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Sudden death

Margaret1

New Kit
Yesterday the second of our dutch rabbits died.

They both had been treated for fleas with spot-on treatment especially for rabbits.

Both died within a week of having been treated, one in the spring and then we bought a 2nd rabbit at 9 weeks and he was 9 months old had been with a bonded female and seemed to be doing very well.

He seemed fine the night previous but next day was quiet and did not come out of his quiet area until late in the day. He then did not eat or drink and passed away last night.

Our large white rabbit is fine and has never had any adverse effects from the treatment. Sammy had had the treatment once before without problem.

After the death of the first one we said we would get a new rabbit and they bonded so well, it is sad that this has now happened again. Has anybody else had a problem following treating the rabbits for fleas?

thanks
Margaret
 
Yesterday the second of our dutch rabbits died.

They both had been treated for fleas with spot-on treatment especially for rabbits.

Both died within a week of having been treated, one in the spring and then we bought a 2nd rabbit at 9 weeks and he was 9 months old had been with a bonded female and seemed to be doing very well.

He seemed fine the night previous but next day was quiet and did not come out of his quiet area until late in the day. He then did not eat or drink and passed away last night.

Our large white rabbit is fine and has never had any adverse effects from the treatment. Sammy had had the treatment once before without problem.

After the death of the first one we said we would get a new rabbit and they bonded so well, it is sad that this has now happened again. Has anybody else had a problem following treating the rabbits for fleas?

thanks
Margaret

I am very sorry for your losses :cry: Were the Rabbits fully vaccinated ? Assuming you are in the UK this would be two separate Vaccines, Nobivac Myxo-RHD and either Filavac or Eravac to cover for RHD2.

https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-health/vaccinations/


Nobivac Myxo-RHD (Covers myxomatosis and RHD1)

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/?id=-455496


Filavac (Covers RHD1 and RHD2)

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/med...ts/filavac.doc


Eravac (Covers only RHD2)

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/med...atasheet-0.pdf


I have never had a Rabbit have any adverse reaction to flea treatment.
 
I’m so very sorry for your losses :cry: what was the treatment you used? Did you get the treatment from the vets? Did your rabbits have any other health issues apart from mites/fleas? They will often get mites if they have another health condition that leaves them unwell. Were/Are your rabbits vaccinated, with both the nobivac vaccine (myxomatosis/vhd1) and either filivac (vhd1 &2) or eravac (vhd2) unfortunately vhd (especially vhd2) is rife at the moment and a lot of rabbits are dying from it :cry:
 
I'm sorry for the loss of your buns :( :(

generally its not recommended to give them flea treatment, indoor or outdoor. fleas just aren't as interested in rabbits as they are cats or dogs. usually rabbits will get fleas from them (cat/dog) over picking it up themselves. so then its much better to treat the cat/dog over the rabbit.. the flea treatment is not as affective neither due to a rabbits fast metabolism, so its probably worn off of them before its actually done any good. so its pretty pointless.

it should only really be used if directed by a vet. many flea treatments for rabbits are sadly either toxic, or they simply don't work and are simply a cash grab.
http://myhouserabbit.com/rabbit-health/treating-your-pet-rabbit-for-fleas/

and as mentioned above - where they vaccinated? rabbits now require two vaccines across the UK & Europe. Australia/NZ doesn't have any vaccines, and America doesn't have any, although RHD2 isn't really spreading over there, just moreso isolated cases here and there.
 
Our older rabbit and the one that died yesterday had been vaccinated with Nobivor Myxo -rhd. They did not have any mites but we were trying to be proactive.

Would it be more advisable to only use if they have a problem with parasites?

Could the death of Sammy be linked to this vhd2? How do they catch it? They are in a walled in garden with no access to other rabbits, just the 2 of them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I said this is the second partner for Snowy that has died suddenly and I am not sure how she will cope. She is very quiet today. To be expected I know.

Would Snowy not catch it as well? She is very well but sad.

many thanks for replying
Leah
 
Last edited:
Our older rabbit and the one that died yesterday had been vaccinated with Nobivor Myxo -rhd. They did not have any mites but we were trying to be proactive.

Would it be more advisable to only use if they have a problem with parasites?

Could the death of Sammy be linked to this vhd2? How do they catch it? They are in a walled in garden with no access to other rabbits, just the 2 of them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I said this is the second partner for Snowy that has died suddenly and I am not sure how she will cope. She is very quiet today. To be expected I know.

Would Snowy not catch it as well? She is very well but sad.

many thanks for replying
Leah
Is snowy not vaccinated for RHD2? If she isn't I'd get her vaccinated straight away, as if the other rabbit did die from that, her chance of getting it is very high. She needs the vaccination anyway has RHD2 is rife atm :(

I'm so sorry for your loss x

Sent via carrier pigeon
 
Our older rabbit and the one that died yesterday had been vaccinated with Nobivor Myxo -rhd. They did not have any mites but we were trying to be proactive.

Would it be more advisable to only use if they have a problem with parasites?

Could the death of Sammy be linked to this vhd2? How do they catch it? They are in a walled in garden with no access to other rabbits, just the 2 of them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I said this is the second partner for Snowy that has died suddenly and I am not sure how she will cope. She is very quiet today. To be expected I know.

Would Snowy not catch it as well? She is very well but sad.

many thanks for replying
Leah

generally its only advisable to treat if they have mites/fleas, otherwise its pretty pointless. a rabbits system is argued to be too quick for flea treatment to really be a preventative. they rarely get fleas or mites anyway, usually its from an outsider, such as cats or dogs, so then its much better to treat them as they are the source.

sadly the nobivac will not protect against RHD2. RHD2 is a different strain of the RHD1 virus. rabbits now require two vaccines - filivac/eravac and nobivac. filivac covers RHD1 & 2. eravac is for meat rabbits, it only has 9 months immunity and only covers RHD2. nobivac covers RHD1 and Myxi.

RHD is an airborne disease. nothing you can do to prevent it or protect other than the vaccine. a walled in garden, no other wild rabbits around really doesn't matter in the case of this.

Myxi whereas is spread via contact, so technically you can prevent it with fly/bug nets etc. RHD is not the case.

I would really recommend getting Snowy vaccinated for RHD2 asap, as its rife at the moment. it kills fairly quickly and in succession, and will likely spread to her too. this sounds horrible, but its lucky that she hasn't picked it up yet from the sound of things.

RHD2 has been around for a few years, originated from France and spread like wildfire :(

there is no way to know without a post mortem. but I would personally err on the side of caution and treat it as if it was worst case (RHD2) in this instance. anything and everything that the rabbits shared will need to be heavily disinfected. I would suggest Virkon as that has been proven effective against RHD2, its no ordinary virus and no ordinary disinfectant will work, although many small animal disinfectants don't actually work anyhow.

RHD/VHD are all the same thing also, just different names :)
 
If it was RHD2 then it's possible that the rabbit that survived first time round did in fact catch RHD2 but survive it so when she and her new partner were exposed to it she had immunity but her new companion did not.

That's the only explanation I can offer if it was RHD2, which does seem a strong possibility. I'd still get her vaccinated to be on the safe side and in case it was RHD2 be wary of introducing another rabbit that isn't vaccinated.

There's some good advice on here:
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/owners/frequently-asked-questions/FAQRHD
 
It does sound like your rabbits have passed away due to RHD2 but some rabbits, not a lot, have had adverse effects from a certain flea treatment. I think it is Xenex.
 
Our older rabbit and the one that died yesterday had been vaccinated with Nobivor Myxo -rhd. They did not have any mites but we were trying to be proactive.

Would it be more advisable to only use if they have a problem with parasites?

Could the death of Sammy be linked to this vhd2? How do they catch it? They are in a walled in garden with no access to other rabbits, just the 2 of them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I said this is the second partner for Snowy that has died suddenly and I am not sure how she will cope. She is very quiet today. To be expected I know.

Would Snowy not catch it as well? She is very well but sad.

many thanks for replying
Leah


Welcome to the Forum Leah, and I am so sorry to hear of your losses.

I should speak with your vet asap about vaccination for RHD2.

I am documenting cases, and there are many, sad to say :(

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...RHD2-More-Cases-(-Update-November-2018/page36

You may well be able to see whether you live in a 'high risk' area by looking at the cases reported on the thread above.

Ask your vet for either Filavac (which covers RHD1 + 2) or Eravac (which covers RHD1)

Thinking of you
 
Welcome to the Forum Leah, and I am so sorry to hear of your losses.

I should speak with your vet asap about vaccination for RHD2.

I am documenting cases, and there are many, sad to say :(

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...RHD2-More-Cases-(-Update-November-2018/page36

You may well be able to see whether you live in a 'high risk' area by looking at the cases reported on the thread above.

Ask your vet for either Filavac (which covers RHD1 + 2) or Eravac (which covers RHD1)

Thinking of you


I expect that was a typo, Eravac covers RHD2, not RHD1:)

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/?id=-465765
 
Thanks very much for such a detailed response, very helpful.

We will treat Snowy anymore as preventative and have her vaccinated straight away.
 
Thanks very much for such a detailed response, very helpful.

We will treat Snowy anymore as preventative and have her vaccinated straight away.

I am glad we were able to help and I think you are wise to request that Snowy receives the Filivac or Eravac Vaccination

Best wishes x
 
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