How to identify the early symptoms of sick rabbits, teaching you to spot them early

Rex rabbits have delicate bodies and are sensitive to external conditions, with the characteristics of sudden onset, rapid death, and rapid recovery with timely treatment. Since rabbits often fall ill at night, feeding them in the morning is the time to observe cage by cage and litter by litter, making it easiest to identify suspicious sick rabbits. Specifically, you can start with checking, looking, touching, and measuring.

1. Check. A healthy rabbit has pink ears and bright eyes. If the ears are red or light purple, it indicates overheating, which can be relieved by placing the rabbit in a ventilated cage with less movement; if the ears are pale and cool to the touch, it indicates drinking too much cold water or being chilled, and if auscultation reveals gurgling sounds in the abdominal cavity, warming the belly on a heated kang will help. If a young rabbit's ear tips bend forward or droop slightly, it indicates an elevated body temperature, so let the rabbit move freely for a while to promote cooling. Both ears pressed tightly against the head is a sign of water deprivation and thirst, and adding salt to drinking water will gradually make the ears relax. Cloudy eyeballs indicate that the air in the rabbit house is foul with excessive ammonia, so ventilation should be increased promptly. A rabbit with clear watery nasal discharge is a precursor to a common cold; when the nasal discharge changes from serous to mucous and finally to purulent and thick, it indicates worsening of the condition.

2. Look. Mainly look at the feces. Normal rabbit feces is granular, fine and smooth, with a glossy surface resembling an oily skin. If the feces is loose or piled up, it indicates the rabbit has a gastrointestinal disease. Dry, hard, small fecal pellets indicate constipation, and more succulent green forage should be fed; feces that is piled up, thin and watery, bloody, mixed with mucus and bubbles, and accompanied by a fishy odor indicates dysentery, enteritis, or coccidiosis, and the rabbit should be isolated promptly and treated according to the symptoms. In addition, observe the rabbit's mental state. A healthy rabbit is lively and active, with a strong appetite, especially eating much and quickly at night, and making crisp sounds when chewing forage; on the contrary, a sick rabbit is depressed, with eyes half open and half closed, often crouching in a corner of the cage, with reduced appetite and unwillingness to eat or drink.

3. Touch. A healthy rabbit dodges when touched and is not easy to handle, and has a sturdy physique, with full muscles on the back and loins and strong, springy limbs. A sick rabbit, however, often does not dodge, or even moves weakly, is emaciated, with the hip bones clearly protruding and the spine feeling like abacus beads. If you touch a doe and her spinal bones remain still and she shows an arched back with hind legs raised, it indicates the rabbit is in estrus and should be taken out for mating immediately.

4. Measure. On the basis of checking, looking, and touching, then measure the body temperature. The normal body temperature of a healthy rabbit is 38.5-39.5°C. Generally, young rabbits are higher than adult rabbits, and old rabbits are lower than young and prime-age rabbits. At the same time, it is slightly higher in summer than in winter, and slightly higher in the afternoon than in the morning, while the body temperature of a sick rabbit either rises or falls.