e c awareness

i know alot of people on here know what an awful thing ec is and what it does to buns .but alot of bunny parents dont...
i think we should start an ec awareness week!!!
with photos and video of rabbits with it....i think more great bunny parents would sign up for regular worming if they could see what it does to your bun.
a couple of years ago our vet asked us if we wanted to worm our buns but didnt tell us what they would go through if they got it..how many other vets dont explain it in graphic terms?
what do you think?

Brill idea I've got an ec bun at the moment which has resulted in a really bad head tilt. Currently on week 4 of nursing him he's doing much better but I think the tilt will remain quite pronounced

Personally i dont worm my two. I want to but it's so awkward working out the doses and then trying to get it in them plus its very expensive

I honestly dont no much about EC so i'd certainly be very interested in seeing what it does to buns. I was also under the impression they got it from eating grass? not sure if thats right though.

I must say out of all the bunny diseases/illnesses EC is something i know least about.

I always wormed my cat and horse but didn't have a clue that bunnies should be wormed, after reading a bit about EC on here, if I knew regular worming programme was recommended for buns and could prevent EC I'd have adpoted it years ago

The problem with EC is that very little is known about it, factually, so its hard to educate in that sense. Also, many professionals have differing opinions on it too.

There also appears to be concern about the risks of using the bendazoles for worming too as some bunnies appear to have had problems (either immunity, or bone marrow or something, I can't remember, but I can try and find the link later) due to it. In that sense (and also in a few wider senses), educating on the use of wormers is dodgy ground too.

Sky-O said:

The problem with EC is that very little is known about it, factually, so its hard to educate in that sense. Also, many professionals have differing opinions on it too.

There also appears to be concern about the risks of using the bendazoles for worming too as some bunnies appear to have had problems (either immunity, or bone marrow or something, I can't remember, but I can try and find the link later) due to it. In that sense (and also in a few wider senses), educating on the use of wormers is dodgy ground too.

Click to expand...

Yes

I worm for 6 weeks every year - I have lost a bun to EC who had been wormed regularly. But my vet had concerns that they had built up a resistance to the panacur, & I read on here that panacur only works when the EC spores are active, so my annual worming does all

I think if you buy a second hand hutch, or have an EC bun you should take precautions, or if you are adding a bun to your family, but I believe aside from that, it's either one of the things you have to deal with - or not.

Also the symptoms vary hugely

I had a boarder here that developed head tilt, probably from EC. Joey - the bun I personally lost was an ex P@H bun - his symptoms were loss of balance, loss of weight then renal failure- I did read that 70% of petshop buns are carriers, but I don't know where this stat came from

My frenchie Barley died of possible pneumonia - that may or may not be EC related.

Cataracts or incontinence *can* be a symptom

A lot of the time you don't know if a bun has it cos testing has to take place before treatment & who wants to delay treatment??

I would hate for my bunnies to get EC, obviously, but I have never wormed any of them and have never been advised to do so. Its sounds like its a grey area as to whether you should or not?

helgalush said:

I would hate for my bunnies to get EC, obviously, but I have never wormed any of them and have never been advised to do so. Its sounds like its a grey area as to whether you should or not?

Click to expand...

Yes, its a huge grey area. The 'study' that was carried out was on 2 rabbits who were given fenbendazole when exposed to infected rabbits and they didn't 'catch' the infection. But that mentions nothing about long term exposure (such as those who got it from mum at birth), or long term effects, or a wide range of rabbits. Plus some professionals says that Fenbendazole is not effective in genuinely active EC because it does not penetrate the blood brain barrier so can not fully eradicate the spore from the rabbit.

It seems that no professional knows what long term use of fenbendazole is, so potentially many rabbits may exhibit problems in the future due to the use of it.

I have made the choice not to worm mine. Most rabbits carry EC (like most rabbits carry pastuerella) but it tends to only become active when a rabbit is run down (also like pastuerella). So having researched, that is the choice I have currently made formy bunnies. If someone can produce a proper treatment, properly tested, that definitely works or until someone produces some proper EC studies, then I may reconsider. Until then though, I'll only worm if I see parasites (and this is something my vet agrees with).

also don't worm my two, on vets advice aswell :wave:

My vet said they used to advise worming to prevent EC but now they do not because new research suggests there are problems caused through worming and the current situation is not to worm as a preventative so I am very interested to learn more about this.

i bought a pack of the wormer for fiver when i first took him to the vets. Only thing was i didnt realise i'd need more than one. Its so expensive and Ellie is a big bun that i think its alot of money for something that doesnt deffinately work.

Obv i dont want my bunnies to get EC but to me it sounds like rats with mites. Once they get run down they will get a bad case of mites, preventing it is impossible and its just the way it is. You have to deal with it when/if it happens.

I will chat to my vet about it though.

Vegan_Bunny said:

i bought a pack of the wormer for fiver when i first took him to the vets. Only thing was i didnt realise i'd need more than one. Its so expensive and Ellie is a big bun that i think its alot of money for something that doesnt deffinately work.

Obv i dont want my bunnies to get EC but to me it sounds like rats with mites. Once they get run down they will get a bad case of mites, preventing it is impossible and its just the way it is. You have to deal with it when/if it happens.

I will chat to my vet about it though.

Click to expand...

The liquid is a lot cheaper to use.

The important thing to remember when worming your rabbits is that everywhere they have been needs to be thoroughly cleaned using appropriate discinfectants on days 21 and 28 to kill any surviving spores, if the spores are not destroyed the rabbit becomes reinfected. It is also important to remember that areas like carpet / grass are not able to be discinfectanted. Spores will die after a minimum of 6 weeks this is dependent on the temperature of the area.

It would be a great thing to have far more user friendly information on EC. Personally, I believe that, although a great deal has been discovered about this terrible illness, there is a need for further research and there should be far more information made available. My rabbit had EC he was only 8 weeks old and my rabbit savvy vet was quite surprised that a rabbit so young would show symptoms of EC. It was a horrible experience and I can only thank my vets for their prompt response and for admitting Basil immediately into their care for 24 hours.

I know the general concensus is that rabbits are treated with a 28 day course of Panacur or similar, but I have read that sometimes a course of 9 days is prescribed for EC. Not sure where I read this, or why only 9 days were prescribed, but I was interested because Basil was also only prescribed a 9 day course. When he was diagnosed, amongst his symptoms were circling, loss of balance, nystagmus and head tilt. I stuck with the 9 day course of Panacur plus Baytril & Metacam, plus I deep cleaned Basil's base (houserabbit) everyday for a month or so. Two months and three checks on, Basil is fine, no sign of head tilt, nystagmus, no circling and his balance is fine (but I keep a watchful eye on him). I will always worm Basil now, once bitten......

I think it would be so helpful if stories, photo's etc. were available to new bunny mums and dads because I was terrified when Basil was diagnosed and was looking everywhere for some reassurance. So I think the success stories would also be very helpful and give some hope to people like me and also I think it should be made much more clear what can happen if bunny is affected by EC and how they are, if they do not make a full recovery.

i personally dont worm my buns the panacur is not proven to work and can cause problems itself in fact have seen a rabbit at work just this week who's owner worms twice yearly with panacur and the rabbit has EC its quite a shady area and is undergoing a lot of research at the moment.