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Can't decide whether to get the RHD2 vaccine!

ImoT

Mama Doe
So a vet near me has just got the new vaccine in and quoted £40 per vaccine (so £80 for both rabbits). Money isn't a massive concern, but I am a bit worried about side effects and any unknown long term effects. Also some threads on here suggest giving the vaccine every 6 months, which sort of doubles my concerns!

Is there anyone who has decided not to vaccinate with the new vaccine? And if so, why not?

Is there anyone who was unsure about it at first but decided to vaccinate after all?
 
So a vet near me has just got the new vaccine in and quoted £40 per vaccine (so £80 for both rabbits). Money isn't a massive concern, but I am a bit worried about side effects and any unknown long term effects. Also some threads on here suggest giving the vaccine every 6 months, which sort of doubles my concerns!

Is there anyone who has decided not to vaccinate with the new vaccine? And if so, why not?

Is there anyone who was unsure about it at first but decided to vaccinate after all
?

Me. I had a lot of concerns about it but in the end after hearing of numerous losses to RHD2 (120 at one place in Oxfordshire :cry:) and NO reports of adverse effects to the vaccine I had 3 out of my 4 Rabbits vaccinated. One cannot be vaccinated due to health problems.

It is only being advised to vaccinate in high risk situations- so in locations very close to a confirmed outbreak, locations with a high wild Rabbit population, a Rescue or Stud setting etc. I will not be vaccinating every 6 months unless there is a significant change to my circumstances or Veterinary advice.
 
I was unsure but I am going to get it done at some point if the vets near me get the vaccines in. I do dog agility, so spend a lot of time in fields when I'm at shows and spend a lot of time around 20+ dogs that all get walked in various rabbit heavy areas so I'm going to just get it done just to be safe. I hate the thought of bringing VHD home with me!
 
Mine was only slightly cheaper than that and I got both mine done: no side effects. Like Jane, unless there are compelling reasons for me to do I will not be getting the 6m booster (partly because the rabbits get so stressed by me taking them to the vets :roll:) but we do live near a few wild-populated areas and forage there.
 
Ours was £35 each.
I'm not doing the 6 month one for any reason in all honesty. I am happy to take that risk with my bunnies.
 
So a vet near me has just got the new vaccine in and quoted £40 per vaccine (so £80 for both rabbits). Money isn't a massive concern, but I am a bit worried about side effects and any unknown long term effects. Also some threads on here suggest giving the vaccine every 6 months, which sort of doubles my concerns!

Is there anyone who has decided not to vaccinate with the new vaccine? And if so, why not?

Is there anyone who was unsure about it at first but decided to vaccinate after all?


Hi there

My vet was quoting £40 per rabbit, so I shopped around and found it for £25 each. The vet I found was very good so I'm pleased I went there instead of my regular vet.

It certainly is a concern vaccinating with RHD2. You have to weigh up the pros and cons. In one year a rabbit will get a double dose of the RHD1 vaccine, and in high risk areas, three times (as it's already included in the myxi/combo)

Regarding 6-monthly vaccinations, Richard Saunders of RWAF wrote this in August:

''There is some confusion currently about vaccination boosters with the Filivac vaccine. I've spoken to the manufacturer this afternoon and they have given the following instructions:
For rabbits older than 10 weeks a single vaccine is enough.
For rabbits at 4 weeks you can vaccinate however need a booster 6 weeks later.
Protection will last up to a year, however in high risk areas a booster should be given at 6 months.''


You and your vet can decide whether you're a high risk area or not, judging by the number of reported cases he has seen.

I guess you've seen the thread that is documenting side effects and all that jazz?

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?456446-RHD2-Vaccine-*UPDATED*-11th-October-2016

There have been remarkably few side effects from the vaccine and none serious reported on that thread. Set against that the difficulties that Santa has been having with RHD2, it would seem to be worth vaccinating.

However, I have concerns about all vaccinations, and have had reactions in the past from the old VHD1, so I am naturally wary ;)
 
I decided to get mine done in the end and the main reason was that I remember seeing a large population of wild rabbits in the area I now go foraging in a few years ago. To be honest it has been a while since I last saw them (may have been wiped out in the last myxi outbreak :( ) but I figured just because I hadn't seen them didn't necessarily mean they definitely weren't still there. So I decided to err on the side of caution and get them vaccinated.
 
If money is a factor that's putting you off then make sure you've contacted all the vets in the area you can get to, you can get it for £25 (sometimes even less). A lot of rabbits are dying from RHD2 but I've not heard of any dying from the vaccine so it was a no brainer for me. Mine were vaccinated at an already very stressful time for them (we got them the day before their vaccination so they'd been in a car for three hours and just moved in to a brand new home) and they were absolutely fine post vaccination. This disease isn't something you can protect against (except with the vaccine) and deaths from it often go unreported so it may be in your local area without you even knowing about it. It sounds like 6 monthly boosters aren't absolutely essential, but in 6 months time there'll probably be more information on the vaccine anyway :)
 
If money is a factor that's putting you off then make sure you've contacted all the vets in the area you can get to, you can get it for £25 (sometimes even less). A lot of rabbits are dying from RHD2 but I've not heard of any dying from the vaccine so it was a no brainer for me. Mine were vaccinated at an already very stressful time for them (we got them the day before their vaccination so they'd been in a car for three hours and just moved in to a brand new home) and they were absolutely fine post vaccination. This disease isn't something you can protect against (except with the vaccine) and deaths from it often go unreported so it may be in your local area without you even knowing about it. It sounds like 6 monthly boosters aren't absolutely essential, but in 6 months time there'll probably be more information on the vaccine anyway :)

:thumb:
 
Apparently there's been some reports of it causing E.C symptoms. However, it's not been proven to be a direct result of the vac. It has put me off getting it as I have an E.C bun. The other issue is that vac is from actual rabbits. Meaning a rabbit has to be infected and subsequently killed in order to produce a batch of vaccines. The combi vac doesn't do this.
 
Apparently there's been some reports of it causing E.C symptoms. However, it's not been proven to be a direct result of the vac. It has put me off getting it as I have an E.C bun.

I would imagine that's possible with any vaccination, as EC could be present but not showing symptoms until the immune system response needed for the vaccine.
 
I would imagine that's possible with any vaccination, as EC could be present but not showing symptoms until the immune system response needed for the vaccine.

Yes, my thoughts exactly. Xena was fine with the combi vac so I presume she'd be ok with the other. However, she suffered a seizure which has resulted in neurological damage so I'm extra cautious with things like this. It's always a difficult call.
 
Bubbles had his on friday of last week. Hes an indoor bunny but of course does get grass and leaves from outside so i wanted to get him covered. He's a tricky fella as stasis seems to be fairly regular for him but he was fine afterwards. He wasnt quiet or different at all. We did have a trip to the vets monday as he was in early stages of stasis but i definitely didnt attribute this to the vaccine, we had 3 days completely clear after the jab itself. I paid £30 for him but i know my vets (which is a massive hospital) are struggling to get stock so i did have to pre-book.

He's completely back to his normal self now. He is having his standard combi vaccine on the 31st as they need the gap between the two.

It is of course a really tricky call to make so i appreciate the uncertainty.
 
I had no hesitation in getting mine vaccinated as one of my bunnies was very close to one of the first cases I'd heard of in the UK

When Eliza went for her spay a rabbit with RHD2 (not confirmed until 2 weeks later, of course) was on the premises at the same time. This was a month before the vaccine first came in to the UK and I had a very stressful time worrying about if Eliza had got it, if she had passed it on to the others etc. There wasn't a great deal of information available about RHD2 at that time either so I didn't know about incubation periods etc. I had no hesitation whatsoever in getting them vaccinated when I could, especially as we were in a high risk area.
 
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Apparently there's been some reports of it causing E.C symptoms. However, it's not been proven to be a direct result of the vac. It has put me off getting it as I have an E.C bun. The other issue is that vac is from actual rabbits. Meaning a rabbit has to be infected and subsequently killed in order to produce a batch of vaccines. The combi vac doesn't do this.

My thoughts on that is if there is EC in the background waiting to be triggered then any number of things could be about to trigger it so I'd rather take the risk with vaccinating and at least protect them from RHD2 even if I am risking triggering EC as that might be round the corner anyway. I've only heard of 2 cases of that happening and loads and loads of accounts of people vaccinating and reporting no symptoms. Tink is an EC bunny and had no obvious reaction to the vaccine (though she had Cunivak so not a straight comparison).
 
Thank you everyone. I am reading all your replies but I've been ill the last few days so haven't been that up to replying myself yet. It's interesting the variation in price, I will shop around a bit although very few vets near by seem to have it so I don't think I'll have a huge amount of choice.

Vegan Bunny that's very interesting it is derived from rabbits themselves and thus results in rabbits losing their lives. Part of me thinks why should I use up 2 doses of vaccine (thus meaning more lab rabbits have to die) when my bunnies are fairly low risk (indoors all the time, no other pets that may carry it into the house, only have forage from the garden).

But then of course another part of me thinks why am I evening questioning it!
 
Having experienced RHD2 here, I would of course advocate vaccinating, as I know personally that it's lurking ready to strike at any moment. Personally I wouldn't say that indoor rabbits are at less risk than garden rabbits - in fact in many cases they may be at higher risk because they're more likely to come into contact with shoes and clothing which may well have come into contact with the virus when you're out and about getting on with life in general.

It is awful to think that the vaccine is derived from bunnies, but the ratio with the old VHD vaccines was something like 1 rabbit gives 10,000 doses, so it's nothing like a 1:1 relationship and will result in far fewer deaths and lower suffering for the rabbit population as a whole. The vaccine does seem to be more readily available now although from the stuff I've been looking at when mapping the vaccine, I'd say you're in one of the highest cost areas. I guess that property and staff costs are higher in the home counties than they are further afield and this will have an impact - as will the wholesaler used as these costs vary too and some vets are contractually tied to a particular wholesaler.
 
We might not have vaccinated so soon as there's been no cases where I am, but went to visit family over the summer and wanted to make sure they were protected. I'm very glad we did, though unlikely to have the 6 month booster unless there's an outbreak nearby. I would get them vaccinated again in one year, but now very shocked to hear that the vaccine comes from infected lab rabbits. Where did you hear about that from Vegan Bunny? I'd not heard about any EC danger either, just they may get a small lump at injection site. x
 
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