A question about Myxi, sorry if I am the only thick one here.

My 2 are vaccinated annually for myxi and VHD, infact they are due the end of November.

I changed vets last year who was happy to have myxi annually whereas my old vet liked to do the myxi twice a year. This is because we live in a myxi area, West Yorkshire.

I am concerned with the amount of people on here with a rabbit with myxi.

Can they still contract myxi even when vaccinated? Should mine be done twice a year?

Or are mine safe cos they have been boostered last year?

Can they still contract myxi even when vaccinated? Yes they can, at least when vaccinated using the single myo vacc

Should mine be done twice a year? If one vet says that it should be done twice a year because it's a high risk area then chances are it's a high risk area. I personally would only ever vaccinate mine two yearly with the single vaccine.

Or are mine safe cos they have been boostered last year? Nope, not at all. The majority of the immunity will have worn off. There is now a new vaccine which is said to be more effective.

It would be sensible to get your bunnies fully vaccinated ASAP, in my opinion.

Yes I agree with Sky-O. The new vaccine takes 3 weeks to become effective and lasts for a year. So as long as your rabbits are healthy you can have them vaccinated.

Thank you, you have confirmed my thoughts, I will sort out getting them jabbed, they are due end of November so will dig out the vaccs cards and get them booked.

madcatwoman said:

My 2 are vaccinated annually for myxi and VHD, infact they are due the end of November.

I changed vets last year who was happy to have myxi annually whereas my old vet liked to do the myxi twice a year. This is because we live in a myxi area, West Yorkshire.

I am concerned with the amount of people on here with a rabbit with myxi.

Can they still contract myxi even when vaccinated? Should mine be done twice a year?

Or are mine safe cos they have been boostered last year?

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The only difference between an unvaccinated rabbit and a vaccinated rabbit when they contract myxo is that vaccinated rabbits tend to have a higher survival rate as they contract a less server strain.

There is a new vaccine available this year too, which does offer all year protection for both myxo and VHD in a single jab. It is still early days but most vets seem to be using this now - the myxo portion is said to be more effective as it is actually made from myxo, whereas the jab you would have had previously is made from a different virus which relies on cross immunity.

The duration of immunity for the vaccine your bunnies have had is only 6 months (it is the full year for the single combined vaccine) so they will not be protected against myxo at the moment - especially as it has been so wet and there are so many mozzies about, personally I would get them whisked straight off to be vaccinated now and not wait until the end of November. General advice seems to be that it's fine for the VHD portion it be given earlier than the 12 months if you do swap to the single vaccine, your vet will no doubt advise anyway.

Good luck x x

Santa said:

There is a new vaccine available this year too, which does offer all year protection for both myxo and VHD in a single jab. It is still early days but most vets seem to be using this now - the myxo portion is said to be more effective as it is actually made from myxo, whereas the jab you would have had previously is made from a different virus which relies on cross immunity.

The duration of immunity for the vaccine your bunnies have had is only 6 months (it is the full year for the single combined vaccine) so they will not be protected against myxo at the moment - especially as it has been so wet and there are so many mozzies about, personally I would get them whisked straight off to be vaccinated now and not wait until the end of November. General advice seems to be that it's fine for the VHD portion it be given earlier than the 12 months if you do swap to the single vaccine, your vet will no doubt advise anyway.

Good luck x x

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Our vet says the strain of Myxi that's been around this past month has been unusually strong as well. Usually he will wait a few days and give rabbits treatment to see how they respond before making the call but he's had so many rabbits that are just too far gone.

Also there was a comment earlier about rabbits having had the single vacc getting myxi, this has been happening with the new vacc too, but the myxi is presenting much more atypically and is much, much less severe. Our vet has seen rabbits who've had the dual vacc with myxo nodules in their nail beds :shock: but they've only needed metacam and have beaten the myxi very quickly.

He also had another comment, the researchers developing the new vacc only challenged the rabbits at 12 months, they haven't published data of immunity at six months which seems to have peeved him a bit. it's of very little consequence in terms of what we can do about that but he did say it was worth noting so that people keep a close eye on their rabbits from the 6 month point onwards, particularly as six months from now will once again be Myxi season.