Nibble News
Are your rabbits up to date with their vaccinations?
(October 13, 2016)We've had a very sad update that one of our lovely former Camp Nibblers has sadly died from Mxyomatosis. He of course left us fully vaccinated, and as part of our adoption agreement we do ask all new rabbit owners to sign that they are willing to keep any of our rabbits up to date with their annual vaccinations going forwards (we provide all new owners with information about the importance of vaccinations in their adoption packs). Unfortunately, though this is something not easy for us to control/police going forwards and is based on trust. We are realistic that not everyone adopting from us will honor this.
This bunny was in a caring home and his death at under 2 years old was very easily preventable. His owner did not fail to vaccinate him because she didn’t care about him, rather like so many thousands of rabbit owners she just didn’t believe that the threat of these viruses to pet rabbits was so very real…they probably felt like a waste of money.
His owner says “My decision not to renew their vaccines in April was based on the fact that they never come into contact with any other animals, so in my view there was no chance that they could contract any contagious diseases. I didn’t know that mosquitoes could also spread the disease (stupidly, it hadn’t even occurred to me that they bit rabbits, despite knowing they can get lice and fleas).”
Of course this caring owner will now be keeping all her family’s rabbits up to date with their vaccinations going forwards. I’m only sharing this sad news in the hope that it might encourage another caring owner who has let their bunny’s vaccinations lapse to get them booked in for their boosters.
There’s lots of excellent info for anyone who want to better understand Mxyomatosis and RHD (and the risk they pose to pet rabbits) here in the links below from our charity patron Frances Harcourt Brown:
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/articles/infectious-disease/myxomatosis
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/articles/infectious-disease/rabbit-haemorrhagic-disease