediatly isolate it from all your other rabbits, so they will not also get it. Remember to never take a rabbit that might be sick anywhere there will be other rabbits (shows, 4-H meetings, petting zoos, ect) as to not spread any disease.

Please Note: I�m am in no way a vet or medical person. If there is something seriously wrong with your rabbit, consult a rabbit specialist vet immediatly.

Fur Mites or Fleas
Since you treat both of these the same, I�m putting them together. With the fur mites,
you�ll see a lost of fur on the rabbit around the neck, face, and the back. When you blow into the rabbits coat you will see little specks like dandruff.
To treat both this and fleas, you�ll want to use cat flea powder. Not dog flea powder, as this is too strong for rabbits. I would recommend treating all your rabbits with this, so it will not spread throughout your rabbitry.

Ear Mites
In the ear you will see sores and scabs. The rabbit will be scratching at it�s ear, shaking it�s head like something is in there, it might be holding it�s head down on the ground a lot.
To treat it, you�ll want to apply oil into the ear for three days. You�ll want to repeat ten days later if needed.

Worms
Rabbits can get three kinds of worms: Pin Worms, Tapeworm Larva, and Whipworms. Some signs of these will be that the rabbit will be out of condition and could have diarrhea. It�s best to keep dogs and cats out of the rabbitry, as the rabbit can get these from them, or pick it up at a show. It�s not that uncommon for rabbits to get worms.
To treat it, you�ll want to worm the rabbit you saw it in, with a piperazine based wormer. Only treat the rabbit you saw the worms in. Some breeders worm their whole rabbitry once a year. Treating them for something they don�t have is not good for them, as it will soon make them immune to any treatments when they really do have them.

Sore Hocks
This is most common on the Mini Rex, Rex, and the larger breeds of rabbits. If you have one of these breeds it�s best to have a clean and dry board in their cage for them rest on, or an ez-mat. You can buy ez-mats from cage venders. They have slits in them where the rabbit droppings can still fall through them while the rabbit sits on them.

Hair Ball
This is most common on the wool breeds, but can happen to any breed. Signs will be that the rabbit will stop eating, will lose weight, diarrhea, moulting, ect.
To treat this, you�ll want to give the rabbit pineapple juice and unlimited Timothy Hay, as this will help the them pass the fur ball through their body.
If you have a wool breed, it�s best to always give them Timothy Hay, as this helps the fur pass through their body. Signs of the fur passing through fine will be �strings of pearls�, which are poop hanging from the bottom wire of the cage by the hair that passed through the body on it�s own.

Weepy Eye (Conjunctivitis)
This is most common with breeds that have bulldog shaped heads. Around the eye will be wet and matted, with a discharge coming from it.
To treat this, at a local feed store you can buy Terramycin. You only need to use a little of it, as a little will go a long ways. You treat them with this 2 times a day for a few days.

Coprophagy (eating of the night feces)
This is when a rabbit eats it own feces. To learn more about this click here.

Malocclusion (Buck Teeth or Wolfe Teeth)
This is when a rabbit�s front teeth grow abnormaly. Click here to learn more about it.

Red Urine
This is normal in rabbits, for their urine to turn red at times. If your rabbit's cage has a tray under it, this is when it is seen most often, mostly in the winter in does. It is caused by incomplete metabolism, having compounds in some rabbit feeds.

Diarrea
This can be caused by different things. One can be too many treats, especially at a young age (a rabbit should not have treats until it's at least 4 months old or older).
Diarrea is seen most often during time of stress or at weaning age (6-8 weeks old). At weaning age, Enteritis is commonly seen, even though it can happen at any age. One of the signs of it is diarrea.
Enteritis Complex (inflammation of the intestinal tract) can be caused by coccidia, bacterial or viral infection, or a nutritional problem. Signs other than diarrea are pot belly, sitting with their feet in water, and death.
Mucoid Enterpathy happens for quite a few different reasons. With this some signs are teeth grinding, pot belly, the stomach will sound like a water bottle when shook, teeth grinding, clear jelly like feces, refusing to eat.
To help prevent Enteritis, you want to keep your rabbits on high fiber diets, by feeding them grass hay (Timothy is perfered).

Not eating/drinking
These two go together, because if a rabbit is not eating it's not drinking, and vice versa. I find that the majority of the time that one of my rabbit's stops drinking is that it's because something is wrong with the water bottle. Because of this I will never use a automatic watering system just because you can not moniter how much your rabbit is drinking, so if it does go off water it could be too late before you notice it.
Some reason's why your rabbit might stop eating/drinking:

Sometimes the ball in the nosel can get stuck, making it where the rabbit is unable to drink. This is the first thing I always check.

Changing their food. It's not good to make sudden changes in rabbit's feed. When switching over to a different brand mix half of the old kind and half of the new kind together to get the rabbit use to it, to avoid them going off feed. When buying a new rabbit, ask the breeder for a little bag of what they were feeding the rabbit.

They could have a hair ball. If so, see above for treatment for this.

During hot weather rabbits don't usually eat as much.

And many other reasons.

For getting them to drink again, I find that even if they had a water bottle all their life, sometimes if you put water in a bowl and put it in their cage they'll start drinking. For getting them to eat, go to my treats page for different treats to get them to eat. I usually sprinkle oatmeal on top of my rabbit's food, which gets them to eat right away. I also will give them small portions of a carrot or apple which I run under water to make it wet before giving it to them.

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