Rabbit medicine and surgery Flashcards
Post weaning disorders rabbits
- Coccidiosis (poor hygiene), profuse diarrhoea, co-trimazole first line
- post weaning scour (stress, dysbiosis)
- poor husbandry and advice, inappropriate housing/housemates etc.
Rabbit vaccines
Myxomatosis (myxomavirus), annually from 7 weeks old
VHD (RHV) 1&2 (calicivirus)
Rabbit preventative medicine
round worms and tapeworms (faecal testing, worming, cyst identification)
claw clipping
dental disease: incisors and molars
encephalitozoon cuniculi
health status
Genetic diseases rabbits
Brachiocephalic syndrome
Dental disease
IBD
Coat related conditions e.g. rex curly coat
Lop eared rabbits
Digestive diseases rabbits (13)
Management failures
Fear/stress
Pain
Poor gut motility - gut stasis
Anorexia (emergency)
Mucoid enteropathy
Trichobezoars
Non-caecotrophy
Diarrhoea
Gastric dilation
Intestinal obstruction
GDV
Liver lobe torsion
Poor gut motility in rabbits
§ Sudden or gradual decrease in food intake
§ Causes included low fibre intake and pain, fear, stress
§ Often scant, small, or changed shape pellets with or without mucus
§ Full clinical examination may reveal very little
§ Important to look for all reasons for anorexia
Very common!
Causes of anorexia rabbits (10)
§ Pyrexia
§ Pain/dental disease
§ Poor gut motility
§ Poor quality food
§ Change in food offered
§ Caecal impaction
§ Stomach impaction
§ Renal failure/urinary stones
§ Neoplasia
Respiratory disease
Mucoid enteropathy rabbits
§ Possibly a viral dysautonomia causing GI stasis
§ May also be seen in toxicosis and clostridial cases
§ Tends to be used to describe gut hypomotility cases unresponsive to treatment
Often linked with dehydration
Trichobezoars (rabbits)
§ Often secondary to dehydration
§ Certain long haired rabbits more predisposed
§ Can lead to obstructions and GDV
§ Diagnosis (radiographs and surgery)
□ Radiolucent area round mass of stomach contents
□ Blood glucose measuring
Surgical assessment
Non-caecotrophy in rabbits
Often presents as ‘diarrhoea’ and dirty rear
May predispose fly strike
Causes
□ Obesity
□ Spinal pain
□ Arthritis and spondylosis
□ Hock sores
□ Dental disease
□ High carbohydrate, low fibre diet
□ Alteration in caecal flora
Diarrhoea in young rabbits
□ Coccidiosis *
□ Simple enteritis
□ Enterotoxaemia *
□ Antibiotic misuse *
□ Mucoid enteritis caused by caecal dysbiosis
(*also seen in adults but not common)
Treatment for diarrhoea in rabbits
Cholestyramine
Supportive therapy
Parasite treatment if needed
Internal parasites of rabbits
- Passalurus ambiguus (oxyurid worm in caecum/colon, rarely pathogenic, fenbendazole)
- Coccidiosis (multiply rapidly, many species, co-trimazole)
Gastric dilation of rabbits
- gastrointestinal dysbiosis
- inappropriate diet
- toxicosis/infection
- aerophagia
Liver lobe torsion in rabbits
- link with GDV/cysts
- acute abdominal pain and anaemia on bloods
Fluid therapy for rabbits
50-100ml/kg/24hr or 2-4mg/kg/hv IV maintenance
20ml/kg SC as a temporary slow release bolus
Stasis or obstruction rabbits
Radiography
Blood glucose:
- gut stasis: about 8.5mmol/l
- obstruction: about 24.7 mmol/l
- normal: 4.2-8.2 mmol/l
Protocol for treating GI disorders in rabbits
- Fluid therapy
- Pain relief
- Dietary change/support
- Improve gut motility
- Probiotics
- Improve environment/management
- Reduce stress
- Other drug therapy
- Surgery
Pain relief for rabbits
- Synthetic opiates
○ Side effects? Reduction in gut motility
○ Pain relief is more important
○ Buprenorphine, butorphanol, methadone- NSAIDs
○ Carprofen/meloxicam by injection
○ Oral meloxicam
○ Potential to use Ranitidine (‘Zantac’) to reduce risk of gastric ulceration with NSAIDs (H2 receptor antagonist decreases HCl secretion) - Other
○ Paracetamol
○ Gabapentin
○ Tramadol - Acupuncture
- Physio-laser therapy
- NSAIDs
Dietary support of rabbits
- syringe feeding
- naso-gastric tubing
- fresh food
- forage mixes
- good quality hay
Drugs to improve gut stasis if sure no obstruction in rabbits
- metclopramide
- ranitidine
- cisapride
- domperidone
Routes of IV administration rabbits
○ Ear veins
○ Jugular
○ Cephalic
○ Lateral saphenous
Corticosteroids in rabbits
- often hazardous
- immunosuppression may allow latent diseases
- may contribute to onset of hepatic lipidosis
- enterotoxic shock and septicaemia
- used in treatment of thymoma and possibly lymphoma
When can surgery no longer be put off in rabbits?
- When blood glucose remains high
- when there is no steady recovery
- when abdominal radiograph suggests obstruction
Treatment of respiratory disease in rabbits
- improve husbandry
- antibiotics/anti-inflammatories
- nebulisation
- bromhexidine
Thymoma in rabbits
○ Present as respiratory disease
○ Head up posture
○ Bulging eyes
○ Genetic predisposition?
○ Poor prognosis (4-6mo)
Treatment: supportive, prednisolone, surgery/radiation
Licensed antimicrobials in rabbits
Enrofloxacin
Marbofloxacin
Gentamycin eye drops
Fusidic acid eye ointment
Unlicensed but commonly used anti-microbials in rabbits
Co-trimazole
Metronidazole
Gentamycin
Procaine penicillin
Azithromycin
Heart disease in rabbits
Often found dead
larger breeds can suffer from dilated cardiomyopathy
Important rabbit dental anatomy
- 70% of teeth are below gumline
- Upper cheek teeth in bulla in orbit
- normal rough edges on cheek teeth
- lower incisors resting on peg teeth
- naso-lacrimal duct runs over root of upper first molars
Signs of dental disease in rabbits
○ Dysphagia
○ Excessive salivation
○ Weight loss
○ Reduced appetite
○ Selective eating
○ Slanted incisors
○ Change in faecal output
○ Poor grooming
External parasites of rabbits
- Cheyletiella
- Psoroptes cuniculi
- Spillopsyllus cuniculi
Treat with ivermectin
Cheyletiella - rabbits
○ Fur mite
○ ‘Walking dandruff’
○ Do not advise removal of hay from diet, but will need a thorough environmental clean
○ Potentially zoonotic
○ Not to be confused with environmental or nutritional causes
Psoroptes cuniculi - rabbits
○ Ear mites
○ Very painful if severe
○ Don’t try and remove attached debris
○ After a couple of ivermectin treatments it will come away
○ Consider pain relief
○ Consider soothing ear drops
Spillopsyllus cuniculi
○ Fleas - smaller and darker than cat flea
○ Licensed product ‘advantage’ (Bayer)
○ Vector of Myxomatosis
Skin diseases in rabbits
- Heavy moult/matting
- Sore hocks
- Pseudomonas infection of dewlap
- fly strike
- Ring worm
- Myxomatosis (rabbit pox)
- viral haemorrhagic disease (RHD)
Reproductive tract diseases rabbits
- ectopic/retained tissue (endocrine disease)
- uterine carcinoma
- rabbit syphilis (treponema cuniculi)
Urinary tract diseases rabbits
- haematuria
- cystic calculi or bladder ‘sludge’
- kidney stones
- encephalitozoon cuniculi
Encephalitozoon cuniculi in rabbits
- microsporidian protozoon
- spread via urine
- urinary and neurological signs possible
- diagnosis by blood test
- may be widespread in the population even if no signs
- PM: granulomatous meningo-encephalitis
- fenbendazole, but wont eliminate organism
-low risk zoonosis
DJD in rabbits
- genetic or traumatic
- predisposes to
○ Obesity
○ Reduced urination or scalding
○ Inability to groom
○ Non-caecotrophy
○ Myiasis
○ Gastrointestinal disease
Arthritis and spondylosis in rabbits
- very common, not just in older rabbits
- under-diagnosed
