Gem x
Rabbit Mite Remedies
★★★★★
Steps:
1. I bathed her in Mane and Tail shampoo
2, I diluted apple cider vinegar with water and left it on her for 15 mins
3. I poured buttermilk on her and left it for 15 mins
4. Combed her with a flea comb
5. Fur mites are gone
Critical Care, Pumpkin
I had given the bunny some sorghum before (trimmed off any mildewed leaves, of course) which has been growing under my bird feeder for the last few years. And she loves it---so I figured, after all the advice I read here, "Why not?". It's a grain, she seems to love the entire plant, fresh or dried. And guess what? It worked (comfortably, it appeared) within an hour of giving her some (1 stalk, freshly cut, with the seed heads attached).
I will now be growing it in my garden, so some is always on hand fresh or dry, for situations like this again.
Seeds can be purchased very cheaply from major farm seed suppliers. And a little bit goes such a long way.
Belly Massage for Rabbits
If it is something you can do however, I'm certain it would be very comforting and helpful for your rabbit.
Wounds
Wounds
You might try any of the liquid bandages available from the drug store OR a drop of superglue.
Good luck!
Wounds
Eye Infections
★★★★★
Hope this helps.
Critical Care, Pumpkin
Critical Care, Pumpkin
Belly Massage for Rabbits
★★★★★
I just went through a very scary situation with my rabbit. He stopped eating, drinking, and pooping and I knew it was an emergency. The vet gave him intravenous fluids, pain meds, and did x-rays, and showed me how to syringe-feed him with critical care.
But here is what I learned from YouTube that really changed things for us: belly massage! When your rabbit is lying down, put your hands underneath and gently massage the abdomen. You will actually here the stomach start to gurgle. Within 5 minutes he jumped into his litter box and went to the bathroom. We all cheered! Do this every half hour as part of treatment.
I think I could have saved myself $500. My vet did not mention massage at all....
Critical Care, Pumpkin
Just wanted to provide some info to you re; syringes in the trash.
It is perfectly fine to discard a syringe in the trash; the syringe is the plastic unit commonly used with hypodermic needles. The hypodermic needle is the part that is unsafe to discard in ordinary household trash.
To safely dispose of sharps such as hypo's - I bring these items to my veterinarian and he is happy to dispose of them safely for me.
Critical Care, Pumpkin
Ear Mites
Ear Mites
MY bad - you DID state it was ear mites in your title line, and my eyes just didn't pick it up!
The most basic treatment of ear mites is oil in the ear - of any type. The idea being the oil smothers the mites. So flooding the ears with olive oil, mineral oil, etc. should work towards this effect. The life cycle of the mite is 21 days, so you would need to treat each animal a couple of times a week for up to 4 weeks - in addition to sterilizing the living quarters. An over the counter product campho-phenique often works with only 1 application. Honey mixed with warm water and applied twice daily for the first week, and then every two days for the next 2 weeks [so total of 21 days treatment/full life cycle of the mite] is also effective and non-toxic, although the bunnies will be very sticky around the neck with this treatment and may require bathing or cleaning up every few days if you go this route.
it must be said that any bunny who gets infected with mites of any sort is sending the message that something is not right; you may need to increase the quality of the rations you feed your rabbits to provide more vitamins, or more sunlight, and so on.
Good luck with this noble endeavor!
Ear Mites
That sure is a lot of rabbits!
My first inclination is to depopulate: cull and harvest as many animals as you can - this to lighten the work load for the treatment required to clean up three barns of bunnies. Pare down to your essential breeding stock and clean those up, along with the facilities and begin anew.
Ideally, if you could reduce or consolidate the population down to 2 barns, you could then put your efforts into sterilizing the empty barn. It needs to be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized so that all parasites are destroyed and reinfection cannot occur. A fresh solution of one part chlorine bleach to 10 parts water sprayed on non-porous surfaces and allowed to sit wet for 10 minutes is effective. Another consideration is Oxine combined with Citric Acid - this can be used both as a spray or as a fogger. Once you have the facility sterilized you must clear out the infections in the rabbits before reintroduction or your work will be for naught.
There are several things you can do to clear out the infections in the rabbits; environmentally friendly ones are labor intensive and require repeated bathing of the infected animal - and require the infected animal to be in quarantine so as not to be reinfected during treatment. Injectable Vermectin/Ivermectin requires several injections and you must wait for 49 days before you can harvest that animal for food.
You don't state which kind of mite you have - ear mites may not require such drastic culling as I envision, and a simple carrier oil along with a miticide such as Vectin/ivermectin used in the ear until the mites are resolved might be the way to go.
Once you have your stock cleaned up you can introduce to the cleaned up barn and then start all over again with barn 2, and then again with barn 3. It is essential that staff handling the rabbits do not cross contaminate the barn by going from infected barn to clean barn; ideally staff would change clothing completely before entering the clean barn.
I strongly urge you to work with a local veterinarian - they can best advise with eyes on your actual set up and assist with obtaining the necessary medication in volume if needed.
Ban Nuea Veterinary Clinic Address: Inthara Khiri Rd., Mae Sot, Tak
Veterinary Clinic Address: Highway 12, Mae Sot, Tak
Mae Sot Livestock Address: Mae Sot-Mae Tao Rd., Mae Sot, Tak
Si Phanit Veterinary Clinic Address: Si Phanit Rd., Mae Sot, Tak
Ear Mites
We have build a rabbit farm in Mae Sod whose sole purpose is to feed rabbit meat to the orphans on the Thai/Myanmar border. Most if not all of the orphans suffer from Protein deficiency which affects their growth and learning ability. We now have a major case of mites at the farm where we house over 3000 rabbits.
Any help and suggestions is appreciated. We need to try to take care of this situation in the barns (3) where the rabbits are raised.
Thank you so much. H.
You fought the good fight and tried so hard - how sad the bun lost his fight with this parasite.
Thank you for sharing your journey.
Wry Neck Remedies
Our little bunny died in the night after trying everything we could. I think his size really accounted for his sensitivity. Poor thing, we loved him so much, it's a shame to lose him. The other bun, the carrier of the disease, is still alive her symptoms have gotten worse but she is getting through. We pray she makes it until Thursday for her next dose of ivomec. She is no longer in our care and is in fact with the original owner so hopefully she makes it through to be a very special bunny. Results are supposed to be more apparent after the second dose.
As for all the natural remedies I can only say that despite our trying we still have no idea what would have worked or not. We will not be having anymore rabbits so there is no way for us to test this out, nor would we want to, it is such a heart breaking thing to see and go through.
In the mean time we have bleached everything in the house to ensure the cats do not suffer from this disease (very rare to find it in felines, only very sick ones).
Eye Infections
Wry Neck Remedies
As for dosage, the rabbit that was initaly efected got a larger dose and she is allot better I noticed, it is my small bun that seems to be going through a shock, I literally gave him 1 tiny drop of a syringe, less than recommended. I think he is adjusting to the different herbs and meds he has been given in such a short time.
To ensure he stays hydrated I have been syringe feeding/watering him with a solution I made thanks to your recommendation. I made a very diluted dandelion root/raspberry leaf tea with mineral water, added about 1/2 a tsp of turbinado sugar and a few grains of sea salt (all I had). Ive also ground up swiss chard and spinach leaves, mixed them with water to make a juice and syringe fed him that. He will not eat on his own even when offered his favorites like apple and carrot nor will he drink from his bottle.
It has been a few hours since he was at his worse, he is moving around his cage a little more (actually changing positions) and his breathing is not so shallow.
He must have been more sensitive to the medication because of his size which is amazing to me since the dose was so small compared to what I was supposed to give him. I hope he pulls through and thank you so much for your advice and recommendations.
Wry Neck Remedies
"dandelion root has already been used so I'm going to keep that one up."
Did you feel it was working? My suspicion is that it wasn't providing the results you wanted to see, hence your initial post. My experience with these remedies is that, if they work - they work fairly quickly and its obvious they are working. IMHO if its not working, try something else - again JMHO.
"Any thoughts on coconut oil?"
I think it would be much easier to get a bun to eat carrots or spinach or green pepper even than coconut oil, but if it came to you then you should give it a whirl. If this were my bun, I would put out each of the fresh remedies including the coconut oil in a small dish and let the bun have at it; he will know, perhaps better than anyone, just what he needs to ingest to heal himself. Again, JMHO!
How often are you dosing the ivomec? Are you sure of your doses? The AC might help with the loose stools, however since you know why the loose stools are present [dosing ivomec/system detoxing] it seems contraindicated to me - ie let it run its course.
That said, its your bun and I advise anyone to go with their gut as I am only tossing out advice from my side of the keyboard and you are with your bun real time.
I would watch to make sure your bun doesn't dehydrate - if anything I might err on the side of caution and use a dropper to make sure he is getting sufficient water. If the diarrhea is severe, then home made pedialyte is in order.
Homemade Pedialyte:
4 cups of water (boiled or bottled drinking water)
1/2 teaspoon Morton lite salt (because it has potassium in it as well as sodium chloride) Can use regular table salt if you have to.
2 Tablespoons sugar
If you want to add the AC start with 1 cup of electrolyte solution in a small jar with a lid; add 2 heaping tablespoons of AC and then put the lid on and shke to blend. This goes into a syringe well and then can be placed into your bun's mouth; tip the head back and gently depress the plunger to allow him to drink it slowly.
Take a peek at this thread - the remedies certainly could apply to your bun:
https://www.earthclinic.com/pets/heartworm.html#blackwalnutgarlic
Wry Neck Remedies
I am seeing some effects of the ivomec on my small rabbit, diarrhea, off his food, not drinking and sluggish since last night. Im wondering if giving him a tiny bit of activated charcoal would help his diarrhea, although I dont want to stress him any more than needed and I wonder if I should just let it run its course.
Wry Neck Remedies
Some ideas for you:
About the Ivomec - not a big fan but it does have its place in certain situations. Ivomec is an immune depressant. The sluggish behavior after dosing is very likely a Herx reaction; the Ivomec causes the parasites to die off enmasse which makes bun not feel so good for a few days as the toxins caused by the parasite die off work their way out of his system.
I like the ACV in the water bottle - be sure to use the raw, unpasturized unfiltered kind with the active cultures/"mother". Another thought would be to alkalize with baking soda; you might consider hanging two bottles and letting the bun decide for himself which one [ACV/baking soda] he needs.
Read up on alkalizing remedies on EC here:
https://www.earthclinic.com/remedies/alkalizing_formulas.html
Read up on remedies for parasites on EC: https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/parasites.html
Consider adding food grade diatomaceous earth [DE] to your buns food, or making a slurry of the DE and dose it orally [mix try DE with water until it forms an easy flowing gruel and dose 1cc am and pm to start].
Consider dosing tinct of Black Walnut; tinct straight out of the bottle likely will be unpalatable to a bun, so add a few drops to a little water and get out the turkey baster/eye dropper/what have you and admnister orally to the bun.
Consider a nutritional approach with foods that are natural remedies for protazoans:
Blueberries - 1 tablespoon twice a day for 5 days
Broccoli - 4 flowerets twice daily for 5 days
Carrots - 2 baby raw organic carrots twice a day for 8 days
Celery - 1 raw stick twice a day for 7 days
Green Pepper - 1 half-dollar sized piece twice a day for 2 days
Lemon Juice - 1/2 teaspoon twice a day for 5 days
Pumpkin Seeds - 1 tablespoon twice a day for 8 days
Spinach - 1 tablespoon twice a day for 5 days
Sunflower Seeds - 1 tablespoon twice a day for 8 days
Any or none of the above may apply; hold your bun in your lap and read down the list, the right ones will just seem right.
Now, if you are good at dosing nasty tasting oral meds down your buns craw, some herbs may apply. Which ones you choose are up to you, so several or none may seem right. I mix them up with a little water and dose with a medicine dropper:
Astragulus - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Bilberry - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Cat's Claw - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Dandelion Root - 1 capsule twice a day for5 days
Garlic -1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Kelp - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Licorice - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Milk Thistle - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Olive Leaf Extract - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Oregano Oil - 1 pill or 1/4 teaspoon twice a day for 5 days
Oregon Grape Root - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Pau D'Arco - 1 capsule twice a day for 3 days
Schizandra - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Turmeric - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
Yellow Dock - 1 capsule twice a day for 5 days
After banging that all out on my keyboard, the Milk Thistle struck me as indicated - read up on EC about it here:
https://www.earthclinic.com/herbs/milk-thistle.html
Good luck with your bun, and report back with an update please!
Wry Neck Remedies
Here is some info about our rabbits:
We feed ACV to our rabbits by means of adding 1/2 tsp to their bottle of water. The rabbit with wry neck was previously fed a diet of hay and pellet food, the other rabbit has been converted to a raw diet consisting of veggies, fruit, seeds and hay. Since the onset of the wry neck I have administered a low dose of ivomec- 1/10 cc per lb of weight- to each rabbit and fed grated carrot mixed with seaweed and ground dandelion root to aid immune function. I have also been feeding the unaffected rabbit small amounts of bee pollen, which he loves, but the effected rabbit will not eat these things. In my opinion, the effected rabbit is not be used to the diet that our older rabbit is, it took him about a month to completely convert his diet. I wish to stay away from feeding pellets to the effected rabbit because pelleted food can become contaminated and cause the wry neck problem. Hopefully this will not stress the effected rabbit in a way that will cause her immunity to become even more compromised. She has been eating the hay and baby greens and drinking allot of water, since the dose was administered (Dec 12/2013) they have become more lethargic than usual, which in my understanding is normal behavior for the next 24 hours.
So I hope there may be someone out there who has had some knowledge and understanding of this parasite and its effects. For the best source I found for information on this disease here is the link (if its not against the rules of EC) sorry if it is. Barbi has been researching this disease for over 25 years, although methods are not natural they seem to be the only alternative to the veterinarian so far. Also if anyone is wondering why we haven't taken the rabbit to the vet, it is because there are no rabbit vets in this area, most vets will not even touch the subject of small mammal care here and I know the cost of the tests necessary to diagnose EC parasites would be more than I could afford. As an example it cost us $900.00 to have our cat euthanized after a blood test.
Fibrosarcoma
My sweet bunny, smeagol, just turned 3yrs old on Dec. 1, 2012. He's a mini-lop, blonde and about 7. 5 lbs. He lives indoors in my room, but not caged. In May 2012, I noticed a red bump on the outside middle tip of his upper left lip. Since rabbits upper lip is split, this is located in the "middle" of his upper lip. I took him to two different vets that told me since it didn't seem to be bothering him, it wasn't changing shape, size or color, then I didn't need to worry about it. There was no sign of abrasion, cut, bite or reason for the lump. We were living in Japan at the time, I didn't speak the language, and couldn't find a vet in our area that was very "rabbit knowledgable". Over the summer, we re-located to the U. S. , southern california. Around the end of Sept. 2012 he went to the vet for neutering surgery. We asked the vet to take a look at the red bump on his lip while he was under anesthesia. The vet inserted a needle in order to get a fluid sample. He also put him on a general antibiotic. The test came back inconclusive, but the lump seemed to get infected. After approximately two weeks we did a biopsy. It came back positive for fibrosarcoma cancer. His lip looked worse also. We took him to a different vet more specialized in rabbit care. He attempted to remove the tumor stating that there was not room to get "clean" margins because of the location of the tumor being basically against the opening of his nasal cavity. We had hoped to remove the tumor, then start radiation to kill off any remaining cancer cells understanding fibrosarcomas are extremely aggressive. But, we couldn't consider radiation until the wound healed. Well, it just isn't healing. It's been about a month and the cancer is back. It's grown quite a bit blocking much of his left nasal opening. The vet, although educated in chinese herbology, stated there is nothing more he can do for him. He expects the tumor to grow much larger within two weeks. I asked if there was an alternative medication I could give smeagol to slow the growth, or fight the cancer and he stated he didn't know of anything that would be safe if accidentally ingested from being on his lip. He said there was something, but it would have to be injected directly into the tumor, would be extremely painful and he feared the medication would not help fast enough to combat the speed at which the tumor is growing. He is currently on Baytril (antibiotic), Metacam, and buprenorphine. For the last month, the tumor will grow in size, changing appearance sometimes multiple times a day. Then, it will start bleeding, quite a bit, suddenly and the outer scab will seperate and come off. It's quite stressful for him (and us) as the blood will get in his nasal passage and cause difficulty breathing I think
. The only options I see right now are doing nothing and watching it grow, or taking him to the oncologist and asking about radiation possibilities. I am hoping that instead, there is an alternative treatment that can slow/stop the growth of the rapidly enlarging tumor and keep him comfortable. I would greatly appreciate any help. - Christina
Flea Remedies
Critical Care, Pumpkin
Critical Care, Pumpkin
My rabbit stopped eatting, pooping, peeing, and drinking. I saw your advice, and made a vet appointment to get "critical care" from my vet. My vets protocol was X-rays, blood tests, & weighing my rabbit. He never looked at the poop samples, nor listened to my suggestion of using critical care. I said "no" to the X-rays, and blood test. Why spend all tha money, cause even if they found something, the survival rate of a rabbit getting operated on is not optimal.
My vet wanted me to ground up timothy hay in a blender, until it is powder, and mix with water, to feed by seringe. This sounds great in theory. But the reality is timothy does grind up into powder, with alot of tiny splinter size pieces that clog any size seringe. I even used a horse size seringe, and the timothy would clog. I went back to the vet and purchased the critical care in apple bannan flavor. The next step was getting this into my rabbit who fought like a tiger. I wrapped my rabbit in a towel, grabbed her jaw (gently) from behind her ears, so she couldn't bite me, and fed her. Once she had the seringe in her mouth she did great. With in less than 24 hrs my rabbit was peeing & pooping. And 12 hours after that her appetite came back. Also when using critical care, I offfered my rabbit water often. Critical care absorbs a lot of water. I even gave water by seringe to keep my rabbit hydrated.
I am grateful for this web site, and the good advice that saved my 3 month old rabbit.
THANK YOU JESSI
Erica from South Pasadena Ca Sept 20, 2012
Mange Remedies
Tumors
Tumors
Thank you! Teresa
Mange Remedies
Eye Infections
Also you want to make sure that if they are not eating they are getting electrolytes. The last thing you need is for them to get dehydrated. We use to use a little gatorade mixed in the water just a teaspoon or two in a bowl of water every few hours until they were drinking normally. Also I would consider allowing the animal to have a few snacks that it likes just be aware not to over do it because it could get in the habit to refuse to go back to not eating any normal grain and too much electrolytes (from water and favorite treats) can make it have diarrhea. But a good balance is the key!
Eye Infections
Anyone have a similar problem with their rabbit, and how did you treat it?
He was eating fine before he went to the vet, but now seems to be decreasing his intake. He's had blockages before, and we used the syringe technique with pumpkin puree, pineapple juice and gatorade. Would it be best to give him fruit juices (like apple and pineapple, his favorites) to get some fluids in him as he is not eating as much as he normally does?
It seems to me when rabbits stop eating it's very serious and usually means they are quite ill.
Any help would be great! Thank you.
Flea Remedies
Critical Care, Pumpkin
Eye Infections
I then purchased "NFZ Puffer" which is made to clear eye infections in rabbits. The NFZ caused a fungal infection in the rabbits eye. I noticed a white cloudy fungus on the eye. I stopped using the NFZ Puffer and just flushed out the eye as I had been doing. I then used some "Tea Tree Oil"- one drop into a tablespoon of mineral oil and dabbed a little just under his eye which has cleared up the fungal infection along with all the redness. I do hope that this helps others who have animals with fungal infections of the eye. Better that antibiotics which can cause major problems in rabbits due to their digestive system.
Eye Infections
Eye Infections
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Flea Remedies
I have not tried any of these myself but was given the list through another rabbit website.
Okugest tablets
Okugest tablets are a homeopathic medicine for humans, which are used for, diarrhoea, bloat and for improvement of the gut motility, intoxication.
the tablets do contain the following homeopatic ingredients:
Okoubaka aubreveille D3 - prevention and treatment of poisoning, (foodpoisoning, pesticide poisonong, and self poisoning (auto toxic) diseases/ alergy .Okoubake helps the body regain control and normalizes the immune system to fight of other potential aggressors. For treatment, gastroenteritis, intestinal infections/ intoxification, and diarrhea.
Arsenicum album D12 - treatment of indigestion, anxiety, fever, pain and lots more.
Carbo vegetabilis D6 - treatment, bloat/gas, Abdominal distention with cramping pains, worse lying down,
Croton tiglium D6 - treatment acute and chronic diarrea, upset stomach, gas,
Veratum album D12 - treatment, sudden collapse, painful cramping followed by great weakness and exhaustion, diarrhea or constipation
