rabbit vaccines

[fashion victim]

My dog has a fever and I'm taking her to a veterinary clinic tomorrow. Bunny hasn't had any shots, and I was wondering if he has to get rabies vaccines or anything else that my dog could get? She has a scab in her leg, and I don't know if it's a bite or a cut or what. She has distemper and rabies shots, but is there anything else that she could get from a rabbit bite? Please, if you guys could respond today it would be so helpful because as I said I'm going to a clinic tomorrow and I want to know so I can take him along, too.

[fashion victim]

I forgot to mention that my dog is acting very weird, she's all quiet and still. She's usually very active. She's slept most of the day and right now she's staring off into space.

[naturestee]

There are no vaccines available for rabbits in the US, although Myxomatosis and VHD vaccines are available in the UK and some other European countries.

Any animal bite can cause an infection due to bacteria in the mouth. I hope your dog gets well soon.

As for your bunny, is she still eating and pooping? Sometimes my buns have an off day where they're just lazy and spacey. As long as they're eating and pooping they're fine, although if they act uncomfortable I check for gas and treat with simethicone (baby gas drops) if their bellies are tight.

[fashion victim]

Originally Posted by naturestee

There are no vaccines available for rabbits in the US, although Myxomatosis and VHD vaccines are available in the UK and some other European countries.

Any animal bite can cause an infection due to bacteria in the mouth. I hope your dog gets well soon.

As for your bunny, is she still eating and pooping? Sometimes my buns have an off day where they're just lazy and spacey. As long as they're eating and pooping they're fine, although if they act uncomfortable I check for gas and treat with simethicone (baby gas drops) if their bellies are tight.

How come those vaccines aren't available here? Because the FDA or something doesn't approve them or because animals in the United States don't get those diseases or because Europe has stricter disease prevention in animals laws?

Bunny is perfectly fine, he is very healthy and active and plays almost all day and during the whole night (he barely lets me sleep because he loves to play on my bed). My pup is fine, I ended up taking her to the Humane Society here and they ruled out an animal bite and said her temperature was within the normal range. She got a new collar and leash because they sell them really cheap there ; the same products in the vet right next to here cost 7 more dollars.

I emptied out my purse in the donation box because they were so nice and the poor little animals were all lonely and sad, thank goodness I remembered to take a box of milk bones for them.

Thanks for caring, that's very sweet of you.

[naturestee]

One of the main reasons we don't have those vaccines is because the diseases are not endemic here like they are in Europe and Australia and the USDA is doing all it can to prevent that from occuring. That includes taking actions that I don't like, such as automatically euthanizing any affected animal to prevent the spread of the disease. A vaccinated rabbit tests positive for these diseases and would result in false positive tests. Although euthanizing a rabbit with VHD is a kindness. Myxi rabbits sometimes survive with good care (rare if they're not vaccinated but it does happen), VHD is extremely painful and fatal.

These diseases are present in Europe and Australia due to human interference- people didn't like wild rabbits eating their crops so they introduced the diseases to hopefully destroy them all. They did not care that this would also affect domestic rabbits.

Technically, there is some endemic myxomatosis on the West Coast. It's in the wild rabbits- they're a different species from European wild rabbits and have adapted to it so it's usually not fatal to them. I've never personally heard of anyone's pet rabbit contracting myxi over there, although that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

I'm glad you're dog is okay!

[fashion victim]

Oh gosh well actually she took a turn for the worse yesterday. I slept until 8 pm after having spend the whole morning on the vet in the shelter and when I checked her she was shaking - trembling very strongly. She felt very hot to the touch but since I don't have a thermometer here I couldn't take her temperature to make sure. She was very lethergic and wouldn't eat or drink and didn't even bark like crazy as she usually does when the people who live to the front of us let out their pug. I stayed up all night because I knew I'd literally die from a nervous attack if I woke up to find her dead on the bed next to me.

This morning I called the emergency clinic that treats only dogs and cats, not another one that also treats exotics, and they told me to come right in, so I went and they took a blood test and checked for heartworms (she wasn't on medication yet but I gave her the first pill a few minutes ago; strangely enough the pill contains 68 MCG of ivermectin!). They also gave her Mutacam or Nutacam, I don't understand the vet's handwriting. Pup stopped shaking (she had been trembling non-stop since perhaps before I noticed at 8 at night yesterday). She ate a doggie biscuit and some kind of jerky stick for dogs and had some ice and very cold water. Right now she's asleep, which I hope helps her recovery as she did not sleep at all last night because she was occupied with feeling miserably.

The vet told me that most of rabbit diseases are species specific and that I shouldn't worry about getting them myself or the pup getting them.