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Low globulin

22 9:54:42

Question
I have quintuplet bunnies (4 M/n, 1 F/s), seven years old, who ace their well-bunny vet reviews; none displays clinical disease other than one who shows early cataract development.   

However, recent blood chemistries show just below norm range of globulin.  Against the range from Antech Diagnostics of 2.9-4.9 g/dL, three of the boys recently read at 2.5, 2.6, and 2.2.  With other factors at or near normal, would this suggest to you any emerging pre-clinical pathology, or perhaps dietary imbalance?  Would it suggest any need to support immune function, and if so, how?

This is my first experience of multiple siblings and it's a blast to have lifelong data on them.  I hope that we'll manage to keep them happily robust for many great more years.

Answer
Dear Sharon,

Hmm.  If they are healthy, then this might not be a problem for them.  And to tell you the truth, the baseline values at Antech are gathered from healthy, young laboratory rabbits.  We don't really know what happens to a bunny's immune system as s/he ages.  These values are not so far below the norm that they're scary, as far as I know.

There is some research (done in Germany) to suggest that echinacea extract does enhance the immune response.  Maybe try them on that for a week and see if their immunoglobin rises?  Another possibility is to give them Equimune IV, a product developed for horses but that has allowed several vets (this was first tried by Barbara Matheson in Australia) to cure unvaccinated rabbits of active myxomatosis viral infection.

But if they are healthy right, now, I'd say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."  It could be congenital, it could be related to aging...we just don't have enough data.

You might ask the vet if s/he has blood immunoglobin values for any other rabbits of that age, to see what's up.

I don't have my Biology of the Laboratory Rabbit handy here, but I have it at home and will check to see if Antech's values agree with the published values for rabbits.

Hope this helps.

Dana