TinysMom
Well-Known Member
I found this on the internet a while back and I thought I'd share it.
Maybe Pam or someone else more experienced can share about it....pleaseunderstand that it is mainly one person's experiences with weaningbabies.
Peg
http://www.brightsidewoolies.com/articles/wasters_faders.htm
Titled: "Wasters" and "Faders": When Babies Fail to Thrive
[align=center] Yourdoe has her litter.... Four beautiful fat babies! You checkthem daily and they get rounder and fatter and grow like weeds. At two weeks old, they open their eyes and after thatthey begin to nibble some hay and come out of the nestbox.
Sometime after threeweeks, you notice that one of the babies just isn't growing as well asthe others. In fact, as the days go by, you can see that itis actually losing weight, growing smaller, in fact "fading away"before your eyes even though it is eating and drinking with the rest ofthe litter.
Of course, it is thebest one of the litter... the one you had the highest hopesfor. It's always the best one....
[/align][align=center] Abouttwo years ago we had several cases of this "fader babysyndrome". We were perplexed as to what was goingon. I researched everything I could, but very little has beenwritten about this condition, although many breeders have experiencedit.
Some of the possiblecauses I came across were: [align=center]* parasiteinfestation *dietary issues related to brand of feed (protein/fiberlevels, additives, vitamins)*genetics (some linesare pre-disposed to genetic weakness... so especially your line-bredanimals (especially the ones which exhibit the line's best (recessive)qualities), would show signs of weakness)*enteritis[/align]Our vet insisted itwas a parasite problem. So, we wormed religiously.We also treated affected babies with Ivomec, on the presumption thatthe condition could be related to the protozoal infection,E.Cuniculi. There wasn't a worm to be seen in the wholeherd.... but we still lost a "fader" baby.
We changedfeed. Twice. The rabbits neverknew what was going to be on the menu from day to day. But westill lost another "fader" baby.
We do linebreed ourherd, but in keeping records we looked back and found that even our"outcrosses" to other lines occasionally resulted in a"fader".
We really didn't thinkit was enteritis, because we didn't see any signs of diarrhea, pottybelly, or lose any other babies to those symptoms. Theaffected babies kept eating and drinking right up until time ofdeath.
Finally I was able totalk to Dr. Chris Hayhow (president of the ARBA and veterinarian) onone occasion and asked him what he thought about the problem.Without hesitation he had a one-word answer:"Enteritis". But, I insisted, wedidn't see the signs of enteritis. He said that diarrhea wasnot always a present symptom of enteritis. Outwardly, thebunny looks normal... On the inside, the intestines are inturmoil.
This is always a caseof babies switching from nursing on Mom to eating pelleted feeds, hesaid, and coincided with the practice of "free-feeding" litters insteadof controlling their intake of prepared feed.
Well, he had methere. In fact we did always free-feed our litters, believingthat the growing babies needed more pellets as Mom bunny began torefuse to nurse them. Although we also gave them hay eachday, it just wasn't enough to counteract the effects of the new diet,and some of the babies would develop "quiet enteritis" anddie.
So we came home with anew plan... Beginning immediately, we would control thepelleted feed ration to our litters, and instead "free-feed" them ongood quality grass hay, providing a diet very high in fiber withlow-protein nutrition. Our litters now have good clean hay infront them twice a day, plenty of clean water, and are fed pellets onlyonce in the evening.
And here's the goodnews..... Since implementing that plan, NOT ONE little babyhas been lost to "fader syndrome", which I also now refer to as "quietenteritis". And they're ALL growing like weeds.
Thank you, Dr. Hayhow!
[/align]
Maybe Pam or someone else more experienced can share about it....pleaseunderstand that it is mainly one person's experiences with weaningbabies.
Peg
http://www.brightsidewoolies.com/articles/wasters_faders.htm
Titled: "Wasters" and "Faders": When Babies Fail to Thrive
[align=center] Yourdoe has her litter.... Four beautiful fat babies! You checkthem daily and they get rounder and fatter and grow like weeds. At two weeks old, they open their eyes and after thatthey begin to nibble some hay and come out of the nestbox.
Sometime after threeweeks, you notice that one of the babies just isn't growing as well asthe others. In fact, as the days go by, you can see that itis actually losing weight, growing smaller, in fact "fading away"before your eyes even though it is eating and drinking with the rest ofthe litter.
Of course, it is thebest one of the litter... the one you had the highest hopesfor. It's always the best one....
Some of the possiblecauses I came across were: [align=center]* parasiteinfestation *dietary issues related to brand of feed (protein/fiberlevels, additives, vitamins)*genetics (some linesare pre-disposed to genetic weakness... so especially your line-bredanimals (especially the ones which exhibit the line's best (recessive)qualities), would show signs of weakness)*enteritis[/align]Our vet insisted itwas a parasite problem. So, we wormed religiously.We also treated affected babies with Ivomec, on the presumption thatthe condition could be related to the protozoal infection,E.Cuniculi. There wasn't a worm to be seen in the wholeherd.... but we still lost a "fader" baby.
We changedfeed. Twice. The rabbits neverknew what was going to be on the menu from day to day. But westill lost another "fader" baby.
We do linebreed ourherd, but in keeping records we looked back and found that even our"outcrosses" to other lines occasionally resulted in a"fader".
We really didn't thinkit was enteritis, because we didn't see any signs of diarrhea, pottybelly, or lose any other babies to those symptoms. Theaffected babies kept eating and drinking right up until time ofdeath.
Finally I was able totalk to Dr. Chris Hayhow (president of the ARBA and veterinarian) onone occasion and asked him what he thought about the problem.Without hesitation he had a one-word answer:"Enteritis". But, I insisted, wedidn't see the signs of enteritis. He said that diarrhea wasnot always a present symptom of enteritis. Outwardly, thebunny looks normal... On the inside, the intestines are inturmoil.
This is always a caseof babies switching from nursing on Mom to eating pelleted feeds, hesaid, and coincided with the practice of "free-feeding" litters insteadof controlling their intake of prepared feed.
Well, he had methere. In fact we did always free-feed our litters, believingthat the growing babies needed more pellets as Mom bunny began torefuse to nurse them. Although we also gave them hay eachday, it just wasn't enough to counteract the effects of the new diet,and some of the babies would develop "quiet enteritis" anddie.
So we came home with anew plan... Beginning immediately, we would control thepelleted feed ration to our litters, and instead "free-feed" them ongood quality grass hay, providing a diet very high in fiber withlow-protein nutrition. Our litters now have good clean hay infront them twice a day, plenty of clean water, and are fed pellets onlyonce in the evening.
And here's the goodnews..... Since implementing that plan, NOT ONE little babyhas been lost to "fader syndrome", which I also now refer to as "quietenteritis". And they're ALL growing like weeds.
Thank you, Dr. Hayhow!
[/align]
