Mary Allen
Spring is the best time of the breeding year. The young bring life to the stables. It is all the sadder when the offspring starts to get sick or even dies. But many problems can be avoided.
Preventive care starts with putting together the breeding pairs. Good breeding animals are primarily healthy animals. Beauty should come second. If the doe refuses a particular buck, it may be because they are not genetically compatible and it makes sense to use a different buck. Whether you like smelling or not has a solid background, as studies on animals and humans have shown. The more different the immune system, the more pleasant the smell is perceived and the more robust the offspring.
Obese do not only absorb poorly but are also prone to problems during birth. More exercise and fresh food, but a little less concentrated feed, will soon bring the rabbits into breeding conditions. The administration of raspberry leaves during gestation strengthens the uterus and also helps to prevent birth problems.
Molds are the Starting Point of Many Health Problems
A clean barn is a matter of course, whether offspring are expected or not. In double stalls, it is advisable to check the compartment that the animal does not use as a toilet when mucking up and to replace damp or old bedding. If you offer hay in the rack, you should empty it completely at least once a week. These measures prevent mold. If hay or bedding is left lying around for a long time, it can get damp and start to get moldy.
Molds produce dangerous toxins called mycotoxins. Depending on the type of toxin, they have a hormone-like or cell-damaging effect. The latter destroy, among other things, the mucous membrane of the digestive tract, which leads to diarrhea, developmental disorders, and a weakening of the immune system. When a pregnant doe is exposed to mold, mycotoxins damage the fetuses. Although the young are born alive, they are so weak that they have no strength to suckle and cannot maintain their body temperature without nourishing milk. So they die within the first few days, although the mother animal has milk and would suckle the little ones.
It is therefore important to be careful when storing feedstocks and hay and straw. However, there are field fungi that already affect the growing plants; so they are harvested at the same time. Farmers are aware of the problem: appropriate crop rotations and tillage measures help to reduce contamination with field fungi. The feed producers are also doing their utmost to keep the level of toxins in the feed low. You know that rabbits and piglets are the most sensitive to mycotoxins.
Nervous females endanger the young and are therefore better off staying next door
Once the rabbit has finished building the nest, it is worth taking a critical look at whether there are any danger spots in the stall, especially in structured stalls. There are often delicate gaps or crevices into which nestlings can get lost. Such places can, for example, be well stuffed with straw or secured with aboard. After the throwing, the nest is checked: the young are counted and any dead or leftovers of afterbirth are removed. Also in the following days, you reach into the nest and count the nestlings. If something is missing, you should look for it immediately. Dead nestlings that lie in the barn for days are not a sign of good animal husbandry.
Most females become rammed again shortly after birth. With some you hardly notice anything, others are very nervous, rummaging through the bedding and sometimes even the nest, which endangers the young. The best thing to do then is to lock up the mother, which is very easy in a double pen. Every morning the doe is allowed to suckle at the nest. After a few days, the rabbit calmed down. With large litters, herbs provide enough milk; fresh hop shoots and dandelion leaves can soon be collected in addition to the dried nettles and fennel and milk thistle seeds, which are known to promote milk. Of course, water must always be available. Refilling the drinker is far better than just refilling it; Especially at warmer temperatures, bacteria multiply dangerously quickly in the residual water.
Natural Feeding Helps Against Various Digestive Diseases
Meticulous cleanliness is the order of the day as soon as the little ones come out of the nest. Frequent mucking out and enough space for the growing young prevent many problems. Excessive stocking leads to high humidity in the barn, which in turn encourages the growth of mold in the litter.
Coccidia is an important topic now. Coccidiostats in the feed may be sedative, but they only partially prevent disease. There is also always a risk of resistance developing with long-term medication. Some breeders give breeding females a coccidia cure before mating, others treat mothers and young when they are about six weeks old. Coccidia is transmitted via feces; the best preventive measure is therefore cleaning the fecal corner every two to three days.
Coarse hay and a natural feeding with herbs and branches of hazel, birch, oak, alder, and willow support the development of good intestinal flora. Tannins, which are present in many plants, soothe inflamed intestinal mucosa and inhibit bacteria. Bitter substances stimulate appetite and digestion, prevent fermentation, and thus the dreaded addiction to drums. Their strengthening effect is also important. Essential oils also stimulate the appetite, are flatulent, disinfectant and antispasmodic. Mucilage stimulates intestinal activity and protects the mucous membranes, on whose health good development depends.
Among the herbs, dost, daisies, mugwort, and avens have proven particularly useful in the rearing of young animals. The cocktail of active ingredients in the plants hits different targets in the metabolism of the pathogens; these are therefore unable to form any resistance to it. A few leaves a day are enough. In herds that have already had problems with enteropathies, the young animals are regularly given a little St. John’s wort. It inhibits the clostridia, which are held responsible for the often fatal intestinal paralysis.