Vent diease or Myxi

[Rocket Hopper]

Hi, this is my first post and unfortunately a sad one.

We had 8 Netherlandsup until 3 days ago but sadly we have lost 3 to Myxi.

One of our does had a crusty/scabby chin and inflamed/crusty genitals. We checked over all of our rabbits and found 2 of our bucks (which had been with her in the run on separate days) the week before and had crusty scabby genitals.

All 3 rabbits were feeding well, were brightand did not have any swelling to the eyes. They had no other visible conditions apart from thosepreviously mentioned

All 3 were taken to vets. They diagnosed the doe as having myxi and she was PTS. The 2 bucks were considered to be in early stages and also PTS. This was also advised to minimise the risk to our remaining 5 rabbits. These have been separated around the house/garden to try and contain the problem. All hutches have been deep cleaned etc.

We (the family) are devastated. We are just hoping that none of the others suffer and all we can do is wait..

The trouble is I know that it is late in the day but I am just not convinced by the diagnoisis that it was Myxi.

It seems that vent disease is very similar. Also none of our rabbits had swollen eyes.

How can you tell the difference between Myxi and Vent d?

Sorry for such a sad post...

 

[pamnock]

I'm very sorry for you loss.

What country do you live in?

A test for rabbit syphilis (vent disease)will give an accurate diagnosis.

Pam

 

[Rocket Hopper]

pamnock wrote:

I'm very sorry for you loss.

What country do you live in?

A test for rabbit syphilis (vent disease)will give an accurate diagnosis.

Pam

They did not test for vent disease.

I live in UK

 

[Flashy]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Where your bunnies vaccinated against myxi?

If they were vaccinated then it may be your vet acted prematurely in PTSing them because vaccinated bunnies can, and do, come through myxi if they have the right medication regime (although obviosly not all bunnies who have been vaccinated do survive).

Did the vet try any sort of medications before they were PTS?

I'm so sorry for your loss, that must have been very hard to go through.

 

[Rocket Hopper]

Is vent disease only sexually transmitted. If so, this rules it out as the doe (Rita) was fit and healthy.



RIP , Rita Peter and Currant.

 

[Flashy]

Vent disease can be transmitted from mum to kit at birth, and I also believe it can lay doormant, but someone else may be able to clarify or disagree with that.

 

[Rocket Hopper]

Flashy wrote:

I'm so sorry for your loss. Where your bunnies vaccinated against myxi?

If they were vaccinated then it may be your vet acted prematurely in PTSing them because vaccinated bunnies can, and do, come through myxi if they have the right medication regime (although obviosly not all bunnies who have been vaccinated do survive).

Did the vet try any sort of medications before they were PTS?

I'm so sorry for your loss, that must have been very hard to go through.

No they were not vaccinated.

We used to live in a town and had 10 trouble free years. We also had 24 Netherlands at one time.

We now live in the country so In hindsight should have had them jabbed. We did not realise the cost either - last time we checked the jab cost £35 per rabbit! Until recently we had many trouble free years in the health dept..

 

[Flashy]

That's VERY expensive for vaccinations. I get both Myxi and VHD for £30 for the two of them as a package deal, and that is on the expensive side.

Maybe it might be worth looking round other vets in your area to see if you can get it cheaper? Also, you may be potentially able to get a deal with your vet because it will be a multiple vaccination.

To protect against Myxi you need to do as much as you can to protect against flies and fleas (which can come in on rodents). It sounds like it is in your area, so you need to ensure that your current buns are as safe as possible from it.

 

[naturestee]

Like Pamnock said, the vet should be able to have a test done for syphilis.

It can lie dormant for a long time. My personal experience was with a mother doe I was fostering for the local shelter. She looked healthy as did the other adults she came in with (they had been living together and breeding freely). Most of the kits looked healthy. But one developed swollen genitals that we found out was due to syphilis.

Ditto to what Flashy said about protecting against fleas and flies. Odd that they caught myxi at this time of year, I thought the majority of cases were in spring/summer/fall when insects are more active.

I'm so sorry for your losses. :cry2

 

[Rocket Hopper]

naturestee wrote:

Odd that they caught myxi at this time of year, I thought the majority of cases were in spring/summer/fall when insects are more active.

This is what I am finding hard to understand...

 

[Rocket Hopper]

We are currently speaking to a number of specialists to find out the exact illness which affected our rabbits.
It may mean a post mortem on Rita, but we hope that any information will help with diagnosing these conditions in the future.

If and when we reach a conclusion I will report back.