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Coccidiosis Bristol Vet Opinion

anon101

Banned
Managed to speak to a vet at the Bristol Small Animal Center the other day. It was not one of the rabbit specialist chaps as I couldn't get hold of them.

He said he couldn't see any reason why we cant start moving/rehoming rabbits again once they have finished both lots of treatment (Aprolium Hydrochloride and Trimethoprim) and a few random stool samples have come back clear.

He was under the impression once coccidiosis has settled in an area (by that he means a bad outbreak of it) no matter how much you steam clean or disinfect your not going to get rid of everything.

He didn't seem to think quarantining for a lengthy period would make any difference after treatment/stool samples came back clear, as they would probably have a higher chance of reinfecting themselves in there current environment then a new one.

He could not guarantee they would not relapse x amount of time down the line but as long as people follow standard quarantine procedures when moving/keeping exposed rabbits he thought the risk of passing it on or them having a relapse would be minimal in a new environment.

There's nothing else we can do other then what we are already doing. There is other drugs we can try if we get further cases but for preventative measures we are sticking to the two mentioned above.

He went on to say this was only his OPINION and he is not an expert on the parasite.

I've got to say I have been a bit disillusioned with the likes of FHB, The Bristol Rabbit Clinic and the Edinburgh Vet School. They are terribly hard to get hold of. I didn't once get to speak to a vet direct. They would only speak to my own vet on a referral when I only wanted to ask a few simple questions or they say they will pass a message on and not get back to you.

Not impressed at all,

Louise
 
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Yes Anita has not yet got hold of FHB but has been using her book instead.

I was informed that after finishing one week of meds, Amprolium in unaffected bunnies and Trimethoprim in Misty and the suspected carriers we were to wait 7 days for their systems to recover and immunity to redevelope then we could start to rehome again. So total quarantine is 2 weeks from last suspected case.

Also most bunnies carry Coccidia in small amounts which their immune system (as an adult) can handle. All my vets are very puzzled as to why so may adult rabbits were affected and even more so that they didnt recover. It also means that treating with Cocciostats on a regular bases ruins their natural immune response and leaves them more vunerable, so they do not advise this except in commercial farms.

Rabbits can be rehomed as normal after completeing meds and quarantine and pose no more risk to other rabbits than they do normally. If anything it will be the other way round :? I also found out that untreated Coccidia oocysts can survive for a year in the environment.....but like I said this dosnt mean they pose a particular risk as nearly all rabbits stools carry a few Coccidia in them.
 
At a guess I'd say the reason so many adults couldn't fight it off were because they were being treated with panacur (some had only recently had this treatment too) and baytril. Even in healthy rabbits, panacur and baytril can cause stomach upsets - so the coccidia would have thrived as there was nothing to stop them.
 
Altogether we have lost 12 rabbits to suspected coccidiosis. It was confirmed in Blanche via PM. One of the 12 may have died from renal related problems as her stool analysis was negative.

Four were 6-8 weeks old.
Four were 10-14 weeks old
One was around 24 weeks old.
Three were over two years old (two of these had other known health problems).

Louise
 
Anita said she could account for them up to about 4 months (so that would be 8 of them) but the other 3 are a mystery.

Snowys renal problems could be linked to hepatic coccidia but we can only speculate, I dont think we will ever know for sure.

Anyway, Mistys recovery is what they would expect from a healthy adult rabbit in reaction to Coccidia but they cant ndrtsnd why she would have caught it in the first place.
 
I've got to say I have been a bit disillusioned with the likes of FHB, The Bristol Rabbit Clinic and the Edinburgh Vet School. They are terribly hard to get hold of. I didn't once get to speak to a vet direct. They would only speak to my own vet on a referral when I only wanted to ask a few simple questions or they say they will pass a message on and not get back to you.

Not impressed at all,

Louise

People in busy professions dont have time to take calls Louise, its why they go on referal, as my late father said, if he took the calls that were to ask ' a few simple questions' he might as well start up a telephone help line instead of dealing with those in person who really need help;)

All three probably get un-indated with calls from people wanting to ask simple questions, if one of my bunnies was at their clinic I would sincerely hope that they were looking after my bunny rather than taking general public calls.

FHB has a vet practice in Yorkshire, is it not possible that you could change your vet to her or, get your vet to ask your questions to Bristol or Edinburh for you?

I thought you were disallusioned with the RWA anyway so am surprised that you would ask the Bristol clinic:lol: :lol: :lol:

You could ask Dana Krempel on ask the experts:)
 
FHB takes enquiries from vets...mine have asked her questions about mystery illnesses. She won't take calls from patients of other vets though.
 
These people are supposed to be the best and most respected in there field. I wasn't asking for a half hour's phone conversation I just wanted to ask a few questions. I don't think it would of been to much to ask for one of these people to give me a call back or me to call them when they had some spare time.

A few people on this forum told me how great they all were and it would be worth contacting them to ask there advice.

Angie (BARC) even offered to pay for a consultation from FHB so we could ask some questions but that was turned down. We did not want a referral as we are quite happy with the treatment we are receiving from the vet who did the PM we just wanted to confirm/ask a few things with a so called rabbit specialist.

FHB surgery is to far away for me to change to (not that I would consider it now even if I lived in Harrogate).

Yorkshire is a big place. ;)

Louise
 
But the "just a few questions" adds up, and how would you decide when to stop? Allow people 5 minutes per call? Then you'd get people complaining that they "only had a few more questions".
At least if you go through vets then several queries can be covered at the same time, saving time and repetition.
 
Angie (BARC) even offered to pay for a consultation from FHB so we could ask some questions but that was turned down. We did not want a referral as we are quite happy with the treatment we are receiving from the vet who did the PM we just wanted to confirm/ask a few things with a so called rabbit specialist.
Louise

A referral doesn't always mean that you aren't happy with your current vet. My vet once referred one of my rabbits to an eye specialist in Leicester.

Amy
 
I wasn't asking for a half hour's phone conversation I just wanted to ask a few questions. I don't think it would of been to much to ask for one of these people to give me a call back or me to call them when they had some spare time.

Louise

But you are probably one of hundreds that call them each day Louise, you will probably find that they get back to you in about 3 months when they get throught the back log of calls to return:lol: :lol: I cant see many good vets having time to call people who are not their clients:lol: :lol:

Try ask the experts;)
 
To be honest Denny I really don't see why it bothers you so much? You must of gone through a few pages of topics to find this one.

We manged to find out what we wanted from a less famous vet who I'm sure has a very busy schedule but was kind enough to spare 10 mins of his time. The so called stars of the veterinary world wouldn't give us the time of day.

Nothing else to say really.

Louise
 
nope, it was on page 3 actually and when I have not been on for a while I tend to go back 5/6 pages in rabbit chat and rabbit care section to see what there is:lol: :lol:

It hasn't bothered me Louise, I was merely explaining why they probably hadn't got back to you as they are extremely busy people the same as other professionally people who would not be able to do their job if they were dealing with the general public phoning them up to ask a few questions:lol: I am pretty sure I would be suing a solicitor if I found out that they were dealing with general phone calls instead of dealing with my case that I was paying their services for:lol: :lol:

If I was that bothered by it why would I suggest that you ask Dana:roll: You have found your answers now then which is good:D but you cannot expect others to be dis-allusioned by FHB, Bristol or Edinburgh just because they did not get back to you on the phone:lol: I am sure if you had had your rabbits refered to any of them that they would of done everything possible to help them:D
 
Denny I wouldn't bother helping in future lolololololol

Louise is getting rid of her buns anyway so she won't need advice regarding this anyway :p
 
Carys I would thank you not to reply to my posts in the future if you can't help yourself from making childish pointless comments.

Your really getting quite annoying. :roll:

Louise
 
OK, gob shut now then:lol: :lol: but for the record, I have used the Bristol clinic but went through the proper root of 'referal' through my vets and the response was excellent so I hope it doesn't deter others from asking for a referal through their vets:D
 
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