Mary Allen
Abscesses are quite common in rabbits. In addition to conventional treatment, there is also effective help from nature: leeches relieve pain and stimulate self-healing.
The little buck sits quietly, eyes half-closed, apparently dozing. But he doesn’t take a nap, he has the abscess on his jaw treated. The practitioner has skilfully scratched the skin, injected pain-relieving substances, and is now busy draining the abscess. This takes at least half an hour because the practitioner is a leech.
“Now it has overcome the system of the host and is going over to free sucking,” says animal healer Karin Gamma, explaining the beginning vigorous movements of the leech. The leech’s entire body contracts rhythmically as it sucks blood and pus. What sounds a bit strange for sensitive minds is an ingenious arrangement of nature. Leeches are by no means bloodthirsty parasites, they are more likely to be counted among the symbionts since they suck blood from a host animal, but give it back a variety of healing substances with their saliva and thus help it to health and well-being.
Precisely abscesses, which occur quite frequently in rabbits, are one of the core competencies of leeches. The suction relieves the pressure in the abscess, but the drugs delivered to the wound are essential. Not all of the more than 100 active substances in leech saliva have been investigated. In addition to the pain-relieving components, there are components that prevent blood clotting, others have an anti-inflammatory effect or stimulate blood circulation and lymphatic drainage, others are antibacterial, even mood-enhancing active ingredients have been discovered.
Relaxed During the Treatment
In the first session, Karin Gamma had two leeches bite the abscess at the same time. The small suckers have a suction cup at the head and tail end. They hold on to the host with their rear sucker and use their sensory receptors on the head to find a suitable spot for a blood meal. Warm or hairless areas (foci of inflammation) are preferred, and pus also attracts them. If a spot fits, the leech attaches itself with the front suction cup and begins to scratch the patient’s skin with 200 fine teeth. The rabbit didn’t fight it, it didn’t seem to feel any pain. Human patients report a slight burning sensation that goes away quickly. Depending on its size, a leech sucks 20 to 50 milliliters of blood;
A fresh leech was attached to the abscess the following day, and a fourth leech a few days later. The rabbit endured the treatments completely relaxed, showing neither discomfort nor impatience over the length of the session. The leeches should be able to suckle their fill in peace; as soon as they are full, they let themselves go. If you try to detach them by force beforehand, the contents of the stomach could be released into the wound. After the treatment, the buck came back to the stable, where he cleaned himself intensively. However, the bleeding was always limited.
Mood High Thanks to Serotonin?
After a blood meal, leeches digest first. Symbiotic intestinal bacteria conserve the ingested blood so that a leech can live on it for up to a year. So it could be several months before the next meal. Could, because the law forbids using a medicinal leech therapeutically more than once. After their use, most of the little helpers are put in the deep freeze, where they freeze and then die. Abandoning them in nature is out of the question because the breeding leeches do not belong to the same species as the native, endangered, and therefore protected leech.
After the three treatments, the buck’s abscess had shrunk but not gone away. But the rabbit’s behavior had changed: it seemed downright high-spirited, moved a lot, begged excitedly at feeding time, and rushed ravenously to eat. Was that related to the mood-enhancing serotonin in leech saliva? Five weeks after the last use of the leech, the abscess had completely disappeared thanks to the cocktail of active ingredients that entered the host body with the leech’s saliva and triggered the rabbit’s self-healing.
In her veterinary practice, Karin uses gamma leeches primarily for horses with laminitis (inflammation of the dermis of the hoof), tendon problems, or hematomas; also in dogs suffering from arthrosis. But the low-stress treatment with the little biters is also recommended for rabbits with abscesses.