Flystrike

How common is this? All my rabbits are house rabbits, I groom them once-twice a week depending on how friendly they are! They go out in the garden at weekends for a bit, but it'll be a lot more in summer. I just looked it up on the internet & it sounds horrific! I have a quick look everyday to make sure their bottoms are clean as they run past me. Joey didn't clean when I first got him, so he used to have the odd bath (& hairdryer), but now he's bonded to Smirnoff & the girls, they groom him.

Can house rabbits get it?

I lost my Bilbo to this last year and I just don't understand how it happened he was a house bun, kept clean and everything around him was clean. He didn't have dirty fur or bun and was groomed every day. It happened very fast all I can think of was he was getting old, and he had a growth growing in his bottom. I just don't know. It seems to be common, but house rabbits are less at risk. You do still get flies indoors though, I nailed a net curtain around my window so they can't get in now, sadly too late for Bilbo
Normally the flies are attracted to dirty bums or cages, or sick rabbits. :evil: You can get a product called rear guard from the vets which stop the maggots developing, but it can make buns sick. you can also get natural repellants.

p.s it happens VERY fast!! and so much damage is done in such a short time. Bilbo was OK the night before but by late morning the eggs had hatched and causes so much damage. The vet tried to get rid of all of those nasty maggots, but he died a 2 days later house buns can get it

we use rear guard!

both are house buns - but we still use added protection to be sure.

Do your buns get sick with rear guard? I tried it on Gypsy last year and she stopped eating and was really off colour. I have not seen a fly in my room scince I nailed the net curtain around the window, but any other protection would be a bonus.

what does rear-guard do & does it actually stop it??

Might get my buns done this summer to be on the safe side - sound horrific!

bump has never been sick on it. not sure what it does. i think it acts like a mozzy plug that you'd use on holiday.

i have no idear how it works but bung it on anyway. i also have a handy swatter for any flying evilness.

what so its cream you rub on to their bums??

It's a kind of liquid with a sponge applicator thing. I think it just stops the maggots developing but doesn't repell the flies away.

Can you get it from a pet shop P@H or somewhere?

The vets gave me my bottle, I think you can only get it from there. It's about £10 but lasts for 8 weeks I think.

sparklefairy said:

The vets gave me my bottle, I think you can only get it from there. It's about £10 but lasts for 8 weeks I think.

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I'm calling at vets tomorrow as 3 are having a check up, so will see if I can get some, thanks!

I lost my poor Nougat to flystrike last year, and it really was horrific. The scary thing is that it happens sooooooo quickly. The vet thinks she was 'struck' in the afternoon, and she was crawling with maggots the following morning. She pulled through, but then she jsut got more ill due to infections, and passed away in my arms at the vets. I
Please do use something. Rearguard you can get from the vets, and I also have something called Dynamite for this summer, which is a fly repellent.
I'm going to be super paranoid this summer.

I'm so sorry you lost a bunny this way too

yes rearguard stops the maggots developing, rather than repelling flies, but it would cost me £70 for all my bunnies (and I guess piggies can get it too!)

healthy, active, slim rabbits aren't really at risk from flystrike - If Bilbo had a growth then maybe he had lost the feeling from that part of his rear end - I would guess a fit rabbit would shake off a fly as soon as it landed

The thing I found with these bluebottle flies (it's just these big ones that do the damage - the houseflies are dung feeders) is they overwinter in nooks and crannies in your house and in sheds etc.

I have found 2 of them inside the overhang on Benny's hutch this winter - they wake up a bit on a sunny winter day, then try and find somewhere sheltered - I had to squish them with my bare hands which was vile but I wasn't going to go and find some fly spray at night - I only saw them when I shone the torch around his hutch! :shock:

I have also found them in the curtain heading pleats in winter - they wake up in spring when it's warmer.

I have a net curtain over my shed window, and I will staple nets all around Benny's hutch and run in Spring too - not much of a view for him but it will keep mozzies off too (main carrier of myxi)

In summer when I shut the girls up I check all round the shed for flies, and spray the net curtain with flyspray - then go outside and spray round the door and window (which needs to be open for ventilation) with Deet fly repellant, from Boots travel products. I spray it in the morning too, as it only lasts 7 hours.

At the end of last summer I sprayed the Deet along the roof of the hutch when I shut Benny up too, morning and night.

Then there are citronella candles, smoke coils, I had some Vapona (I think) window stickers from Sainsburys, that had slow release fly killer - they were great! fly papers are yucky to handle and dispose of, but they work - When my bunnies are on the patio I spray Deet around the drains and on the sunny gateposts etc that bluebottles like to sunbathe on - and I used a citronella type fly smellie thing - All guns blazing here! :evil:

LOL Fly killing ninja woman!

that's me Although I hate killing anything - they are just being flies after all - horrible things - I will kill to protect my babies :?

There is also a product called Xenex which is similar to a spot-on treatment that you would use for fleas on cats (NOTE: DO NOT use xenex on cats, or cat flea treatments on rabbits!!) Xenex is designed for small animals (highly toxic to cats though!) and kills fleas, mites, maggots etc so is also potentially useful in myxi control as obviously fleas are myxi carriers. It is available from vets and the dose is dependent on the weight of your bunny, so for example one vial could treat 3 of my bunnies - I forget how often you have to repeat the dose as I'll only use it over the high risk season (personally I think you have to balance the prevention with the fact that you're putting toxic chemicals on your animals!)

Flystrike is most common in bunnies with sticky bottoms, which is why it is so important to keep litter areas clean, get the diet right to avoid sticky bottoms as much as possible, give plenty of exercise and deal with weight problems, as overweight bunnies can have problems reaching round to eat their poos and clean their bottoms. Also obviously you have to check underneath your bunny to see if there is a problem, so there is less chance of you having caught it early than if the flies have laid eggs elsewhere.

Flies aren't usually attracted to clean, dry fur/skin, so it is an increased risk on bunnies who are wet, or have open wounds, for example. Having said that, I've seen one rabbit at a rescue frequently get flies laying eggs on her back, even though there is nothing obviously wrong with her and her fur is dry and normal. This particular bunny gets regularly rearguarded and the eggs are always dead - so it does work - but the vet has always been confused as to why they are attracted to this rabbit in the first instance.

Just a general bit of advice - if you are unlucky enough to get a bunny with flystrike, my vet says whatever you do, do not get the bunny wet. The temptation is to dip the affected part in something like an antiseptic solution to try and kill the maggots or get them off, but it doesn't work and just makes it harder for the vet to clip the fur to get any maggots/eggs off. Flystrike requires urgent veterinary treatment, as not only is it obviously painful, but the rabbit is at risk of shock or poisoning from the toxins released as well as the issue of the maggots themselves. Hopefully it's nothing you'll ever have to experience!

I too have lost buns in this way and it is horrific.

I had to keep an eye on one of mine as she couldn't clean properly and she was fine one day but the next I noticed that her fur looked grey around her bum (she was a white bunny) although it didn't look pooey dirty.

When I looked she was infested with the nasty, evil things. We rushed her to the vet but unfortunately they couldn't do anything and so we had to have her pts.

My last rabbit was outside in a hutch while I was out etc. She got flystrike. i found it one evening and my God it is horrific to see maggots in your rabbit. I called the vet but he said not an emergency and to take in the morning. I did and she had to stay at the vets for several days but pulled through. When she died it turned out she had a broken back from years ago and had not been able to clean bum well so more vulnerable to flystrike. I did wash her often and kept her hutch clean. The vet I took her to was really mean to me and basically told me I had been cruel and useless to let he get so badly ill. I changed vets after paying the £140 charges and thankfully it didn't happen again.

This was about 5 years ago and since then I have been haunted by the thought that I was a bad bunny mum and I didn't have another rabbit for a few years as felt I was no good. Getting Jacob was hard for me as I wondered if I shouldn't have rabbits at all.

To hear other people speak who have gone through this, and to understand more that it can happen to anyone and very quickly has made me cry with relief and that I didn't let Dandelion down as much as i thought and was told I had.

I am so careful with Jacob as he has a dodgy bum due to being too porky. I am forever peering at his bum, he must think I am weird, but I have never been so afraid as I was when I saw Dandelion with the flystrike.

Sorry to go on, I have been so upset by this thread and feel I can let Dandelion go now and that maybe after all I might be a better bunny mummy than I had thought for a very long time.