How to prevent e.cuniculi?!

[Abi :)]

Hey guys,

I had two mini lop bunnies and we had to put our baby boy Thumper down a few days ago as he was showing severe symptoms of e.cuniculi (despite being indoor rabbits) and the vet suggested that it would be better for him, as he wouldn't have a good quality of life later on if he went into surgery. Our other female rabbit Bambi is his sibling and they were living together and the vet gave us medication but said that she could potentially show symptoms as well, but most of the symptoms based on what she told us are internals (e.g organs slowing down) is there anything physical I can look out for?!

PS (When we first got them they were outdoor rabbits but we had them both as house rabbits, the vet said that could be why he had it)

Thanks!

 

[JBun]

I'm very sorry for your loss. EC is a terrible disease to have to experience with rabbits.

Unfortunately there's really nothing you can do to prevent it. The only thing is if a healthy rabbit has been exposed to an infected rabbit, then a 9 day course of Panacur (fenbendazole ) has been shown to stop EC in its initial stage. But that's the only semi prventative treatment.

Based on some of the info in your post, it leads me to suspect your vet may not be terribly experienced with rabbits. Rabbits don't go into surgery for EC, at least I have never heard of a case and I've done a lot of research into this. EC is only treated with medication, and even then it's not always successful. With the comment about the quality of life, rabbits can still have a good quality of life if they survive EC.

Then there are the symptoms. Yes EC does affect them internally, but there are outward physical symptoms that are fairly noticeable when they occur. Things like head tilt, loss of balance, hind limb weakness/paralysis, incontinence, increased thirst/urination. How it manifests depends on which organs the EC spores end up affecting the most. A knowledgeable rabbit vet should be able to explain all this.

Even though they lived outdoors doesn't necessarily mean it's likely to be how they contracted it. It can be picked up a number of ways, including by indoor rabbits. It can be passed at birth by their mother where it remains dormant until a stressor weakens a rabbits immune system making then vulnerable. It can be passed through contaminated hay.

So for the future it might be worth finding a more experienced rabbit vet.
https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-welfare-association-fund/our-work/rabbit-friendly-vets/
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ve...-by-rabbit-owners/vets-owners-recommendations

 

[Abi :)]

Thanks for you help, the vet did give us medication that is for de-worming and EC and it is for a period of 28 days, she also recommended if we are still worried we give Bambi a blood test to see if she still has it (but she said that it would be very unlikely after the treatment), I will look into finding a better vet soon after this pandemic is all over, but thanks for your help! xo

 

[Diane R]

Thanks for you help, the vet did give us medication that is for de-worming and EC and it is for a period of 28 days, she also recommended if we are still worried we give Bambi a blood test to see if she still has it (but she said that it would be very unlikely after the treatment), I will look into finding a better vet soon after this pandemic is all over, but thanks for your help! xo

So sorry for your loss. Find a rabbit vet here: Rabbit Friendly Vet List