How to Identify a Sick Rabbit? Learn the Nine Observations to Easily Judge Rabbit Illness

Discovering sick rabbits and diagnosing rabbit diseases is the foundation for controlling the spread of disease. Whether a rabbit is healthy should be observed from the following aspects:

Appearance: A healthy rabbit is full of energy, has smooth fur, moves nimbly, holds a proper posture, and grows quickly. Sick rabbits, however, are mostly listless or extremely excitable (such as with rabbit plague), have rough, messy fur (such as with chronic wasting diseases, nutritional deficiency disorders, etc.), move slowly, and have abnormal postures. For example, when suffering from pododermatitis and foot ringworm, the hind limbs dare not touch the ground; with "splay legs" and "O-shaped legs," they cannot stand normally; with pneumonia, breathing is difficult; with wry neck, the head and eyes are tilted and the rabbit rolls over.

Appetite: A healthy rabbit has a strong appetite and finishes each feeding within 20-30 minutes. Not eating feed or eating very little are both signs of illness.

Water intake: A healthy rabbit drinks less water, while a sick rabbit sometimes drinks more due to reduced appetite; rabbits suffering from febrile diseases drink noticeably more water.

Stool shape: Normal rabbit droppings are round pellets about the size of corn kernels, with a smooth surface, uniform size, and moderate hardness. If the feces are dry, hard, and small, pointed at both ends or one end, with reduced stool volume or stopped defecation, this indicates constipation; if the pellets are too small or are long and soft, it indicates indigestion; if the feces are wet, loose, and piled up, smelly, and attached with mucus, blood, or watery thin, then the rabbit has intestinal inflammation.

Eyes: A healthy rabbit's eyes are bright and spirited, with dry eye corners and no mucus. If the gaze is dull, the conjunctiva is red and swollen, there is tearing, or there is eye discharge, these are all signs of illness.

Ears: Pink ear color, neither hot nor cold, with both ears upright and flexible, indicates a healthy rabbit. If the ear color is too red and feels hot to the touch, it indicates fever; grayish-white ear color indicates anemia; bluish-purple ear color with overly low ear temperature may indicate serious illness. In addition, pus or scabs inside the ear canal are also signs of illness.

Respiration: A healthy adult rabbit breathes 20-40 times per minute; if there is heart or gastrointestinal disease, breathing speeds up. With pneumonia, poisoning, or infectious diseases, there are signs of difficult breathing.

Pulse: The normal pulse of an adult rabbit is 80-100 beats per minute, and 120-140 beats per minute for young rabbits. With acute infectious diseases, the pulse speeds up.

Urine: Generally speaking, daily urine output is 20-50 milliliters per kilogram. The urine of young rabbits is colorless and transparent; after eating feed, the urine has a slight yellowish-brown or reddish-brown color with a certain amount of sediment. Any greatly increased thirst (such as with rabbit plague or salt poisoning), not drinking water, or urine that is red (urinary system inflammation), green (pus), yellow (hepatitis, bile duct obstruction, etc.), or containing white thick matter (such as kidney tumors, pseudotuberculosis, etc.) is abnormal.