Saw a rabbit with mixamatosis today.
Discussion
I may be revealing my townie naievety,but I thought this disease had been stamped out? took the dog for a wintery walk on a local bridlepath today and he sniffed out something in a bush. It was a rabbit, with swollen red eyes, shaking and going nowhere.
I kept the dog away from the rabbit, but was interested to know peoples thoughts on the disease.
I kept the dog away from the rabbit, but was interested to know peoples thoughts on the disease.
Wish it had been stamped out. Seems worse than ever though. It tends to have cycles in areas. So couple yrs of low numbers then a yr of very high numbers.
Rabbits can survive it but it is rare and only if caught early on and if a lot of money is spent and even then they can still die.
So if ever you find a wild rabbit with myxi and it is ill enough to be caught. Either kill it yourself or if you're not able to do this take it to any vet and they will put it down (no charge to you)
Rabbits can survive it but it is rare and only if caught early on and if a lot of money is spent and even then they can still die.
So if ever you find a wild rabbit with myxi and it is ill enough to be caught. Either kill it yourself or if you're not able to do this take it to any vet and they will put it down (no charge to you)
It's with us to stay along with VHD another rabbit killer. Get your home rabbits injected against them to save you heart ache.
I realise some of you are a little bit squeamish but if you do find one that has it then kill it ASAP. A hard blow to the back of its neck will do it quickly and cleanly. The poor thing is suffering, your not, you can rest easy you have done a good thing.
I realise some of you are a little bit squeamish but if you do find one that has it then kill it ASAP. A hard blow to the back of its neck will do it quickly and cleanly. The poor thing is suffering, your not, you can rest easy you have done a good thing.
Mattt said:
I had 2 rabbits that got Myxi, vet said they weren't in pain until they lost appetite - but both of them survived amazingly.
I'm assuming they had more tx than that because to say not in pain with myxi isn't right. All their genitals swell up aswell as their eyelids etc, that is a painful thing to suffer. I am really glad they survived and would be interested to know more.I know antibiotics aren't effective(except to prevent secondary infection) so it is down to intensive nursing but I'd have thought pain relief should've been given.
Edited by bexVN on Saturday 4th February 10:52
The farmers local to me aren't keen on the rabbits destroying their crops and so released some mixi last summer. Having said this the number of rabbits around was riddiculous such that you could never really shoot them or use ferrets etc to control them. Best thing is to do as c3ber says despatch it humainly.
Many years ago (1970) we used to go in a gang with my dog chasing rabbits. She only ever caught the ones with Myxy, she once killed 8 in a morning.
As has been said, it is a horrible disease, the best thing is really to kill any infected ones you see as quickly as you can. It then may slow the spread to uninfected rabbits.
There was an obituary in the Telegraph a while back, on the bloke that invented the disease. He also chairman of the group that came up with the cure for smallpox.
I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but in the end I still think he was a b
d for creating all the suffering.
As has been said, it is a horrible disease, the best thing is really to kill any infected ones you see as quickly as you can. It then may slow the spread to uninfected rabbits.
There was an obituary in the Telegraph a while back, on the bloke that invented the disease. He also chairman of the group that came up with the cure for smallpox.
I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but in the end I still think he was a b
d for creating all the suffering.Gassing Station | All Creatures Great & Small | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff