Exotic rabbits with snuffles

Question

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Followup To

Question -
I have recently purchased several English Angora bunnies and they are about 6 months old now.  I purchased them in West Virginia the last week in May of this year.  About two weeks after we brought them home, I had one to come down coughing/sneezing, runny nose, and watering eyes and she is still doing this.  Now I have 3 others that are starting to cough/sneeze every once in a while.  I wasn't able to catch the one bunny that is the most sick to carry to vet.  She's a very nervous bunny and likes to stay hid.  I have my bunnies in a 20'x20' chain link pen.  They love it and are sort of free.  I've always hated to see bunnies up in little confined cages so I came up with this for mine.  However with them all seeming to be getting sick, I'm worried.  The vet I went to was a Vet Hospital, but they said they could not tell me if the bunnies would still catch this again after the antibiotic nor could they tell me what might cause it.  They gave the one bunny I carried to the vet hospital a shot of the antibiotic that they gave me additional of to put in the water supply which is Baytril.  Does anyone know what causes this for sure?  Also, is the pen I currently have for them bad?  In West Virginia the temp was very cooler than it is here where I live.  It has been up to 105 heat index.  I keep three 2 liter bottles of frozen water in their pen each day for them lay on to stay cool and they are in the shade all the time as well.  They have also dug tunnels under their houses in the ground probably to help stay cooler.  I have cut their hair way down so they would hopefully stay cooler that way too.  Please tell me what else I might can do.  I love my bunnies ALOT.....  Thanks

Answer -
Did the vet culture the nose of the rabbit you took in?  It could be that Baytril isn't an effective antibiotic for the type of infection these rabbits have.

Here is information on various causes of these symptoms - http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.html#bacteria.

I don't think the heat is causing this, it's probably some sort of bacterial or viral infection.  

Here is also some information on how to help keep them cool at http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#summer.

Tunnels are good for them, they do help them stay cooler.

Kim


No they did not do a culture and since I had not read all this info before going to them I didn't mention it.  However I shouldn't have to tell them how to do their job, you know.  Oh well enough of that.  She gave the one bunny a shot of the Baytril yesterday and I have a 2 liter bottle of Baytril that is concentrated that is to be mixed half and half with their drinking water til gone.  I haven't started it yet, because I'm going to go ahead and separate each bunny into their own cage off the ground and see if this helps along with getting them their own bottle water that is medicated so this medication will be their only source of water.  During the evening hours my bunnies are not breathing hard, but during the hot part of the day, they will breath hard.  Anyways my question now is, could it be my pen causing the infection?  I have had several rabbits in there before these as well as really spoiled pigmy nanny goat.  They never had any issues at all and were very healthy.  The previous bunnies were Angora as well and were just as fuzzy as these.  If it is bacterial, is it from their poop?  If viral, how could they get it, if the 50 rabbits around these where I purchased them had nothing wrong with them and they were all ages?  I need to fix the problem that is causing this, and I don't know how.  The vet said I needed to purchase Timothy hay and not use the fresh hay I have.  Please help...  Thanks so much.

Answer
This is really outside the scope of what I am going to be able to assist you with.  If you wanted to do it properly, you would have all the sick rabbits cultured to see what they have, and then determine if that is something they caught before you got them or that they could get from the goats that were there previously.  There are certainly bacteria and viruses that can lay dormant for a long time until they find a new host.

What kind of hay are you using?  If it is coastal hay, or alfalfa hay, or orchard grass, or another common kind of hay used for rabbits it shouldn't be an issue.  Ideally they would get timothy hay, but if it isn't available in your area use whatever is commonly sold for horses in your area.

Kim