Is there a rabbit illness that can be transmitted to humans and dogs?

Just about two weeks ago, we had a Flemish giant that died who always seemed to have chronic health problems (bad teeth, upper respiratory infections, etc.), and the vet believed his death was from an abscess (he had tooth roots growing up through the nasal cavity I think). But, during the last two weeks, our little dog also came down with some sort of upper respiratory infection that requires steroids and antibiotics to treat. My daughter, son, and I have all had upper respiratory virus that we had to get antibiotics for these last two weeks too, but my husband has had no symptoms. Then two of my daughter's smaller rabbits started having issues. One with a runny nose and the other with a goopy eye (that wouldn't respond to prescribed eye drops). So, we took the two rabbits to the rabbit savvy vet who said that both rabbits also had an upper respiratory infection. She suggested that there is something in the house making us sick, but we have one rabbit and one human in the house who have no symptoms at all! I have been running around crazy trying to figure out what the problem could be. I have been making sure that we are doing everything not to cross contaminate (washing hands between handing animals, keeping cages clean, etc.). I'm at a loss and the vet couldn't think of anything that could be transmitted between all of us, but I think it's strange that we are all sick around the same time. She thinks it is environmental....but we have lived in this house for 8 months and why would we all be getting sick now? Why not sooner?

There is only one event that happened during that time that I could imagine might be an issue - we had a roof leak. It was from a skylight that was not sealed properly. The water was leaking from the ceiling and down the wall. It took place about four months ago, and the insurance company has sent two people out to take care of it, but the first guy never responded to our phone calls, and the second guy has been so busy that he is supposed to come out in the next week or so. But, all of the rabbits have been in the proximity of the room, including the healthy one, as well as all of the people. There is no visible mold or anything showing on the walls or where the water leaked from the ceiling.

Any suggestions????

I forgot to add, that one thing that all the sick and the deceased bunny have in common, as well as our dog, is that they all drink water from a bowl. Occasionally after drinking, we would notice our rabbits sneezing. We have city water, but I have been told that we get some of the first water from the treatment center because we live really close to it. I have switched to bottled water right now and will be disinfecting bowls.

Another possible issue with the rabbits that our vet mentioned - we are currently feeding Purina Rabbit Chow and our Mini Rex has sneezing often when his pellet bowl gets down to crumbs. She thinks we should change over to Oxbow. What do you think?

Help me figure out this mystery.....as I can't stand to see another pet get sick or die!

Interesting situation. There are few diseases that are zoonotic between rabbits and humans and I don't know of any that have respiratory symptoms.

Both rabbits and dogs can get Bordatella bronchiseptica but I'm not sure if they get the same strain or if it's really communicable between the two. Mold is definitely a good thought to rule out.
Was a necropsy done on the rabbit? Did they run any diagnostics on the dog or the humans? You said the humans have a virus but are on antibiotics and antibiotics won't do anything for a virus unless there's a secondary bacterial infection.

No necropsy on the Flemish we lost. He had so many chronic health issues, particularly issues with his teeth, that we assumed based on his symptoms might have been an internal abscess. He had always had problems with his throat, and they never could figure it out. He would have symptoms of a UTI, but it would never go farther than his throat. He had some tests done, but they never could figure out what the problem was. They did everything possible and in the end, the swelling in the throat got worse and worse.

The two that have been sick - one is much better, the other was getting worse, and we took him for a shot of penicillin Friday, and we are just kind of watching him. The dog had the same symptoms and issues back in June, and they did a nasal flush and did a swab. They just told us it was a resistant strain of bacteria, and we had to use Baytril on the dog, and Clavamox, and a steroid called Temaril-P. The dog has been on Temaril-P this time, and we tried Baytril, but the vet ended up giving him a shot of Convenia (which I will never do again based on what I know about it now). He seems to be on the mend now too, but the vet advised us to start him on allergy meds to see if that will stop it from starting again. As for the humans - three of us have been on antibiotics for upper respiratory like infections, and two of us had the stomach bug at the same time. No tests have been done.

The big concern is that the rabbit savvy vet says that the rabbits that are currently sick have similar symptoms in that they have the rattle sound in their throat area, but not in their lungs. She said she had seen something similar in some of her rescue rabbits who were accidentally exposed to mold when a basement flooded. We have since put the rabbits in new cages, given them new litter boxes, new bowls, and even moved them to a different location in the house. I'm at a loss, but we are getting so overwhelmed with vet bills right now that I'm just not sure how much more I can endure......so any suggestions would be great!

Generally speaking, you aren't going to pass a cold to a rabbit, and vice versa. So I would think that it would be highly unlikely for this illness you are all experiencing, to be due to some sort of contagious factor. Environmental would seem the more likely cause to me.

I agree that the possibility of toxic mold is something to seriously look into, especially since you know of recent water damage occurring. With so many people and pets in the house having these similar illnesses, I think it would be good to investigate the things you all have in common that could be causing this. You could have your water tested for bacteria and contaminants, as well as testing your home for toxic mold and also blood tests on sick family members for it.

I hope you are able to figure this all out soon. I can imagine the medical expenses are really adding up.

Mold is what I'm leaning towards anyways. I'm really hoping it's not the toxic variety, but rather just the kind that is there from water damage. We have someone coming this week or next to start the repair process. Hopefully we can keep everyone healthy until then!!