Mary Allen
Your rabbit can get sick too. How do you know if your pet has rabbit disease? Here we show you typical symptoms and diseases of rabbits listed alphabetically. If you see any signs of illness in your rabbit, see a veterinarian immediately. The animals try for a long time not to show themselves sick. In the wild, they would obviously be easy prey for predators. Hence, every sign must be taken seriously.
Abscess
Symptoms: painful swelling, mostly on the face and near the mouth. When the teeth are affected, there is a lack of appetite. In some cases, eating is completely stopped. There is an urgent need for action!
Possible causes: In abscesses on the body, mostly inflamed bite injuries by conspecifics. In the case of abscesses in the oral cavity, the causes have not been conclusively clarified; a connection is suspected to the position of the teeth, genetic properties, insufficient intake of structural feed (hay), malnutrition, and injuries in the oral cavity
Bezoars
Symptoms: Bezoars are stone-like structures in the gastrointestinal tract. As a rule, they hardly cause any symptoms. Serious symptoms do not appear until they interfere with gastric emptying or intestinal passage. In extreme cases, a stomach overload or a tympani (drum addiction) develops, which can even be fatal.
Possible cause: Most of them are so-called pilobezoars, they arise from hair. If your rabbits pick up more hair, you can recognize this by means of so-called “droppings”. These are excrement balls that are chained together by hair. String-like feces are then excreted. In such cases, brush your rabbits more and feed them special malt pastes that make it easier to shed hair.
Diarrhea
Symptoms: soft, mushy or watery excrement. Anal region smeared with feces. Admixtures of blood are possible.
Possible causes: wrong feeding, sudden change of feed, refusal to feed, stress, infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites, dental problems, poisoning. In healthy animals, it can be confused with appendix feces (soft feces that are usually eaten by rabbits).
Encephalitozoonosis
Symptoms: Sick rabbits show neurological abnormalities such as tilting the head, walking in circles, paralysis or atypical movements as well as coordination disorders. Animals infected with the pathogen can also be symptom-free.
Possible causes: Infection with a unicellular parasite called Encephalitozoon cuniculi through ingestion of its spores, for example from the urine of sick animals. Transmission from the mother to the offspring during pregnancy is also possible, but rare.
Enterocolitis (also: enterocolitis, mucoid enteritis)
Symptoms: Clear apathy, refusal to eat, massive digestive disorders, slimy-jelly-like diarrhea. Many rabbits die from the disease, especially young animals.
Possible causes: Weakened immune system, especially in young rabbits after weaning from their mother. Imbalance of the intestinal flora caused by incorrect feeding. Many rabbits in a confined space favor the development and spread of the disease. It is possible to vaccinate.
Fly Maggots (also: myiasis, fly larvae disease)
Symptoms: Smaller or larger wounds with maggot infestation, mainly in the anal area. Especially in summer.
Possible causes: flies lay eggs in the feces and urine smeared fur. Maggots hatch from the eggs and burrow through the rabbit’s skin. Rabbits with diarrhea and longer fur are particularly at risk, but not exclusively affected. It is advisable to check the rabbits’ anal region regularly (once a day) as a preventive measure during the summer months. Rabbits with previous illnesses are, particularly at risk.
Groats bag (also: atherom)
Symptoms: Nodular increase in circumference in the skin. Can reach the size of a chicken egg, but this rarely happens. Smaller nodules are more common.
Possible cause: blocked sebum. Because the sebum secretion cannot drain away, it accumulates and increases its size.
Urinary Gravel and Urinary Stones
Symptoms: extremely cloudy urine, which leaves sandy sediment when it dries up. Problems with urination and/or bloody urine are less common. Can lead to cystitis. If the urinary tract is obstructed and the urine output is significantly restricted or not possible, it is an emergency! Important: To a small extent, even completely healthy rabbits always excrete some urine crystals with the urine, which is why the urine appears cloudy.
Possible causes: Diet with too large amounts of calcium-rich feed (e.g. dried alfalfa, dried clover, dried dandelion, limestone, sepia shells, etc.) and insufficient water intake. Therefore, always offer your animals fresh and clean water and feed juice feed with high water content, e.g. cucumber.
Yeasts
Symptoms: diarrhea, flatulence up to and including drum addiction. However, these symptoms are also caused by the underlying causes of the yeast growth in the rabbit’s digestive tract.
Possible causes: mainly poor diet. If rabbits are fed with too much sugar and carbohydrate-rich food (e.g. sweet fruit), an imbalance in the intestinal flora develops. Only this imbalance favors the growth of the yeast. A disturbed intestinal flora can also be caused by insufficient chewing activity, for example, due to the position of the teeth, reluctance to eat, and periods of hunger.
Rabbit Cold (also: pasteurellosis)
Symptoms: fatigue, reluctance to eat, nasal discharge, crusts around the nose, sneezing. Ear infections are possible. In the more severe course, breathing difficulties up to shortness of breath (mouth breathing!). Pneumonia can develop as a result of rabbit flu.
Possible causes: bacterial infections of the upper respiratory tract, mainly with Pasteurella multocida and Bordetella bronchiseptica. The transmission takes place through direct contact from animal to animal, but also through the air. Stress (e.g. due to moving, temperature fluctuations, new animals in the herd, or incorrect feeding/feed changes) promotes the development of the disease. The disease is more common, especially during the colder months of the year.
Coccidiosis
Symptoms: There are two forms with different symptoms.
Intestinal coccidiosis: Affects young animals in particular. Sometimes only slightly noticeable symptoms such as reduced growth speed, weight loss, and slightly distended abdomen. Mushy to watery diarrhea is also possible. Sometimes bloody diarrhea occurs. Other digestive disorders such as drum addiction can result from the infection. Sudden deaths without clear symptoms also occur.
Liver coccidiosis: significantly less common, more likely in adult animals. Unpleasantness to eat, emaciation, constipation. If the disease progresses, jaundice and death are possible.
Possible cause: Infection with unicellular parasites (coccidia, Eimeria) through ingestion of feces through, for example, contaminated feed, direct contact with infected animals, transmission from the mother to the offspring. In severe cases, there are often additional infections of the previously damaged gastrointestinal tract with bacteria.
Lung Infection
Symptoms: reluctance to eat, apathy, fever. Frequent sneezing and nasal discharge are possible. In addition, there are sometimes massive breathing difficulties. Depending on the cause, there may be other symptoms, such as eye infections.
Possible causes: bacterial infections of the lungs, for example through dragged-out infections of the upper respiratory tract (e.g. rabbit cold), parasitic diseases of the lungs, viral infectious diseases, so-called aspiration pneumonia due to inhalation of food components, more rarely also fungal infections.
Mouth Breathing
Symptom: The rabbit opens its mouth to breathe. This is an urgent veterinary emergency!
Possible cause: Severe shortness of breath. Rabbits usually only breathe through their noses. They only show mouth breathing when they are forced to.
Myxomatosis
Symptoms: swelling around the body orifices (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, anus, and genitals), shortness of breath, unwillingness to eat up to refusal to eat, emaciation. Occasionally, severe eye inflammation occurs. Mostly fatally, only in rare exceptional cases do sick rabbits survive with intensive treatment.
Possible causes: virus infection with Leporipox myxomatosis, especially through direct contact with sick animals (including wild rabbits!). Contaminated food and insects can also trigger serious diseases. There is the possibility of vaccination. Your vet can advise you on this.
Stomach Overload
Symptoms: The first signs are a lack of appetite and insufficient feed intake, in some cases eating is completely stopped. The stomach feels unusually fat at times. The rabbit is often apathetic and listless in the event of a stomach overload.
Possible causes: improper diet, gobbling eating behavior (especially after starvation), constipation, hairballs/bezoars, parasite infestation, poisoning, twisted intestines.
Nasal Discharge
Symptom: Fluid drains from the nose. The nasal discharge can be bilateral or unilateral. The color can vary from clear and transparent to yellow-greenish. Nasal discharge can be thick or watery. Rabbits with nasal discharge occasionally sneeze.
Possible causes: Infectious and other diseases of the respiratory tract, tooth inflammation, injuries.
Ear Inflammation (also: otitis)
Symptoms: Frequent head shaking, scratching of the affected ear because of the itching. A rabbit with an ear infection will often tilt its head. Occasionally you can see changes (e.g. redness and crusts) on the outer ear. Often these abnormalities are so deep that only the veterinarian can recognize them with an otoscope. With more severe diseases of the middle and inner ear, neurological disorders can also occur. These include coordination and balance disorders, circular walking, and abnormal eye-rolling movements. There is a risk of confusion with encephalitozoonosis!
Possible causes: foreign bodies entering the ear, mite infestation, bacterial infections, injuries. Aries rabbits are more often and usually more seriously affected.
Fungal Diseases of the Skin
Symptoms: The symptoms differ depending on the type of skin fungus. Bald spots are often found in connection with fungal infections. These are scaly, the skin is often a bit gray or yellowish in color. Itching is rare, but it can happen.
Possible causes: stress, weakened immune system, direct contact with infected animals, or contaminated utensils. The infections are mostly caused by fungi belonging to the genus Microsporum or Trychophyton. A transfer to humans is possible in principle!
RHD (Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease)
Symptoms: Sudden death. Symptoms are rarely observed beforehand. These are fatigue and unwillingness to eat. Cramps and severe shortness of breath set in within a few hours. Occasionally, bleeding from the body orifices is observed. The animals rarely survive the first day of infection, and death within a week or less is considered certain. Very young rabbits up to about 6-8 weeks of age do not get sick.
Possible causes: infection with the RHD virus through contaminated feed, contact with infected animals, insects, contaminated objects (e.g. stable and its furnishings). Vaccination possible.
RHD-2 (Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease, new virus strain)
Symptoms: like “normal” RHD, but in contrast to this, young animals also get sick! The delayed course occurs a little more frequently here. Rabbits survive for about a week but then die.
Possible causes: Infection with an altered RHD virus strain called “RHD-2”. The origin of the virus is believed to be in France. Infection routes see RHD
Rodentiosis (also: pseudotuberculosis)
Symptoms: Acute courses with sudden deaths are just as possible as chronic events, characterized by continuous emaciation over a longer period of time. As the disease progresses, there is increasing weariness to the point of complete exhaustion. Some animals have occasional bouts of fever. If left untreated, death is almost certain, and the prognosis is poor even with treatment.
Possible causes: The disease is much more common in wild rabbits. Accordingly, it is mostly transmitted through contact with wild animals. Infection through contaminated drinking water and feed is also possible. Caution: Rodentiosis is considered to be transferable to humans!
Pseudopregnancy
Symptoms: The rabbit plucks the fur herself in the area of the chest, abdomen, and flanks in order to build a nest out of it. The teats swell due to the formation of milk. Affected animals also show behavior changes. Among other things, they can become unusually aggressive, including towards partner animals. The symptoms usually go away after about 16-18 days.
Possible causes: Ovulation in rabbits is usually triggered by the act of mating. In this case, actual pregnancy is also likely. If ovulation occurs for other reasons or if the egg cells are not fertilized during mating, the rabbit can become pseudopregnant. Hormonal disorders can also cause this behavior.
Drum Addiction (also: tympanie)
Symptoms: bloated stomach, reluctance to eat, fatigue. Affected animals have significant abdominal pain and indigestion. Advanced symptoms also shortness of breath, circulatory weakness.
Possible causes: sudden feed changes, dental diseases/malpositions that prevent the chopping of the feed, infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, an insufficient supply of feed, insufficient feed intake, a misplaced section in the gastrointestinal tract (e.g. due to constipation or Intestinal entanglement).
Poisoning
Symptoms: vary greatly depending on the cause. Typical symptoms of acute poisoning are, for example, excessive salivation, digestive disorders, bleeding (sudden “bruises” or red spots on the mucous membranes, blood in the urine), breathing difficulties, drowsiness, fatigue, tremors, seizures, and coordination disorders. Chronic poisoning is more likely to manifest itself through, for example, dull fur, fatigue, weight loss, and digestive problems.
Possible causes: poisonous plants (e.g. laburnum, autumn crocus, monkshood, bracken), spoiled food (mold toxins), ingestion of poisonous bait for rats, etc., heavy metals, cleaning agents, and much more.
Tooth Furrow Positions
Symptoms: You can sometimes recognize clear misalignments of the incisors yourself if you look your animal in the mouth. If you have crooked or unusually long teeth, you should see a veterinarian regularly to trim them. You cannot judge the molars yourself. These should therefore be checked by the veterinarian at regular intervals and corrected if necessary. Here, too, there are occasional sharp edges or other problems that prevent your pet from eating. It then shows a lack of appetite or refusal to eat.
Possible causes: inherited misalignments of the teeth, incorrect feeding with too little roughage (hay), injuries.