Back to flystrike...i was very careful with Dubbs, cleaned his hutch out regularly, wiped and cleaned his bottom if it got messy, cleaned the floor of my balcony regularly, removed soiled hay every day...but he still got flystrike last summer.
My neighbour was looking after him for 2 days, I had gone to Brigton for the weekend. It was the hottest weekend of the year. Dubbs was fine when I left Friday night, everything was clean. When I returned Monday morning, Dubbs was just laying down and breathing heavily...i picked him up and his underside and hip was crawling with huge maggots. I have never seen anything so horrific in my life. In the 9.5 years I had Dubbs this was the only time this happened...i felt terrible and very guilty.
I took him to the vet's and they removed 50+ maggots from him. The vet also told me that he had seen 2 other rabbits that weekend for flystrike, the other two passed away. The vet explained to me that it can literally take as little as 4 hours for the maggots to hatch from being laid, and this high occurence of fly strike that weekend was purely down to the extremely hot weather. I caught Dubbs just in time apparently.
So it seems no matter how clean you keep your little Bunny, be extra extra vigilant in the extreme hot weather...4 hours is all it can take.
My neighbour was looking after him for 2 days, I had gone to Brigton for the weekend. It was the hottest weekend of the year. Dubbs was fine when I left Friday night, everything was clean. When I returned Monday morning, Dubbs was just laying down and breathing heavily...i picked him up and his underside and hip was crawling with huge maggots. I have never seen anything so horrific in my life. In the 9.5 years I had Dubbs this was the only time this happened...i felt terrible and very guilty.
I took him to the vet's and they removed 50+ maggots from him. The vet also told me that he had seen 2 other rabbits that weekend for flystrike, the other two passed away. The vet explained to me that it can literally take as little as 4 hours for the maggots to hatch from being laid, and this high occurence of fly strike that weekend was purely down to the extremely hot weather. I caught Dubbs just in time apparently.
So it seems no matter how clean you keep your little Bunny, be extra extra vigilant in the extreme hot weather...4 hours is all it can take.