07/28/2025
Every breeder should definitely read this!
Allergies—that’s my irritating word of the day.
True allergies in rabbits are extremely rare. Let me repeat that…𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐞. And even if you are one of the rare few to have a rabbit you suspect has a true allergy it is going to resolve immediately when the irritant is removed.
Runny eyes, sneezing, and nasal discharge in rabbits is NOT normal. Even clear discharge should not be happening. They do have sweat glands on their upper lips but the moisture should not be on or around the nostrils unless they are actively overheating which is definitely possible in the summer when it’s 90-100 degrees consistently. Of course when we are posing them for photos and putting pressure on their face and nose it’s going to spread that moisture around that’s not what I’m talking about. But when you are just observing your rabbit in its cage you should not see any wetness around the nostrils themselves especially not every day all day!
Rabbits are incredibly susceptible to disease and the bacterias that cause upper respiratory infections in rabbits are highly contagious. Many of them are also incurable. Pasteurella is the one everyone is always preaching about and terrified of but it isn’t that common. Pseudomonas is one, if not the, most common bacterial infection you will see in a rabbit and it is incredibly antibiotic resistant and almost impossible for your average person to cure. You will need special antibiotics from your veterinarian and possibly even antibiotic susceptibility testing that’s how serious it is. Attempting to repeatedly treat at home with an ineffective antibiotic is how we have created these super bugs. I used to believe in culturing and treating appropriately, but a sneeze, chronically wet nose or eyes, or any snot clear or otherwise is an automatic cull here. I won’t mess with it or give it the time to spread. And yes simply having runny eyes is a sign of infection whether it progresses or not! If something simple like terramycin fixes it and it doesn’t come back, then you don’t have a serious issue but if it continues to return or is severe, then you have a sick rabbit and it will spread to others. Every time you touch a cage or food bowl and then move on to the next, you are spreading that bacteria!
Having said all of that, I don’t think anyone is a “bad” breeder because they have experienced illness. I can’t even count on two hands the amount of times I have experienced illness because I purchase a lot and bring in a lot of new animals. However, refusing to admit you have problem and continuing to sell these rabbits is a huge issue. Just because you hit it with some antibiotics and its symptoms went away for a few weeks doesn’t mean you’ve fixed the problem. Then you send these previously symptomatic rabbits on transport and you have exposed the entire transport and the buyer’s rabbitry. They get the rabbit home and think oh it looks great it’s not sick and then rabbits caged near it start to become symptomatic and they’re wondering how the heck that happened. It happened because you’ve sent them a rabbit carrying a super bug and now you’ve infected their entire herd and the rabbit they purchased from you likely won’t become symptomatic again until it kindles or experiences some huge stress because you were sure to treat it right before it left. I’ve experienced it and I get messages about it regularly.
Vaccinating is not a cure. The bunnyvac ONLY covers pasteurella and it is not 100% coverage. It’s similar to the flu vaccine in that it can prevent it from becoming severe. But that is the only bacteria it is effective against and it’s likely not the one you are dealing with. A culture will tell you the problem, but if you aren’t willing to do the hard parts of fixing it, it will never go away completely. It’ll be something you struggle with the entire time you’re breeding unless you start hard culling anything with the tiniest symptom. And if the breeder you bought from tells you the rabbit has “allergies” just remember to take that with a grain of salt because it tends to be a favorite excuse.
If you’ve read this far, prevention is your friend. Regular cleaning and sanitizing of your cages and STRICT quarantine!! Anything new that comes to me is quarantined for a minimum of one month. If it’s an adult doe, it stays in quarantine until it kindles for the first time and the buck she was bred to goes to quarantine after breeding for a month. I don’t say all of this to shame or make anyone feel bad, but I have been there and I know how hard it is to recover from something that wipes out your entire herd. Don’t let it happen to you!
PS I chose this photo because if you zoom you can see the sweat on the baby’s lips but notice that it is not originating from the nostrils themselves!
