Thinking about taking bunnies on walks-should we deworm?

[Krulala]

We have 2 house bunnies that are exclusively indoors. My husband has always wanted to get some harnesses and take our bunnies out for walks. Now that we have a new baby, we do go walking almost every day, and it would be nice to have an activity that kills 2 birds with one stone (entertainment for both bunnies and baby). However, our vet said that if we ever took them outside we should deworm them, as they would likely end up eating something outside that could result in a parasite infestation.

For those of you who have indoor bunnies and do take them for walks, do you deworm? Is there any other health issue to worry about (besides escaping from the harness, which I'm still very worried about)? I think I saw a few threads on harness types in here somewhere, so I'll be sure to read through them.

Thank you in advance

 

[Watermelons]

Yes I deworm my bunnys on a regular basis and I would highly recomend this for anyone else! Even strictly indoor bunnys can contract something. My last bun hadnt gone out for atleast a good year and from his bloodwork/fecal when he wasn't doing well we found he had a paracite, didnt look into what kind, he was too far into kidney failure but the vet and lab both think the paracite helped contribute to the kidney issue. Never hurts to deworm. Panacur is a pretty cheap easy to give drug anyway.

Better safe then sorry

 

[Krulala]

Thanks for the info.

I remember our vet saying that she has experience some rabbits have a reaction to the deworming medication and that there would be a small risk involved if we chose to do so. We hadn't done it because I usually try to avoid any unnecessary risks, but I hadn't though about the chance they could get infected while being indoors.

I have never looked into any deworming products, but remember the vet saying that she didn't know of any that were specifically for rabbits. Has anyone heard of any bad reactions with any particular type? Or strongly recommend one over another?

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

There really isn't any one medication that can treat everything. This means that you could use one medication, but find that your rabbit ends up getting a parasite that isn't treated by that, so you would need to use a different medication for it.
I don't think there are any medications (deworming or not) that are specifically for rabbits. Most are not even really approved for rabbits. There are ones that are safe to use, but pretty much all medications used for rabbits are used off label.

You would probably do better to get regular fecal tests done to determine if your rabbits do have parasites. If they do, then an appropriate medication can be used to treat it. If they are bonded, they you really only need to do one test as both rabbits would probably have the parasite and you would them have to treat both of them.

It would be best to get any medication from your vet, or at the very least consult them on what is best to use and where to get it. Many people do use horse dewormer, but this is in a large tube and this means you might not get an even amount of the medication, you can have spots with lots and spots with none.

 

[Watermelons]

Panacur is pretty safe to use at its proper bunny dose, which is the brand name for "Fenbendazole". Very easy to get from the vets. Your vet will need to come up with a proper dosage for you and show you how to mix and administer it. There really isnt much of a risk in deworming your rabbit unless youre overdosing them. (I hope she knows the right bunny dose if shes seen reactions before).
There aren't any specificly for rabbits. You will be using dogs/cat/farm animals ones at the Rabbit dose provided by a vet that knows what the rabbit rose is.
Panacur is what I use because its super cheap and easy to get(you get approx 1 deworming out of 1 pack of granuals which runs about $3-4 plus the dispensing fee)

 

[golfdiva]

Hershey's "apartment" is a walk-out, so he spends a lot of time outside. I give him flea meds every month, and every six months I get a fecal check for parasites. He actually doesn't have much problem with parasites except for tapeworms. That is why I now use flea meds on him regularly.