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Little white eggs in the litter tray... I'm stressing out.

Jenova

Wise Old Thumper
Okay... I know there were loads of fly strike threads about a while ago but I can't seem to find them and mine is a bit weird.

A couple of days ago I went to clean the litter tray and it looked like there were loads of little white eggs on the poo. I assumed these must be fly eggs and immediately freaked out and began cleaning and disinfecting everything, checking bunny's bums and other areas and spraying them with an insecticidal spray (for bunnies). I phoned my vets to see what else I could do but they said seeing as I had already treated the buns they couldn't do anything and I should just check them twice a day in all their 'holes'.

So I calmed down a bit but then this morning I found another single white egg on a poo. Again I cleaned and sprayed everything with my insecticidal spray but I'm just getting really worried now. What is generally the best preventative for fly strike? Is it just making sure everything is clean or is there some sort of product I can use on the bunnies? I don't even know if these little white eggs are going to become maggots but I don't want to find out. :(
 
Ah, that's not good at all.

I'm thinking it's probably not as the 'eggs' are on top of the poo not the cecotropes and from my very brief research on the internet it seems like the eggs of the pinworm are microscopic? I'm not sure which is worse though. Does anyone have any experience with pinworm and what I need to look for?

Both my buns are pretty hefty though and Grim has actually put weight on recently rather than lost any. I guess another bum check is in order...
 
Sorry I have no advice appart from checking their bums regularly as you are already doing, but fingercrossed it is nothing serious and that your bunnys will be happy and safe.
 
In a warped kind of way it's a good thing for the fly eggs to be on the poo...if they're laying them there, they're not laying them on your buns! Fly eggs hatch very quickly in hot weather so best thing to do is clean out litter trays twice daily in hot weather and keep up with those bum checks. If your bunnies bums are clean and dry, the flies will continue to be attracted to the mounds of poop rather than your bunnies botties!

Fly eggs aren't round though, they are long and thin like tiny grains of rice and often in clusters so quite distinctive. Leave a tiny piece of meat out on a windowsill for half a day and go back and look at it. Sounds gross, but it'll more than likely have fly eggs in it by the time you go back to it, and at least then you'll know what they look like :)

Edited to add a link that shows you what normal fly eggs look like: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...&sa=X&ei=LgUlTPmaA4ruOa6ThasC&ved=0CB4Q9QEwAQ
 
One of my buns years ago had pinworm and I immediately rushed bunny to the vet and it was treated for flystrike, as that is what I assumed it was. The worms didn't go away and did a bit a research and realised they were actually pinworms and treated it with panacur. Has your bunny lost weight and really hungry. This is also a sign of it.
 
Thanks for the advice. The eggs do look like fly eggs so I think they are. And both my bunnies are always hungry!
 
Thanks for the advice. The eggs do look like fly eggs so I think they are. And both my bunnies are always hungry!

Pinworm don't usually cause any problem. They wont make the rabbit eat more, or lose weight, even with very heavy infestations, but they can cause caecal impaction if they get out of control.
 
Are they in hutches outside? I've got netting type stuff over the doors of my hutch, which act as a permanant fly screen, unless I open the doors. The netting stuff costs a couple of pounds per square metre from homebase, and I've just pinned it on the front.

It gives me fantastic piece of mind that flies can't get to my buns or their litter tray all day!

xxx
 
I leave the hutch doors open when I'm at home so the buns have access to the garden...

My main problem is we have a back alley where all the cats poo and people dump litter. This attracts the flies and then of course they come into our garden. :(
 
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