Lice!?!?!

[KaylorFarms]

Just wondering, do rabbits or bunnies carry lice? I've heard a lot of people say not to get them because they pass lice on to you. Is this true?

 

[Princess Pine]

I have had rabits for years and never had lice.

 

[KaylorFarms]

Wow! Really? I thought they all carried lice.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I have had rabbits for years too(started in 1977 took a break and got back in in 1995 and had them ever since) and No Lice, But my rabbits have never been on the dirt and I do not bring in rabbits from the outside into my breeder pens.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Wow! Really? I thought they all carried lice.

I have a rabbit every once and a while with ear mites---but never with lice.

 

[Princess Pine]

My rabbits come inside in our cold New England winters in giant dog kennels. The back out to their condos my husband built them. We have 4. I have never seen lice on them. Have you looked this up?

 

[Bunnylady]

Rabbits can get a number of types of external parasites, including things like fur mites, ear mites, and yes, lice. However, the type of lice they get is only a problem for other rabbits; even if your rabbit is so unfortunate as to have lice, you can't get them from it.

 

[Princess Pine]

This is similar to the Penguins at the aquarium. I used to work there. I'm a hortaculturest and I used to plant a mosquito repellent Garden. Above their eyebrows, they don't have any feathers because it's their cooling mechanism for when they go swimming. Mosquitoes bite them in that area and they will get a type of malaria, but not a malaria that humans can get. It can only spread between them but can be deadly.

 

[KaylorFarms]

I've heard a lot of people tell me that they got lice from their rabbits, and they couldn't get it out for months.

 

[Bunnylady]

I've heard a lot of people tell me that they got lice from their rabbits, and they couldn't get it out for months.

Get "it" out of what? No veterinarian or other reputable medical source has ever documented a case of a person getting infected with rabbit lice. Rabbit lice are not all that common, even in rabbits: I think these people don't know what they are talking about.