Rabbit Health

Rabbit Health Information and Resources. Discover the basics of diagnosing the health of a rabbit. Signs exhibited by a sick and healthy rabbit are included.

Rabbit Health

If you care about your rabbits like you should, you need to make sure that you keep them in good health. In this rabbit health article I will first be providing you with some information about the importance of keeping a healthy rabbit herd and then I will discuss sick rabbits and provide tips to help you do a quick diagnosis. If you are looking for more information on raising rabbits be sure to claim your free subscription to our rabbit breeders newsletter.


Importance of Keeping a Healthy Herd

Here is a list of reason why you should try your best to keep a healthy rabbit herd…

  • Sick herd animals will not be able to maintain their health and produce quality offspring
  • Many times sick does will pass on illnesses to their offspring through direct contact
  • If your rabbits are constantly getting sick, people will be very hesitant about buying rabbits from you
  • Sometimes sicknesses occur in your rabbit herd due to the genetic magnification of poor quality genetics
  • Sick rabbits are generally unpleasant rabbits
  • Breeders who consistently keep sick rabbits will acquire a reputation of being “unethical breeders”
  • Spending all your time treating sick rabbits will most likely strike a blow to the overall management process of your herd as you devote extra time to care instead of management
  • Consistently treating sick rabbits will most likely put a dent in your pocketbook as you will be forced to purchase additional rabbit supplies

Signs of a Sick Rabbit

Most of the time I am able to tell whether or not a rabbit is sick based upon several different signs and the years of rabbit care experience I have acquired. Here is a list of signs that could indicate that your rabbit is sick or has some other type of problem…

  • Stops eating its food (in my opinion this is the number one indicator that something could be wrong with the rabbit)
  • Quits drinking water, if you notice that a rabbit isn’t drinking any water you can definitely assume that the animal is ill
  • Becomes unusually inactive
  • Starts acting very aggressive towards others
  • Begins to shake its ears more than normal
  • Develops abscesses or lumps on its skin
  • Experiences common cold symptoms such as a runny nose
  • Begins sneezing more than usual
  • Starts losing random patches of fur (seasonal molting doesn’t count)
  • Discharge or puss becomes visible around the rabbit’s nose
  • Your rabbit consistently scratches a certain location or starts pulling out patches of fur (the act of pulling fur with the purpose of making a nest doesn’t count)
  • Develops a fungus somewhere on its body
  • Simply starts to act strange

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Reference this article: https://rabbitbreeders.us/rabbit-health