rabbit myxomatosis

Question
hi there, please help
i have 7 month old buck french lop, it looks like he has developed myxomotosis, he has the usual tired eye look and swollen ear, he is however eating, drinking and running around. i have started him on baytril and spoken to the vet, i feel i want to give him a chance but don't want him to be in pain. I'm wondering what his chances of survival are, is there any kind of special food i can give, painkillers and breathing medicines.  please give any advise you can. "tracey" and rabbit "bouncer" xxx

Answer
Dear Tracey,

If your rabbit is not vaccinated, the prognosis is poor.  However, I am appending below a post I received from a veterinarian in Australia (Dr. Barb Matheson) who believes that using Equimune IV (an immune system promoter used in horses) has saved the lives of rabbits with myxomatosis.  Please get your rabbit to a good vet asap:

www.rabbit.org/vets

and please do share the appendix below.  I hope he will recover.

Dana

*******
I am a vet in Australia. I am writing to tell you of an interesting success
I have had in treating my bunnies that caught myxi.

I had three bunnies and a 12month old hare that I reared.  One bunny I
euthanased after 13days with Myxi symptoms, the hare died.  The second bunny
that had symptoms, Littlebunny,  I was nursing and dosing 3-4 times daily
with a witches brew of vits,antioxidants, immune stimulants etc and giving
subcut fluids and antibiotics. He lost significant weight and was having to
mouth breathe (making it too risky to orally medicate anymore) by three
weeks into the disease. He was a mass of lesions distorting eyes and nares
and his body and genitals were covered in lesions. At this time my third
bunny,Bigbunny, had symptoms for 4 days - swollen reddened eyes with a
number of lesions on lid margins and ears.

At this point I thought of trying the Vetrepharm product, Equimune IV, a
bacterial cell wall fraction immunostimulant registered in Australia for
treatment of Equine Respiratory Tract Infections of viral origin but used
off label here for things like FIV, demodex, parvo, prostate cancer, bladder
tumours, and other debilitating conditions in small animals.

I gave my bunnies 0.25ml IV into lateral ear vein once weekly.  Littlebunny
was pretty debilitated at the start of this treatment but while not showing
any improvement, he remained in good spirits, continued to eat and did not
lose any more weight. I did continue his Baytril s/c in courses of 10days
broken by 5-7days. He required no other time consuming nursing apart from
cleaning and medicating eyes bid.  Today he is 10-11weeks with the disease
and in the last 10 days the lesions have been shrinking and falling off
eyelids. He has gained a little weight and despite still being a bit
snuffly, I think is on the mend. I believe with out Equimune I would have
had to euthanase him before end of 4th week.

Bigbunny is the big excitement- there was no progression of symptoms from
the commencement of treatment with Equimune. His eyelesions may have
reddened  a little some days but for the most settled down and certainly
there was no spread. He never skipped a beat and was a happy unaffected fat
bunny throughout - maybe a few sniffly days but pretty much a walk in the
park. By 4-5th week his eye lesions were resolving and he was a normal
bunny.

Neither of my bunnies have been vaccinated for myxi - the vax not avail in
Australia.  It is no scientific trial by any means but it would appear that
caught early with Equimune,  Bigbunny didnt develop full blown symptoms.
And I know Littlebunny would not be alive without those weekly injections.
The Vetrepharm rep tells me injections at 10 day intervals would have been
sufficient and probably only 4 injections necessary. I guess I will still
continue the injections for Littlebunny until all lesions and respiratory
signs are gone.

Vetrepharm is a Canadian company - you can find it on the web and get info
on their products: Regressin-V, Immunoboost, Equimune IV.  We only have the
Equimune in Australia I think.  The rep tells me they have cured Bladder
tumours in dogs  infusing it by urinary catheter, cured prostate cancer in
dogs, cured a doberman with a malignant melanoma in the chest, cured a cat
with FIV. I have had good results in a pup with parvo. I think the website
:www.bioniche.com will give distributor info in UK. I think it is worth
trying and considering there was no intensive nursing necessary - just good
housing and food, it is a cheap treatment, especially if my bunnies are now
with good immunity to meet future challenge as good or better than being
vaxd. In my funny way of thinking- if this success (Bigbunny's experience)
is repeatable it might be better to take bunnies to a myxi party and treat
with equimune  than annual vaxs - like my mother did with us as kids to get
things like chickenpox and measles.  I only have 2 bunnies and pet bunnies
are prohibited in my State so I cant call for other bunnies with myxi to do
a proper trial. And i would never deliberately infect bunnies with myxi for
experiment anyway.  I might be able to get a vet in another state to call
for bunnies with myxi to test this treatment.

Just thought you might be interested in this treatment.

regards, Barb Matheson.