Let’s Talk About Coccidiosis In Rabbits

Coccidiosis is a problem in many different farm animals including sheep, chickens and rabbits. And affects pet rabbits too. Each animal has its own versions of coccidiosis. It’s thought that chickens don’t usually infect rabbits for example. And vice versa.

You can’t eradicate the organisms that causes coccidiosis. They are everywhere, and mostly harm baby animals. Resistance builds as animals mature. And animals that survive to adulthood are usually fully resistant to the effects of the infection.

In young rabbits raised for meat, signs of coccidiosis can clearly be seen during processing of the animals. The livers of affected rabbits are covered in tiny white spots. And if they get a heavy enough burden, the kits will get sick and die before they reach harvesting age. 

The main methods used to tackle coccidiosis are reducing access to the source of infection, and medicating feed.

Reducing Access To The Source Of Infection

In rabbits most homesteaders (especially in the USA), and all commercial rabbit farmers have opted for the first of those two methods. They reduce access to the coccidiosis spores by keeping their rabbits in raised cages with wire floors. 

Wire cages

Wire cages allow the rabbit poop containing the coccidiosis spores, to fall through to the ground below.

There are two big problems with that approach for me in the UK. One is that the specific wire gauge required for rabbit cage floors is not available here. And using the wrong gauge wire causes sore hocks, where the wire cuts into the rabbits feet.

Most importantly, the size of cage that can be constructed without wooden or metal supports in the floor is restricted. If the area of unsupported wire is too great, it starts to sag. So most wire rabbit cages are no more than about 3 ft long. Many are smaller.

And therein lies the other problem. I wanted my rabbits to be able to be free to run and jump, and just be rabbits. This would not be possible with wire cages, even if I were able to get hold of the wire. 

Rabbit tractors

The other way to keep rabbits away from their own poop is to have a portable outdoor enclosure that you move onto fresh ground each day. These are known as rabbit tractors. 

I love this method, and I tried it for several months. I’ll talk about it in more depth in another article. But it can be problematic with a lot of rabbits. Moving one tractor each day is one thing. Moving ten or twenty tractors a day, is quite a big deal. 

Rabbits outdoors on the ground are also vulnerable to some deadly infections including myxomatosis, and rabbit viral hemorrhagic disease. These diseases are endemic in Europe and are now spreading in parts of the USA. Domestic rabbits have almost zero resistance to them, so it’s important to protect your outdoor rabbits with vaccinations if you live in those regions. 

If you are raising rabbits for meat, the cost of vaccinating babies is prohibitive, and while they have immunity from their mothers for the first four to five weeks, after that time they need to be brought indoors.

Medicating Rabbits

My rabbits do have access to outdoors, and are therefore vaccinated, but they also spend time in large indoor pens, on concrete floors.  

When I first started harvesting rabbits for meat, several were clearly infected with coccidiosis. And I had to decide between raising them up off the floor in cages, and medicating them.

I have now opted for medication. And I feed my rabbits a medicated pellet, from the moment they are weaned. The pellets contain ACS coccidiostat which isn’t a cure. What it does is inhibit the reproduction and development of the parasite sufficiently to allow the young growing rabbit to develop its own resistance to the disease without being overwhelmed by it. 

This protocol has completely eliminated any signs of coccidiosis in the rabbits we raise for meat. 

The pellets have a two day withdrawal period. This means that rabbits have to come off this medicated feed for two days before harvesting. 

That’s to ensure there is no trace of the medication in their system. This is important because some animals (including camels, horses, and dogs) react badly to the medication. 

I don’t keep camels (or horses), but my dogs eat the parts of the rabbit that we don’t want, so I certainly don’t want them coming into contact with medicated rabbits. For peace of mind, I actually take the rabbits off the medication for a full week in advance. 

Pros & Cons Of Medicating

One of the things many homesteaders want to get away from when they produce their own meat is medicated animals. We all want less chemicals, and less antibiotics in our food. 

Isn’t what I’m doing, going against all that?

My answer to that starts with another question. 

Isn’t the way that animals are kept in overcrowded soul-less containers, where it is impossible for them to express natural behavior, something that we’d all like to get away from?  

We seem to recognize that chicken welfare is much better on homesteads where they can free range or exercise in large pens, than it is in commercial chicken farms. Yet rabbits have rather been missed out when it comes to improving on factory farming practices 

To me this is actually a much bigger issue and in my view it’s a welfare issue that isn’t being addressed by many homesteaders that are producing rabbits for meat. 

The welfare standards of commercially farmed animals was my main motivation for growing my own meat animals. I enjoy eating chicken for example, and the chickens that we buy from a mall or supermarket have usually been raised in conditions that would horrify most people. 

I’d suggest that just visiting such an outfit would be enough to put you off eating chicken for a week or two. There are some sad videos on youtube if you are not sure what I mean. The problem is, we quickly forget. 

We all have to make our own choices of course, but my feeling is that from the rabbits point of view, eating feed with a small preventative dose of a coccidiostat in it, is wholly preferable to living your entire life in a 3 foot by 2 foot wire cage. 

Protecting Your Pet From Coccidiosis

Your rabbits are likely your pets and eating them is probably the last thing on your mind. But it’s still worth bearing in mind how widespread coccidiosis is, and the impact it could have on your furry friend.

You may not know your rabbit has been affected until they are really sick so prevention is the best policy. Remember its contact with their own droppings or contaminated ground that increases exposure and allows the infection to build up 

Keeping your rabbits in a large enclosure with a droppings pan that you clean out regularly will help. And if you allow your rabbit out onto pasture or to graze on your lawn, make sure you move their enclosure regularly.