4d • Health and Wellness
The week has not leveled out.
Indiana is still swinging without restraint — 20s to near 70 and back again. That kind of instability stresses, bodies, lungs , anything that has to regulate temperature to stay alive.
We are at three losses. I expect a fourth today despite intervention.
A younger harlequin litter has taken the worst of it.
I’ve already lost two of Foxy’s bucks. Her doe began showing symptoms last night. We also lost a Red New Zealand doe. Necropsy showed sudden, acute pneumonia — lungs completely saturated with pus, consistent with a silent presentation of Pasteurella.
No sneezing.
No discharge.
No crusted nose.
No drawn-out warning.
The only visible sign came at the end — head extended back, labored breathing, then dead within hours. At that point you are not reversing anything. You are watching the body fail.
The farmhand and I feel the pressure shifts too — congestion, fatigue, headaches. We compensate. Young rabbits often cannot. Rapid temperature swings, barometric shifts, warm rain to freezing snow — that combination stresses the respiratory system hard. Anything marginal goes first.
So far it has affected only a few. I am monitoring closely. Anyone even slightly off gets pulled and watched.
The wetness visible around the nostrils in the photo was from Vet-RX I applied in an attempt to help open the airway while antibiotics circulated. It was not discharge.
This was acute.
When a rabbit extends its head straight up with the neck fully stretched, it is attempting to maximize airflow. By the time that posture appears, lung involvement is already significant.
Antibiotics require time — usually 48–72 hours — to reduce bacterial load. In cases like this, treatment would have needed to begin days earlier, before visible respiratory distress. Once gasping begins, you are behind.
Silent Pasteurella does not always present with obvious upper respiratory signs. Sometimes there is nothing outward until the end.
The only early indicator I’ve consistently seen is subtle:
Off feed.
A rabbit that doesn’t clean up.
A rabbit that seems slightly off.
That is enough for me to pull and monitor.
This is environmental pressure playing out in real time, warm and wet breeds bacteria. Monitoring continues. Best you can do is mitigate the moisture, as best you can. Which is hard durring mud season.
4
9 comments
The week has not leveled out.
powered by
skool.com/mmcbunclub-6215
Bun Club: science-based rabbit education promoting data-driven care, accurate nutrition, and verified research.
Suggested communities
Powered by