If you have a RABBIT!!

[oliviacharley]

I just looked at mine tonight - she has been with me for four years, long furred and always clip her underneath back througout the summer so she can keep herself clean....Picked her up tonight and she is covered in maggots...managed to shower her down and clean her off with hibiscrub and she is now sat in the bath with bumble the guinea pig and a huge amount of wound powder over her back end...
She is eating and seems ok if not a little annoyed about getting wet...
In my experience fly strike can happen within 1 hour of leaving your rabbit...I am always so careful so it was a huge surprise to find her in this state when I got home...PLEASE make sure you check your rabbits as even with this cold, damp weather fly strike is still about...!!
You can buy something from vets called Rear Guard which is brill and a bit like a shoe polish with a sponge...highly recommended....
cheers

 

[rema]

I lost two rabbits to flystrike last year.very upsetting to see.The vet had said it was a really bad summer for flystrike.Even rear guard dident help my bunnies.They had large hutches and were cleaned out and disinfected every day,fly papers hung outside the hutches and backsides washed every day!.

Are the maggots on your bunnie internal or just outside??.

 

[pixiebee]

oh god im panicking now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! had quick look at bunny and cant see anything on him!!

 

[star]

i've seen loads of fly strike this year and lost bunnies to it and it's horrid. i even had a long haired cat with it this year as well. they started as early as march. rearguard is a fab prevention - only needs doing every 8-10wks and works v well.

 

[CSYMolly]

Sorry to be thick but what exactly is fly strike? Could my ferrets get it? Got me worried now....

 

[oliviacharley]

Hey everyone,
I dont think mine are internal or though at one point I was looking and found that some of her droppings did have a few in them so I am hoping it nothing inside!! I think it was more they were crawling towards her dung!! Ukk....They had started on her and I ran inside with her quickly hosing her down and making sure she was ok....Hibi scrub syringed her entire back end and looked every half and hour after that to make sure she was ok...horrible...! Always very careful as used see alot of cases when I worked at the vets but she has always been very good and kept her fur short....amazed that in this weather it has happened really too....I too clean them out daily - they are in an outside run and use a huge amount of rear guard...she is sat in the bath at the moment as she looks soar and vunreable if I put her back out so soon....
Sorry to hear of your lose - sad when bunnies die from it...

Flystrike is basically when flies lay their eggs on the back end of animals and they hatch out as maggots and eat away at the flesh...absoultely horrible and there is nothing worse...it can happen within a number of hours. Sheep can get it too, any animal which is a little old and has troule reaching that area can also have problems....nasty nasty....if you spot it early get the animal down to the vets asap....

 

[CSYMolly]

Ooh thanks will keep an eye on my boys. Sounds awful definately wouldn't want them to get that.