Imagination Rabbit Herd Health & Management
When you raise any animal its important to develop an appropriate herd health and management system. We have come up with the following system in order to better care for our rabbits, prevent disease and cull out sick animals. We hope our system can serve as a model for others, we firmly believe that daily handling and observation is critical to catch changes in behavior which could indicate illness.
What we feed and how we feed it
We feed Purina brand rabbit pellets, at the moment we feed the Rabbit Chow formula to all rabbits and have good results, this feed has quality ingredients from a highly trusted company. All rabbits get fed the pellets once a day in the evening, everyone except for does with litters gets measured amounts based on body weight and condition. Does with litters are free fed until the kits are weaned at which time they are slowly brought back to measured amounts.
We feed free choice grass hay year round - as much as any bunny wants to eat. Hay is not only nutritionally vital it also provides the bunnies with chewing enrichment.
We do feed treats and supplements sparingly including a variety of greens and herbs grown in the garden, rolled oats, black oil sunflower seeds, and lactating does and growing kits get extra alfalfa hay.
Daily Maintenance
All rabbits are looked over once a day usually at feeding time. We check their behavior, posture and interest in their dinners. We note any abnormalities or lack of interest in feed. We spot clean the cages every day, removing waste and so forth.
Weekly Maintenance
Once a week all rabbits get a quick physical exam that covers a body systems review. All rabbits are weighed and their weight is recorded in my management notebook, tracking weight changes is a good way to make sure a rabbit is healthy. We check the eyes, ears, toes, nose, palpate the body and look over the skin. Any abnormalities are noted and we trim nails as needed.
Once a week we do a thorough barn clean, dumping rabbit trays, completely changing the hare shavings and shop vacuuming the entire barn.
Monthly Maintenance
We do a thorough exam much like our weekly checks, toe nails are trimmed as needed. We also check for and treat for external parasites as needed with a variety of different rabbit safe products.
Semi Annually Maintenance
The barn gets a complete gutting twice a year, wire cages are pressure washed, the walls and floors in the barn are completely cleaned and mopped.
We de-worm the entire herd dosage is based on weight, rotating products, most commonly we use Ivermectin and Febendazole.
How and why we Cull
When you raise rabbits inevitably some animals will not make useful additions to your herd whether they have a DQ for show or personality traits that make them unsuitable for pet homes. We do not cull any animals at birth - all rabbits regardless of DQ's are raised to weaning age.
We cull rabbits that are not suitable for our own breeding program to other exhibitors and as pets, anything that would not make a good candidate for these options are culled by euthanasia.
We cull ALL Rhinelander charlies and sports that do not have the type and marking genetic history to make them good choices in a Rhinelander breeding program. We do sell some of them as pets, and as rabbit hoppers - but any that do not get sold as pets or hoppers are humanely euthanized and processed for consumption by the farm dogs.
The method of euthanasia we use on the farm is captive bolt and gunshot to the head both of which provide instant and humane death and are AVMA recognized.
While permanently culling is not a task we look forward to it is a necessary part of raising rabbits and we do our best to treat each rabbit with respect and compassion.
Sick rabbits and elderly rabbits with poor quality of life are also culled from the herd by euthanasia.
Sick Rabbits - What we do
Any rabbit that indicates illness whether it be respiratory distress (snuffles) hair loss due to external parasites or any other symptom is immediately isolated in our completely separate sick bay. We try not to rely on the use of antibiotics for cases of respiratory disease, especially those suspected of pasteurella. Rabbits with treatable external parasites are returned to the herd after their fur has grown back and completed treatment. We bleach and use a chlorhexedine cleaning solution on our sick bay cages to sanitize them between uses, they are all wire to make them easier to disinfect.
Any rabbit with snuffles is given a week to two weeks to improve on their own, rabbits who are important to our breeding program will have blood drawn and a pasteurella titer performed at the laboratory. Positive rabbits with a titer above 16 are immediately culled as are rabbits that do not improve within 2 weeks of isolation if no blood work has been performed. We have a zero tolerance policy for snuffles, so any rabbit that improves but exhibits future sniffling and nasal discharge will be immediately culled as they clearly have a history of weak immune systems.
Every sick case is treated individually and we carefully weigh our options on treatment of one animal versus the health and safety of the entire herd.