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Combined Vaccination

Snowy

Wise Old Thumper
I know there has been a discussion on this topic before but now that the vaccine has been around for a bit longer I would like your thoughts on it, personally I am very concerned by it's use and I would like to know if the single Myxo vaccine is still available

I have just been told by a reputable rescue that they have had a case where a perfectly healthy rabbit was given the combined vaccination and 3 days later died of VHD, this was confirmed by PM

What are you thoughts please?
 
I'm disappointed that it still doesn't seem to have eradicated the cases of vacc'd bunnies getting nodular myxi.

I'm not sure about issues like you raise, it shouldn't be possible as it's only some genes from VHD not the full illness, and it's tricky because that soon after vaccination a rabbit would have no immunity so you couldn't 100% rule out them catching it unrelated to the vacc. I guess they'd have to test the VHD and compare the strain.

I also think we need to encourage better reporting of problems. Take 2011, there were only 13 official reports made of vaccinated rabbits getting myxi... I'm sure we had more than that just on the forum. How can they get an accurate picture if owners/vets aren't reporting problems!
 
Was it the rabbits first vaccination? If so it would have no immunity just 3 days later.

I posted some time back how to report potentially efficacy issues and side-effects to VMD the vet medicines UK regulator. Vets should be reporting concerns to them in addition to the manufacturer.
 
As a fairly inexperienced bunny owner I haven't got any input but I'm interested to see what other people have to say and Muffin is going for his vaccinations on Thursday.
 
Our vet's main concern is that they didn't challenge the trial rabbits with myxomatosis after 6 months, or if they did they did not provide the data regarding immunity 6 months after vaccination. This means we really have no clue if it does hold up for 12 months as they claim because the data from the single and combined vaccine are not truly comparable.
 
Our vet's main concern is that they didn't challenge the trial rabbits with myxomatosis after 6 months, or if they did they did not provide the data regarding immunity 6 months after vaccination. This means we really have no clue if it does hold up for 12 months as they claim because the data from the single and combined vaccine are not truly comparable.

That's actually not true at all, they did a challenge test after 12 months which is in the product info on the EMA website. The product would not get a license if they could not demonstrate the label claim in terms of efficacy. The report is here on the EMA website:
http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB...ment_report/veterinary/002004/WC500112960.pdf
The info is at the bottom of page 14. Please note this is a challenge test therefore there are unvaccinated rabbits that contract myxi. It's not graphic but some might not want to read it.

The details on reporting issues with any veterinary medicine are in this thread:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...suspected-lack-of-efficacy&highlight=efficacy
 
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The bunny that dies was a healthy rabbit and had been vaccinated all of it's life against Myxo and VHD but with the single vaccinations, the vet confirmed that the bunny died as a result of the combination vaccine
 
The bunny that dies was a healthy rabbit and had been vaccinated all of it's life against Myxo and VHD but with the single vaccinations, the vet confirmed that the bunny died as a result of the combination vaccine
Please make sure they report to their concerns VMD in addition to reporting to the manufacturer.
 
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The bunny that dies was a healthy rabbit and had been vaccinated all of it's life against Myxo and VHD but with the single vaccinations, the vet confirmed that the bunny died as a result of the combination vaccine
Must be an uninformed vet because there is no way at all that the combined vaccine could ever cause VHD. It is theoretically possible that it could cause Myxi but it simply doesn't contain the VHD virus so cannot cause it.
 
Must be an uninformed vet because there is no way at all that the combined vaccine could ever cause VHD. It is theoretically possible that it could cause Myxi but it simply doesn't contain the VHD virus so cannot cause it.

I don't think they were suggesting the vaccination caused it but were questioning the efficacy of the vaccine. However, despite my previous post above, after 3 days the new vaccine wouldn't be effective anyway so it would be more likely that the previous vaccine had failed if the booster wasn't late.
 
well I have had all 35 of my buns done with the combi vaccine and (touch wood) didnt have a single case of illness, or even feeling 'out of sorts' - and made it through the main myxi season with no myxi . .

of course it may well be that I would have made it through anyway . . .

but I am happy enough with it for now.
 
The bunny that dies was a healthy rabbit and had been vaccinated all of it's life against Myxo and VHD but with the single vaccinations, the vet confirmed that the bunny died as a result of the combination vaccine

Surely that's not within the vet's area of expertise? Was it a lab that confirmed that and the vet passed on the information or the vet making an assumption?
 
I had mine done a month early on purpose to cover any overlap. Had no problems with my three, Mischa wasn't well enough to be vaccinated. :cry:
 
Do you have any more details as to what lead the vet to the conclusion that the combi vaccination caused the rabbit's death?

As others have already said, I didn't think it would be possible for a bunny to contract vhd from the vaccine itself because of the way it 'hitches a ride' with the myxi virus and it would take 3 weeks to provide full immunity in any case so any problem in the meantime wouldn't be caused by the vaccine itself.
 
I've had no problems at the moment with the combined one. I had the normal myo a few months ago because the VHD was too close. How awful that the bun died:cry:
 
They've had to do test over and above just tested for VHD to 'confirm' a vacc was the cause as there are various alternative possibilities. The rabbit could have been exposed to VHD in a normal way and not had time to develop immunity or have had a problem that prevented immunity developing. For example if they'd been exposed to myxi in the past the combined vacc wouldn't take.
 
The lab report verified that the bunny died of VHD, the vaccination was not overdue from it's previous vaccintion

I have also heard from another reputable rescue tonight with some disturbing information, the rescue had 2 rabbits vaccinated with the combination vaccine on the 21st September, they both died of VHD 2 weeks ago, that's 6-7 weeks after vaccination

I am finding this very worrying
 
I have not heard any reports of rabbits dying from VHD with this new vaccine but it certainly is worrying if it is happening. I was just wondering if anybody knows what the success rate was for the "old" VHD vaccines and what it is meant to be for the combi vaccine? I never used the old one due to ethical reasons so I never looked into it. If it was anything like the myxi, then most of the time when a bun caught the disease they got a milder case of nodular myxi...still nasty but survivable and I have heard that the combi vacc is meant to better...whether that means less buns catching ANY kind of myxi or less buns catching full blown myxi, I don't know.
 
The lab report verified that the bunny died of VHD, the vaccination was not overdue from it's previous vaccintion

That's not absolute proof that it was the combi vaccination at fault though - as already said, it takes 3 weeks to gain full immunity from the vaccine so, only 3 days after the jab, it was just as likely (or even more likely) to be a problem with the efficacy of the previous vhd vaccine the rabbit received.

If rabbits have died 6 weeks after the vaccine that's more of a worry and is something the vet should definitely be reporting to the links RedFraggle gave earlier. I guess the problem is too that, with rescue rabbits, there's no idea of their previous history and whether they've had myxi previously which could affect their take up of the new vaccine.
 
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