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RWAF conference - my notes Part 1

JayUK

Mama Doe
Hi,
I know some others have put up info about the conf, so just adding to that.
I couldn't put the whole doc on in one go (too many words) so this is part 1, will put another part 2 and 3 thread.

There were six speakers, I've put them in the order we heard them.

Sharon Redrobe BSc(Hons), BVetMed, CertLAS DZooMed MRCVS, RCVS

Clinical Associate Professor of Zoo, Wild and Exotic Animal Medicine & Director of Life Science, Twycross Zoo.

A Hutch is not enough, Really? A scientific study at last. A comparison of hutch, pen and runaround systems.
Sharon talked through the premise that a hutch is not enough, and then discussed the fact that we don’t actually know this at all – it is an assumption we make based on the amount of land that wild rabbits use.

The measure for indicating a rabbit’s ideal environment is the amount of natural behaviours they exhibit – so people who do have a bun in a small hutch are likely to think of it as ‘boring’ because it doesn’t do much!

Without this actually being proved, there is no reason for anyone involved in rabbit welfare legislation etc to change anything. However, if this can be proved, then this strengthens the law and the campaign to end small hutches.

Sharon headed a team of students at Nottingham with an observational study using 6 pairs of rabbits in three different environments.

They monitored the amount of natural behaviours in each of the 3 environments:
(hutches were all 6x2x2)

A hutch with no outside access
A hutch with a run underneath, and ramp to ground
A hutch and ‘runaround’ system, which was fairly extensive.

The data is yet to be published, so I can’t give you all the facts, but this is roughly how it was done.

Each pair of rabbits spent a week in a different system. The were acclimatised for 3 days, then observed for 4 days.

The rabbits were rotated round each system.

Results:
The rabbits displayed the lowest activity in the hutch alone.

With the Runaround system attached, they used the outside space more, and their natural behaviours were slightly increased.

With the under-hutch run, the rabbits spent a lot of time on the run, and displayed more behaviours than in either other system.

Conclusion – A hutch is not enough!

I asked if there were any particular rabbits that preferred the hutch, even though they could get outside, and there weren’t – however this doesn’t mean that some buns would prefer to be in a hutch – just not the 6 she was working with.

John Chitty BVet Med Cert Zoo Med CBiol MSM MRCVS

JC Exotic Pet Consultancy Ltd, Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Skin diseases

Whilst skin problems are fairly easy to treat, they reflect an underlying issue, and unless the underlying issue is addressed, reoccurrence can happen. Basic gist of that is that is that we need to look at skin issues holistically. From my experience with John as Bertie’s vet, he is a vet who looks at everything holistically, and investigates thoroughly underlying problems.

He gave some examples-

Sore Hocks:
Keratin reaction to substrate
Hygiene
Carpet
Urine reactions
Lack of space
Weight bearing
Arthritis in foot
Tumours

General skin problems can be caused by:
Spinal issues
Abdominal disruption
Dental issues
Middle ear disease
Urine disease
Renal disease/stones

To diagnose, a general examination is needed, a body X Ray, and urine and blood samples taken.

This needs time and funds – which he acknowledged is not always available, but skipping a step reduces the chance or accurate diagnosis.

Dermatological investigation
1: History taking – Very important – be truthful, vets are not there to pass judgement on your husbandry! He gave an example of a bun with respiratory probs, there was no clear indication as to why. When the problem returned, the owner came into the surgery in decorating clothes…the gloss paint had caused the probs in both cases, but the owner hadn’t thought to mention it.

2 Clinical examination – prod & poke!

3 Skin exam – thoroughly inspect rabbit

4 Sample taking (see below)*

5 Diagnosis

Therapy/management. Some skin issues have to be managed, but will never be cured.

*Sample taking.

• Scrape – easy & cheap, usually done with a conscious bun except sometimes for feet and/or nose
• Trichogram – hair analysis – cheap and easy, good for ear mites and ringworm
• Bacteriology
• Acetate – using sticky tape to lift cells that can be examined under a microscope (Cytology)

Biopsy
Should be done asap, it’s expensive and owners expect a lot from the results, however, vets can hope that it gives a definitive diagnosis, but sometimes it will show the groups of bacterias involved, which can help with diagnosis and medication.

Additional tests – all expensive and/or difficult
Intradermal test
Food trails
Environment trails
Drug trials – these are beneficial if there has been no or little response from ABX for at least two weeks.

Footnote: ABX for skin problems can take a long time to work, as they are working from the inside of the body to the outside. In curing the problem inside, the skin is the last area to present healing, so owners shouldn’t give up or think that the ABX are not working for at least two weeks after the course started.

Mites: It’s important to know which mite is affecting the rabbit. There are two categories of mite (Walking mites and static burrowing mites) that have, within each category, different mites.

Rabbits become susceptible to mites when under stress – this we know. The stress causes changes in the rabbit’s immune, and whilst mites are usually living on rabbits all the time, the immune’s weakness allows the mites to overwhelm the rabbit.

Myxomatosis
Never let a vet give your rabbit steroids

Keeping skin healthy:
Groom regularly
NO washing/shampooing (spot cleaning if nec.)
Vaccinate for Myxo every 6 months
Keep rabbit healthy! Don’t allow it to become overweight, provide safe and spacious accommodation, ensure plenty of exercise, and look holistically at your rabbit – it’s personal welfare and care are an important factor in overall health.


Aidan Raftery, MVB CertZooMed CBiol MSM MRCVS

Avian and Exotic Clinic, Manchester

Diseases of the rabbit ear. Advances in diagnosis and treatment.
This talk was very visually based, with lots of slides of X Rays and diagrams, so my notes for this are not as comprehensive as the lecture was… these are just things I jotted down quickly.

Of all the talks, Aidan’s was the most vet orientated, and scientific.

Anatomy
Three parts to the ear – External, Middle and Internal

Three parts of cartilage

External ear canal ends at the ear drum

Middle ear:
Infections can be asymptomatic (show no symptoms)
Symptoms include:
Increased scratching
Head tilt
Painful ear
Unbalanced /wobbly

To examine, gently extend (pull) the outer ear to extend the ear canal

Lops
Lops generally have a significant more ‘white’ material in their ears than erect eared rabbits when X-Rayed.
This can be a pre-cursor of wax, but in the case of ear disease, is usually pus - in Pathology, this is much more common

The shape of the ear canal is deformed in Lops, and has a unique fold in it. The lining is redder and there is a lot more wax in Lop ears.

Steroids must be avoided in rabbits with Ear infections, and NSAID’s administered.

When exploring middle ear disease, often the answer will be found in the upper respiratory tract.

Aidan also talked about using ear wicks (aka beads) to treat infection – like a small sponge on a stick, the end is dipped into ABX then inserted into the middle ear canal for topical treatment, showed us X rays of it in place.

He also talked about surgery beyond the ear drum. The ear drum heals afterwards and hearing can return to normal.

There were so many pictures that I wish you could all see.

GOTO Part 2
 
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This is awesome. Do you mind if I pass this, and your second one onto my Supervisor at the RSPCA? We are interested in getting our vets to go next year and this might explain to her why we want to do that and might also be useful/interesting for her too.
 
not at all, although they would be better odering the expert's notes from the conference. It was difficult listening and writiing, so there are things I've omitted because I couldn't get enough detail down.
 
not at all, although they would be better odering the expert's notes from the conference. It was difficult listening and writiing, so there are things I've omitted because I couldn't get enough detail down.

I didn't know this existed. I will look into that, thanks :D
 
Thanks for posting these!

It's surprising just how small the first study is. I don't think anyone would consider it a good idea to base official regulations on the behaviour of only six animals over what sounds like a period of three weeks.

Is this paper separate from the similar themed research at Bristol?
 
Thanks for posting these!

It's surprising just how small the first study is. I don't think anyone would consider it a good idea to base official regulations on the behaviour of only six animals over what sounds like a period of three weeks.

Is this paper separate from the similar themed research at Bristol?

It was done as an Masters degree paper. Like I said at the start, the findings are as yet unpublished, so I haven't gone into great detail about how it was done. Bear that in mind, it wasn't meant to be a conclusive study, as such, just a small study to open the dialogue, and perhaps encourage a much bigger study :)
 
Thanks for posting these!

It's surprising just how small the first study is. I don't think anyone would consider it a good idea to base official regulations on the behaviour of only six animals over what sounds like a period of three weeks.

Is this paper separate from the similar themed research at Bristol?

Interestingly enough, you know how widely Panacur is used, that is based on a sample of 2 rabbits that were given it when they were not carriers, and when exposed to a carrier did not contract it (believe that's how it was). Yet think how much that has snowballed and is used everywhere and anywhere.
 
It was done as an Masters degree paper. Like I said at the start, the findings are as yet unpublished, so I haven't gone into great detail about how it was done. Bear that in mind, it wasn't meant to be a conclusive study, as such, just a small study to open the dialogue, and perhaps encourage a much bigger study :)
That's good; it's really interesting as preliminary research. And what a satisfying thing to do as a Masters' project: both groundbreaking and doing something so important for animals and owners.

Interestingly enough, you know how widely Panacur is used, that is based on a sample of 2 rabbits that were given it when they were not carriers, and when exposed to a carrier did not contract it (believe that's how it was). Yet think how much that has snowballed and is used everywhere and anywhere.
*swears in amazement*
 
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