Troubleshooting on my rabbitry: Diarrhea is simple but deadly.

Now I actually witnessed what I am waiting for, and experienced a problematic event in my simple rabbitry. Diarrhea is deadly to them such that their body metabolism is really different from any ruminant animal. You had to take care of all the aspects and methods you used to ensure that this won't happen. But sometimes there is always exemption, lacking attention that if not given the focus it will result in death. Lucky me, I've seen it before going worst.

One of the considerations I listed before purchasing my specimen is troubleshooting. Well, it's not new to me because I had a background in farm veterinary, and the internet is available so I had a medium place to read about the characteristics and morphology of my animals.

This is also the reason why I shake my head when the breeders tell me ‘why not I just purchased breeder age instead of young and small kits’. First the budget, of course, I knew that things will happen and problems will emerge from somewhere, so like investors I just invest what I can afford to lose. Well, I am not afraid that my first attempt will be gone but I pretty much needed to do things to prevent it.

Entering a venture is easy but staying on track is a lot more different, I am not new to troubleshooting for I also experienced it when I did start my mushroom venture. 

The most fatal problem in rabbits is having diarrhea. This is not a joke to rabbit farmers because just as quickly as hours it might result in sudden death, the worst is that it also can infect other rabbits. Because of their sensitive stomach features and the digestive process they are vulnerable to such intestinal infection.

Of Course, this only happened in captivity, not in the wild, well one of the disadvantages of being captive from birth to the end is that they developed certain maintenance to survive. Practice understanding their needs, because captivity and wild is a lot more different not just rabbits but all the animals including mammals or feathered ones.

Why is having diarrhea dangerous to them?. Because of the Physiological characteristics of their body, having moist dung indicates that there is a problem in their digestion, this might result in serious problems like loss of available water in their body resulting in dehydration, no mood of eating that resulted in just a loss of appetite and weight loss.

This is a serious problem that needs to be administered immediately to help the rabbits and to prevent more serious things from happening.

Why did they have diarrhea? It's coming from all they ate.

• Commercial feeds

• Over moist grass

• Contaminated water

A lot more reasons, but I just had to focus on the three said points. Commercial feeds are great contributors, the sudden changes of brand and feeds are really a reason why they will have a serious digestive problem. Note that branding even the same level of crude protein is different. Just like you will eat the same food your mother prepared when you were at home versus the food served to you from another body else, same food but different taste, moreover the body of the animals signaled their stomach that this is strange. So shifting commercial brands is really not the best choice.

Over moisturizer or watery grass, leaves are also one of the contributors. Well if they lived in nature this will be eliminated but when they were in captivity this is a great danger to their metabolism. Rabbit digestive systems are not that active when there is too much water in their food, so a lot of rabbit farmers prefer the hays and straw grass rather than camote tops and any high water content leaves. If the abundant green present is soggy and watery, advise that they must be air dried first before being administered as food to the animals.

Water also affects, either lack of water or over water is also dangerous. Contaminated water from any reservoir that had the potential for harming humans also harmed the animals. Because they lived in captivity for their entire life, the immune system that fights the disease eventually gradually lost.

Well in my state of troubleshooting, I looked at the water first. I tested the pH level of the water that was leftover, the pH level is normal for what I saw, next is the grasses they eat. I don’t see any problem because the grass I gave is equal to all the specimens.

But the thing I observed is that, the commercial feeds of the mother rabbit having three kits never eaten, then I looked at the feeder and they don’t want the feeds, indicating that there is something wrong in the feeding formulation or the crude protein of the commercial pellet.

Whatever the reason, I need to administer drugs to lessen the potent effect of their stomach problem. I administered an oral medicine called Erceflora (Bacillus clausii), half dose each of them and I let them quarantine in a drum with some sand on it. So the dung will be added to the sand not their fur to also prevent some parasite.

Moreover upon investigating, I asked my father if the feed he brought was the same as I dictated for him to buy, he said no. That's the reason I said. It's not because it was cheaper, it will be used. Well also my bad not telling him the problem that could encounter if he changed the diet in a flash.

They are okay now, just that they lost weight. That is also a serious one for they might have problems soon in breeding, but that will be the next story about what is happening on my rabbitry haha.

Well if you were planning to engage with the same hobby this might help you soon. Thanks for staying with me…