need help with rabbit internal parasites fast!!(arning graphic)

[therealsilkiechick]

i got rabbits in from 2 breeders i know a few weeks ago and keep looseing rabbits. at first we thought it was due to heat, then to much greens then maybe due to stress from change in feed and water or from moveing them or something from the maple trees since i had given them leaves and branches. they r dieing with some no signs at all, laying around looking dehydrated and after dead finding them with bloated bellies. we have found 2 with what looks like maggots on them we assumed was from after they died. since we found in late morning or afternoon that way by then it was so hot it had time to attract flies or if they had diareah and we hadn't noticed it maybe the flies layed maggots before they died we just thought it was really odd but couldn't figure out what was wrong.

today i went out to feed rabbits and water and put ice bottles in and i found another one dead with a huge bloated belly and one half alive with a bloated belly with a big hole in his stomache/abdoman and millions of maggot looking things on him. it looks like they have a parrasite eating them from the inside out. i cried it was my favorite pet, i'm still crying, he was a velveteen lop and so sweet and beautiful nd he was to far gone to save so we chose to put him down. as much as it killed me to i knew we had to end his suffering. i have a herd of rabbits and have lost like 6 already to this. my rabbits r like our kid's and i can't stand to loose anymore. we have 2 more who have lost weight i think have same thing. i'm going out again to quarenteen and amonia cages but i'm scared more have been exposed. i truely think they have an internal parasite killing them. i have 2 rex moms with 12 babies about 5 days old. please help me with what else i can do to try to stop this and save as many as i can. i lost most of my heard last year from show due to cocci and a bacteria infection. this is mostly the new herd we just built. i can't take this anymore, i won't even show now because of wehat happened last year and i can't take looseing another bunny let alone a whole nother herd. i need to know what they have and what i can give them to try to stop this parasite. any help at all please let me know.

there pens r all off ground they have hay, pine chips, an all in one complete feed, city water. only thing i feed them extra is grass and maple leaves/branches. i do not use pesticides on my gardens, haven't mowed grass recently. other peoples cats run through my yard and regular wild animals but sometimes others dogs come through also. i have tylan 50 and albon on hand and wazinealso if i can find it and a powdered antibiotic terramycin i think it is. if i need something else i will go to tsc or feed store.
thank you for any help/advice!!!

 

[wannabe_goatmom]

I'm not sure if they are toxic to rabbits, but maple leaves killed my horse. When the leaves are wilted they have cyanide levels toxic enough to kill a horse. I was boarding my horse at a friends farm, we had a bad storm and several trees were damaged. A few weeks later some of the broken limbs were low enough for the horses to reach and three of them ate some of the leaves. My Paint horse and my friends Rocky mountain horse had to be put down immediately after the vet was called. They had swollen stomachs and very red urine.
We all hoped the little miniature horse would make it but after two days of continuous fluids she also had to be euthanized. The results from the necropsies on the two big horses came back with high levels of cyanide in the blood and the maple leaves in their stomachs.

This was a hard lesson learned, my guy was 17 years old and I had owned him since he was 10. I never knew that maple leaves could kill a horse.

I'm so sorry for your losses. Maybe someone else will know if the leaves are toxic to rabbits.

Of course this doesn't explain all the parasites you are finding. Maybe you could take one to your vet for a necropsy? That way you will know for sure why they are dying and what you can do to help the others.

Billie Jo

 

[nonseq]

Those aren't maggots. I'll look up what they are called. When I was a kid I raised rabbits and one of them died from those.


Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myiasis

They ARE a kind of maggot. Certain species will feed on live flesh.

 

[therealsilkiechick]

thank you so much!! after reading ur posts and searching more on the net and seeing pics we believe they have what is called blowfly. we just got back from the feed store and tsc. we got fly wire and fly traps w/ bait. we have tylan 50 for the secondary infections we can use and albon for ones that r sick and have diareaha. we also got food grade de to use. cross ur fingers. i'm going out to clean all pens and dust them and see what all i can get done for them before night hits. i will keep u all posted. from the bottom of my heart thank you for your help!!!!! i'm keeping this short so i can get more done to help them before dark hits.