HERE
DOES MY RABBIT REALLY NEED VACCINATIONS IF THEY LIVE INDOORS OR NEVER SEE ANOTHER RABBIT?
By Fiona Murphy, The Bunny Coach
This is a question I get asked all the time - If you'd rather watch my video with the answer On my Youtube Channel HERE or if you'd like to listen on the go, check out my Latest Podcast Episode Here!
The main vaccinations available are against Myxomatosis and RHD. RHD comes in two varieties. RHD One and RHD Two.
These three are all man-made diseases that were made to control the wild rabbit population in some countries. And it's unfortunately spread across the world to pet rabbits as well so it's really important that you vaccinate your rabbits against them.
It is common for people to assume that because their rabbit lives indoors or never interacts with other rabbits that they're not exposed, but unfortunately they still are susceptible although the risk is lower than a rabbit, that lives outdoors or has contact with other rabbits at boarding for example.
This is because a lot of these diseases can be spread by insects, they can be carried in on your shoes on your clothes or even car tires. So wherever you're going, you might be exposing yourself to picking up these diseases and unfortunately bringing them back to your rabbit in your own home. All it takes is for you to be walking the dog somewhere in the woods, or for you to go into a pet shop where somebody else has had something like this in their home and then they have walked in the pet shop before you, or for an insect to carry it in from a wild rabbit in the field and then your rabbit is at risk unfortunately.
Myxomatosis is a really heartbreaking and painful disease. Rabbits suffering from this awful disease develop lesions and lumps and bumps all over their faces, suffer from lethargy and difficulty breathing and ear and eye issues. Sadly, the chances of an unvaccinated rabbit recovering from this is extremely low. The kindest thing to do can be to have them put to sleep.
RHD one and two actually attack your rabbit's internal system - your rabbit can seem absolutely fine and then just drop dead suddenly within a couple of hours because of internal bleeding. Quite often there are no obvious symptoms and you just find your rabbit dead which can be an awful shock when quite often they were active just hours before. Sadly I have frequently had people contact me after it has happened to their rabbits and it's so sad as it seems to happen out of nowhere.
Well, the good news is that these diseases are preventable! Your local vet may not know about the most up to date vaccinations if they don't see a lot of rabbits, so it's really important that you contact a rabbit savvy vet, or do a bit of research online as to what vaccinations are needed for your country as it's quite a new thing in some countries to have rabbit vaccinations available. I know it's only in the last year or so that they've been available in America, and they've been very slow to come through.
We were in exactly the same position a few years ago in Ireland as well with the RHD Two - we had the Myxomatosis and the RHD One for awhile, but when RHD Two started spreading within Ireland, we were a bit slow to get the vaccinations in to catch up with it. It was only available in 50 vial doses, which meant that they had to give all 50 doses within a few hours. Once the vial was actually open, it went off within a few hours, so the vets used to have to schedule clinics to get lots of rabbits all in one go vaccinated. If they didn't get enough rabbits booked in, they didn't do it because it wasn't worth the cost of opening the vile and not using it all. Then it became available as a single dose vial which meant they could give it to any rabbit whenever they were in the surgery, and this was in addition to the RHD One / Myxomatosis vaccination, It is however now available as an annual three in one vaccination for Myxomatosis, RHD One and RHD Two so hopefully that will be the case in other countries soon as well.
The vaccinations can come in different combinations - sometimes Myxomatosis and the RHD One come together because they were around first and then the RHD Two could be a second shot that you might need for your rabbit as well and sometimes Myxomatosis is a single vaccination with RHD one and two in a two in one combo.
Your rabbit savvy vet will let you know which vaccines are available and in which form. If you are having issues finding out, it can also be worth checking out your local Facebook rabbit groups as someone local to you may know what is available so that you can give your rabbit the best protection possible as soon as possible.
Fiona x
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