How do I prevent E. cunculi?

[Krista]

I was browsing through the forums out of curiosity and saw one on someone’s very ill bunny :/ (I hope their fur baby pulls through :/) and some of you mentioned a protozoa called E. cunculi. I had never heard of this before…Ever. My microbiology teacher didn’t even touch on that specific protozoa. I am not sure if it is an /issue/ in Illinois, especially in a town as small as mine. But you all have me worried now and I want to prevent anything awful like that from happening to my baby Bilbo. He is perfectly healthy right now and I’d like to keep it that way. Online it said 52% of rabbits have it already and that only a small number actually get really sick, and I’m unsure on where those statistics are for considering the UK has way more rabbits than the US, but that’s a big number. I take Bilbo out for hops out in the country every once in awhile and around my yard. We don’t have very many wild rabbits at the farm since there is a lot of coyote and bobcat activity, but in town we have a few that come out around evening. What can I do to prevent Bilbo from getting sick with this? Do I need to stop taking him on hops? He loves them so much and I don’t want to take away his going outside freedom, but I also don’t want him to get sick from the wild rabbits that may or may not have this protozoa. Do I need to start thoroughly washing his vegetables, even though they come from Walmart for people consumption?

[Bam]

You can treat with Panacur (fenbendazole) for 9 days every 6 months, but it’s not generally recommended unless you know your bun has been exposed. Panacur is considered safe but there are still some possible side-effects.
If your rabbit is outside a lot, regular deworming is recommended, but that’s as a rule accomplished with just 2 days of Panacur.

This has been discussed quite a lot, and obviously the manufacturers of Panacur think it’s a great idea to treat routinely and preventatively, but the vet community isn’t so sure. EC is a tricky parasite and it’s probably both under- and overdiagnosed because tests are unreliable (=need to be done at the exact right time after infection), and the symptoms are very variable. There’s research going on and hopes for a vaccine, but that’s still in the future.

[Krista]

Would you say the chances of Bilbo catching EC are high? He’s only been out maybe 7 times in the 3ish months I’ve had him, but right now it is winter so it’s been too cold to take him out. I tried to find cases in Illinois but only things for Chicago come up and that’s on the opposite side of state from me .-. I will see next time I’m at Rural King for hay if they have panacur for rabbits. I think they do for cattle and horses.

[Bam]

You can get liquid panacur for cats and dogs, it’s the same thing and dosage per kg body weight as for rabbits, but of course smaller bottles than for horses and cattle and thus more in the line of what you’ll need.

I don’t know about Illinois. As a rule really cold winters are good because many parasites don’t do well in freezing weather. The whole preventative thing is a bit confusing, at one time I was thinking of medicating my Bam just in case, but I decided not to because he seems so very healthy. (The don’t fix it if it ain’t broke-rule). If he ever showed the tiniest bit of symptoms I’d not hesitate though, so I keep Panacur at home in case I’ll ever need it.

What is it like where you take your bun outside? If there are very many wild animals peeing and pooping where you take him out, the risk of catching any type of parasite is of course greater than if there are very few animals. I have a stainless steel outdoors run that stays put in one place, birds can of course poop through the grids but other animals can’t hop in there and poop. That could perhaps be an alternative.

We always have to weigh risks against benefits- if your area has a heavy parasitic load (horse owners would be able to tell you how many times/year they routinely deworm their horses), and lots of racoons etc, I’d cut back on outdoors time. On the other hand, outdoors time can profoundly enhance quality of life for some bunnies, and if your bunny is one of those outdoor-time-lovers, you’ll have to take that into consideration. How much exercise does he get indoors?

[Jessica]

Very interesting thread, I’ve had a number of the same questions as you krista but I just had not gotten around to researching them yet.

I live in Michigan and it’s been too cold to take my girl out and let her play. But I know we have wild bunnies in our yard, they nest in the old lilac bushes on our property. I have wondered if outside play time would risk her picking something up, but I also figured she would enjoy being outside to much her grass and clover since we don’t treat our lawn and neither do our surrounding neighbors

[Nibbles]

I’ve been curious about this also. I’m in East-Central Illinois and my rabbit most likely had a EC infection. Nibbles was adopted from the humane society so we don’t know much about her previous life or if she was exposed then. She was never tested because she had no baseline (pre-exposure) sample to compare the test with, just treated with panacur. Her vet, who also has rabbits, told me that the infection is very common. Depending where you are in Illinois, tularemia is also in the environment and could be a bigger concern if you have wild rabbits around.

As Bam suggested, a dedicated run might be the way to go.

[Krista]

Around my house I don’t see much wild animal activity (scat) although I know we have a pair of foxes, several wild ducks due to living by a pond, coons, and skunks. Although I’m sure many others come at night to drink. There are wild rabbits around I’m sure I’ve just not seen any around my yard. I’ve seen them down the neighborhood though. The farm has many wild animals since it is in the middle of nowhere. Where I walk him is in a field where there is Timothy and fescue grass. I’ve seen deer and coyote scat, but we haven’t seen rabbits on the trail cams in over a year. We think the coyotes and bobcat killed them off.

Weather wise it is usually cool out between October to March. April it stays around 60 and rains. Toward May it starts getting hot (around 70°F) and stays that way till August.
Bilbo is completely healthy right now .-. I almost feel like I should just keep a tube of the panacur around in case he does get sick.

Bilbo will also be going with me to Montana whenever I visit my dad this summer. There’s no way I’d trust even my boyfriend to watch him. I’m iffy just letting someone watch my indoor dog, Doc. I don’t trust boarding kennels >.> If I take him to Montana it won’t be like I’m taking him to Yellowstone though since that’s asking for trouble. Not allowed to bring pets in anyways. He would be taking hops near the apartment which is next to a cornfield. I may take him to the field, depends on the condition it is in when I go.

[LBJ10]

In some areas, the rate of infection can be up to 80%. The spores can live in the environment for up to a month, so it would just take one animal activity shedding the spores to pee in your yard to result in exposure. The vast majority of infected rabbits never display symptoms. Is it worth treating with Panacur on a regular basis as a preventative? That’s been debated for some time now. Personally, I wouldn’t worry unless your bun starts to display symptoms. But I guess it depends on how heavily contaminated the area is. There are tons of nasty things outside, including raccoon roundworm.

[Krista]

Although for summer and spring, I do plan on building Bilbo some sort of outdoor enclosure to play in. More of a garden than anything. Gonna plant some of his favorite vegetables and some clover in it probably and make it wild animal proof so that no rabbits can get in and poop/pee and spread their diseases to Bilbo as he plays. It’ll give him a chance to dig and stuff. Though I foresee him needing a bath afterwards.

[LBJ10]

I think setting up an area that other animals cannot access would be a good idea.

[Krista]

I’ll probably keep a tube and use it on him every so often then .-. I dunno. I’ll try to locate it first I suppose and see how expensive it is. I’ll try to buy a tube for emergencies if it is pricey, but if not I’ll try to use it on him every few months. I’m gonna do more research on Panacur to see if it has any bad effects. As I said, he’s healthy right now. I’d like him to remain that way. His neuter is my first priority. It’s weird, before I got him I did a lot of research into things to know about owning house rabbits and watched several YouTubers that had videos about owning house rabbits (like House rabbit society, Holly’s Holland lops, Tyler rugge, and chocolatecolors26) and none of them mentioned EC. I wonder if they just don’t have that issue because they are all in a low EC area. Hmm

[LBJ10]

EC is common throughout the US. I don’t think temperature/climate really have much to do with it as the spores can survive freezing temperatures (it’s a “fungus” not a protozoa). In fact, according to one study, freezing temperatures actually preserved the spores. They weren’t really able to infect anything while they were froze, but their ability to infect was restored after they were thawed. Extreme temperatures, such as -70C and 60C were required to “kill” the spores. Anyhoo, I imagine there are probably pockets of higher infection rates, depending on what wild animals reside in a particular area. I think most domestic rabbits, however, acquire the disease when they are very young. I’m sure it’s very common in large breeding operations since it is highly contagious, even though they only shed spores for 1-2 weeks, and it is such close quarters. Plus there is evidence of possible vertical transmission (mother to baby) through the placenta. The reason we don’t hear about it a lot is because actual disease caused by e. cuniculi isn’t very common. Most rabbits infected with it never exhibit any kind of symptoms. It tends to surface when a rabbit is extremely stressed or their immune system is compromised in some way.

What I’m trying to say is that having the Panacur on hand probably won’t hurt anything. But I wouldn’t stress too much about it, especially if you’re setting up an area other animals will not be able to get to.

[vanessa]

I second LBJ10. SInce rabbits are typically “bred” somewhere, that’s where they get it – as kits. About 80% of rabbits are suspected to harbor EC. You coudl have yoru bunnies tested and not expose a rabbit with no EC exposure – to a rabbit with EC exposure. I never had my bunnies tested because I didn’t know about it. I probalby still woudl have them tested. I had a bunny get EC who lived outside, and a bunny get it who lived inside (with the partner of the deceased EC bunny). Indoors or outdoors – it’s hard to say for sure what as more of an effect on EC transmission. My first EC bunny probably got it from the rabbitry where he was bred. My second bunny would have gotten it as a kit too, or from Guin – who survived Merlin’s EC. Most bunnies never have symptoms and don’t get sick. I give my recovered bunny 9 days of panacur twice a year, and 2 doses of ivermectin 4 times a year. That can supress any EC spores that have been building up since the last dose, but not prevent a new or relapsed infection. Unfortunately. Best thing you can do is keep yoru rabbit area really clean, disinfect regularly, especially the litter box and areas that get peed on. Don’t feed food on the floor, and read read read. As people have pointed out here – EC presents itself differently. There are so many possible symptoms and progressions – read all you can so you can recognize and treat the symptoms early. There is no point stressing about it since you can’t prevent it. Just enjoy your bunny!

[Bam]

Just a word about tularemia – it’s not only spread by direct contact but also by mosquitoes and some tick species. So if there’s lots of tularemia in your area, use mosquito-netting over your outdoors runs.

[Krista]

Alright:3 thank you guys for all your advice. I have to start planning out Bilbo’s outdoor play area .-. it seems tularemia is common to the west of Illinois so I will probably do the netting just to be safe. We do live by a pond so there are mosquitoes around during spring and summer. I have to use heartgard on my dogs monthly because of the mosquitos transferring heartworms. I’m gonna go to Rural King in a bit to look for the paste stuff

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