For productive & efficient rabbit keeping, health care is one of the important aspects of rabbit management.
Detection of disease: -
To recognise sick individuals the following conditions should be noted.
1. Animal movement: -Healthy individuals will make easy, free and pleasant movements. While resting there will be no huddling. Dullness, difficult breathing and stiffy movements indicate sickness.
2. Eyes: - Sunken, dull, depressed and discharge from eyes exhibits illness.
3. Coat: - Patches of hair loss, dull colour, wrinkles, loose folds of skin are sign of infections.
4. Pulse and temperature: - Elevated or lowered pulse than 140 to 150/min. & body temperature of 38°C and above are important symptoms of diseases.
5. Feed and water intake: - Off feed or reduced feed intake is one of the most important signs of disease. In some serious infections animals may even stop drinking water also.
6. Faeces: - Pelleted with black colour are normal faeces. More soft, watery, too hard with change in colour like white, reddish etc. indicates disease emergence.
7. Discharges: - Any abnormal discharge from eyes, nostril, mouth, anus, teats and genitals will indicate illness.
8. Growth and weight: - Retarded or slow growth, underweight are indications of ill health.
9. Swelling and sores: - swelling on body and sores (damages) on skin are sign of sickness.
Disease prevention: -
Effective management for prohibiting disease emergence involves the following precautions-
1. Purchasing rabbits from reliable breeder: - fresh stock should be purchased from known and reliable breeder having good health history.
2. Follow quarantine schedule: - Quarantine or isolation houses should be constructed and used for new animals suspected of infections and contagious diseases to control spread of infections.
3. Standard housing: - The houses must be constructed following high standards in respect of floor space, ventilation; to avoid old, dampness draft and insects.
4. Sanitation and hygiene: - Follow appropriate sanitation and hygiene measures to keep the environment germ free or with minimum possible low levels of microbes.
5. Immunization and medication programme: - adopt and advocate required vaccination depending on disease prevalence along with preventive medication.
6. Feeding care: - Follow quality, contamination free (microbes, toxins and anti-nutritional factors) feed and adequate feeding practices.
7. Timely isolation and treatment: - The sick individuals should be attended immediately to isolate and treat them effectively.
8. Disposal of dead animals: - Dead animals must be immediately removed and properly disposed of after postmortem and diagnosis of disease.
Related Posts:
Common terms related to rabbits.
Different types of breeds of rabbits
Ask! Your doubt or Question.