What about fogging

[ilovetoeatchocolate]

Okay as you know I have been doing a lot of reading about rabbits. Everything from housing, dangers inside, dangers outside, eating, cutting nails, toys and the list goes on and on. The things about the dangers outside are freaking me out. Just the thought that if I take them outside they can get worms, ear mites, poisoning, poisonous plants, kidnapped, killed or even there was this one story about a lady not covering her ex-pen and a hawk came and almost got away with her bunny. So my rabbits are not going to get a lot of time outside. Is that mean? I knowa lot of people believe that house rabbits should be strictly inside anyways.

So even if they go outside I will always supervise them always! I won't even step away from them to get the cordless phone. But my question is what about when the city fogs for Misquitoes? Is that stuff going to be harmful to rabbits? Should I wait many days so that the chemicals disipate? How long until the residue disapears? And what about West Nile? Has anyone's rabbit ever gotten West Nile? I know that they can get it because on another forum told me they can.

Shannon:shock:

 

[missyscove]

I've never heard of fogging for chemicals...

but my rabbits have only been outside once or twice on a leash or in their pens. They're perfectly happy inside, and no, it's not cruel.

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree with Missyscove. One of my bunnies doesn't even really like to go outside, and the other two kinda like it. I don't take them out at all when it's really cold (below 25ish) or really hot (like now, above 80ish). I would definitely wait at least a week after they fog for mosquitoes. I have seen mosquiteoes try to get at my bunnies when we were out, and since they didn't seem to like that (me either!), we went right back in. They don't want to get bitten any more than you do, so if you can avoid taking them outside during the peak bug season, you shouldn't have to worry about them either getting bitten, hurt by chemicals, or too hot.

Not taking bunnies outside (especially in the summer) is definitely not depriving them of a environmental enrichment, I actually reccomend not taking them out during very hot and/or buggy months.

 

[RexyRex]

I don't think that it's cruel either. Alaska HATES being outside and I've never tried with Gixxer since he's so skittish. My new bun Max went out for a little while this past weekend but he didn't seem too impressed either. If you opt to keep them inside 100% don't feel guilty, just make sure that they have plenty of out of cage time and I'm sure they'll be very happy bunnies.

 

[Lias_ark]

It probably dissapates fairly quickly. If you are outside when they are fogging go in. BUT they usually do it at night so no problem. I do not worry about my rabbits getting west nile they live in my barn so I know they are being bitten by mosquitoes.

 

[BlueGiants]

From everything I have read and been told by my vet, if a rabbit gets bitten by a mosquito carrying West Nile Virus, they do not exhibit symptoms. Rabbits have tested positive for exposure to the Virus, but they don't seem to get sick. (Actually 70% of the people that test positve for the virus never get sick either.)

According to Dr. Dog:

Clinical signs associated with West Nile virus infection in dogs, cats, bats, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, domestic rabbits, and domestic birds are not well described. It appears, however, that, although they may be infected, many of these latter species may not develop clinical signs of disease.
(http://www.doctordog.com/DrdogNewsletter/westnile.html)

And according to the American Veterinary Medical Association:

[align=left]Clinical signs associated with West Nile virus infection in dogs, cats, bats, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, domestic rabbits, and domestic birds have not been well described. It appears that, although they may be infected with the virus, many members of these latter species rarely develop clinical signs of disease.
(http://www.avma.org/animal_health/brochures/wnv/wnv_brochure.pdf) [/align]