Snuffles - warning!

Spoke to a lady in my vets waiting room recently who had taken in a couple of unwanted rabbits. One started showing signs of active pasteurella shortly after arriving, and unfortunately has infected some of her existing rabbits, who are now displaying similar symptoms.

So please be careful when taking in new rabbits from an unknown background.

I always worry about this when people rush to help. I'm not saying they shouldn't - but my quarantining used to be really poor, & I do sometimes wonder if people put their own buns at risk when trying to do a good thing

As much as I love special needs bunnies I would be very reluictant to take in one with pasteurella because it would put my other rabs at risk. As far as I am aware it is a nightmare to stop spreading.

I don't think it's necessarily a nightmare to spread - there is a good amount of research now that shows that it doesn't normally spread in adults. Certainly I have one very snuffly bun who has lived with another bun for the past 3+ years and he has never so much as sneezed once. For a while they lived as a foursome with my other pair and those two are fine as well.

It sounds as if this lady has been extremely unfortunate - or possibly if it's very recent it might turn out not be pasteurella :?

But that doesn't change the fact that whenever you take on a new bun, especially if it's from unknown background, it should be kept in isolation with very strict infection control procedures for a good few weeks before letting it anywhere near (including sharing an exercise space!) your own rabbits.

Of course if you get a rabbit from a good rescue it will have been there on its own for a good few weeks before being ready for rehoming, so in these cases it's fine to bond them straight to your own