bunnybunbunb wrote:
I had troubles with a bad bag of feed. When I called Manna Pro they said I was the only one but I could send pellets in. Well I was to busy and did not get it it. Anyway, two weeks later I heard from a breeder that MANY people had started having rabbits die from Manna Pro SHO. Apparently Rat poisen got into a batch! HOW DO THEY MISS SOMETHING LIKE THAT??? I lost two rabbits, other people lost many more. I went right away and got a bag from a diffrent batch number and have had no problem so far.
I use to feed Purina and I never had luck with the rabbits. They would just drop dead here and there, not breed, stay thin even while feeding sometimes as much as a cup a day. I hate Purina foods.
I suggest getting a bag of a diffrent batch number, go off pellets for a few days, add in oats and go from there.
I'd really appreciate some more info on this if you do not mind, I feed Manna Pro and have lost a lot of rabbits to bloat and mucoid in the last two months, some of them were older and should not have had a problem. TIA
Lion head Lady I just went thru this, its starts out like bloat and then can turn into mucoid, even in an older rabbit. We showed at two fairs in August, and thats when my problems started. Some rabbits would be fine one day, sick looking the next, and then dead by evening of the second day. Some would show signs of mucoid, not all though, all showed signs of bloat. I have a rabbit frozen in my freezer right now that I'm waiting to send for necropsy to try and figure out whats going on. I have a friend who lost most of her spring kits from something similiar, she's looking for answers also. I'll tell you what I did but its pretty labor intensive.
First thing I did was pull pellets and feed fresh foods and hay, raspberry leaves, mint, grass. Then I shot them with Banamine, rabbits in pain will not eat. I then wormed them with Pyrantel Pamoate and safeguard. I gave them Simethecone for gas relief, and used Albon, electrolytes and Oxytetracycline in their water. I syringed that down their throats six times a day. I also syringed pumpkin mixed with Nutrical. I gave them probiotics. I also started injecting them with sterile saline to hydrate them, not lactated ringers, because LR can be be tough on weakened kidneys. I worked all this out over the weeks that I dealt with this, and most of it came off of this site-
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/squirts.pdf
I know it sounds like a lot, somedays I was in the rabbitry all day long, and it seems like its too much to subject a little rabbit to but strangely enough its the ones that I did the most to that survived. You have to move fast, once they stop eating their gut shuts down and then they start to block up in their intestines, if you can feel hard shapes in their belly thats blocked intestines and you might as well put them down. Bellies need to be soft, even if bloated. Certain breeds did better than others, older they were the better, for the most part. In Silvers I lost 8 out of 9, fought like the devil for the last one, he was practically attached to my hip and he's doing very well. They were older babies also, 5 were 5 months old, 3 were 4 months old. Its crippled my Silver breeding program, I have to start all over again. Mini Rex I lost 2 out of 7, 1 was 2 months old, the other was a three year old adult BEW, BEW don't always have the greatest immune systems. The biggest loss was the Florida Whites, mainly because most were 6 weeks old and once they bloated I put them down because they looked so sick and I knew they would not make it. It also all started with the Florida Whites. lost 8 out of 10, and they died quickly, I do still have two left but the doe looks stunted and is recovering very slowly.
I've done everything I could to figure out where its coming from, I bleached cages, searched for mold sources, I didn't consider the food, and it just so happens that my friend feds Manna Pro also. I do know that 5-7 years ago manna Pro did have a problem and rabbits died. Now I'm wondering if it is a toxin.
