every time i've gone it to my local p@h store in the last 3 weeks, there has been this little black rabbit in the adoption section.
i ask about her today and they said the reason she is in there is that she is hard to handle and has shown signs of snuffles. when they got her out her nose was a crusty from dry snot. so i asked was treatment she has had etc but they are very fort comes with in, all they said is she has had injections in the past which clears it.
she is meant to be seeing the vet this afternoon as i've said she sound rattley to me.
i am going back later this evening to see what the vet has said about her.
what i need to know is could my other rabbits catch snuffles if i rehome her?
is it something she will always have? also would she have to be treated any different from my other rabbits
Be prepared for a lot of work if you do take this bun on! Sometimes it can be cleared up quite easily and never recurs, but more often than not it recurs a lot. Partly because it can form micro-abscesses in the respiratory tract which can be difficult to clear completely; partly because it is often a secondary condition (a bit like you might get a cold if you are generally run down) or thirdly because it can be associated with tooth root problems.
Santa had snuffles for pretty much the whole 5 years I had her. She must have cost thousands in vets bills in all that time, by the time you've added up repeat visits, different antibiotics, culture & sensitivity tests, cytology tests, x-rays, nebulisers etc, and that's with a sympathetic vet who let me do a lot of the treatment myself at home. As a starting point, I would suggest some detailed diagnostics to identify exactly why the bun has this problem in the first place. Of course another possibility is that it's not snuffles at all - could it be syphillis? This can manifest as crusts round the nose and sometimes genitals.
I'm not convinced that it is as outrageously contagious as some vets say. Pasteurella is pretty ubiquitous in the rabbit population, there is probably barely a bunny in the land who wouldn't test positive for pasteurella to some degree. It is when it grows out of control that it causes a problem, and this is usually associated with problems within that individual rabbit (e.g. because of tooth root problems, e.cuniculi or other health problems).
In her lifetime, Santa was bonded to Dudley, a non-snuffly bunny, for those 5 years and he never so much as sneezed once. At one point I also bonded them into my other pair and the other two never got it either. All for the reasons outlined above - yes she had an infectious bacteria but the reason it overgrew was because of her own health issues.
The potential problem is that you are probably hard pushed to tell whether another rabbit also has underlying health issues which would mean that the bacteria could transfer more easily and cause problems in the other bun. So you could potentially find it passing on to the other bun, although personally I think this is the exception rather than the rule, and know of many snuffly buns who have happily lived with other partners for years without passing it on. I guess it's then down to how happy/confident you are at making that decision, as it is a theoretical risk.