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Nia's EC result
- Thread starter capel
- Start date
If she was titre tested that means its not an active infection, rather residual antibodies.
honeybunny
Wise Old Thumper
should the level not have dropped after long treatment??
If it remains stable it shows that the antibodies remain from a previous exposure which is not active and therefor not a 'threat'.
This is how they discovered 50% of rabbits had been exposed to EC but not 50% of rabbits HAD EC. Key difference, those who had been exposed simply showed residual antibodies to indicate their immune systems had fought the infection at some time.
This is why blood tests for EC are expensive, they need to be repeated at least 3 times to evaluate the titre.
Remember the treatment is designed to kill the parasite, not the antibodies. Its like how people learn to create their own antibodies after vaccination so that should they become sick the body has a store to fight off the illness. Nia's body is prepared for there to be a 'next time'.
I understand it now!! Would that explain why despite the high levels, we've never seen any sign of muscle weakness or head-tilt? She was a bit wobbly when we got her but was in quite poor condition and had been confined to a small cage for a couple of years(!!) prior to being taken in by the woman from whom we got her. She also had the most peculiar gait but that was obviously due to the muscle weakness combined to her spinal problem. Heck, she does sound a bit of a wreck, doesn't she?If her titre score is high it would suggest that it was a very aggressive infection that she had. I am not sure how they manage to fight off the infection and why some rabbits can and others cannot. I guess its one of those as yet unsolved mysteries like why some rabbits never develop symptoms.
As it is still not understood why and how some carriers develop symptoms and why different rabbits are affected in different ways I dont know if she would have got progressively worse. If her titre score raised showing she had higher antibody levels it would indicate she was fighting a more virulent infection, however, it would not give a reading of the level of protozoa present because a titre only measures antibodies.
