How rabbit keepers can spot a suspiciously sick rabbit as early as possible

Rex rabbits have delicate bodies and are sensitive to external conditions, with the characteristics of sudden onset, rapid death, and quick recovery with timely treatment. Because Rex rabbits mostly fall ill at night, observing cage by cage and nest by nest when feeding the rabbits in the morning makes it easiest to identify suspiciously sick rabbits, and specifically you can start with checking, looking, touching, and measuring.

1. Check: A healthy rabbit's ears are pink, and its eyes are bright. If the ears are red or light purple, it means the rabbit is overheated, and this can be relieved by placing it in a ventilated cage with little movement; if the ears are white and feel cool to the touch, it means the rabbit has drunk too much cold water or has caught a chill, and if auscultation reveals a gurgling sound in the abdominal cavity, warming the belly by placing the rabbit on a heated kang or a hot water bottle will help. If a young rabbit's ear tips bend forward or droop slightly, it means its body temperature is high, and letting it move freely for a while will help it cool down. Both ears pressed tightly against the head is a sign of water deprivation and thirst, and adding salt to the drinking water will gradually make the ears press less tightly and return to normal. Cloudy eyeballs indicate that the air in the rabbit shed is foul and contains too much ammonia, so ventilation should be carried out promptly. A rabbit's runny clear nasal discharge is a precursor to a common cold, and when the nasal discharge changes from serous to viscous and finally to thick, it indicates that the condition is worsening.

2. Look: Mainly look at the feces. Normal rabbit feces is granular, fine and smooth, with a shiny surface, somewhat like an oil skin. If the feces is hard or piled up, it indicates a gastrointestinal disease. Dry, hard, small fecal pellets indicate constipation, and more succulent green forage should be fed; if the feces is piled up, thin and watery, bloody, mixed with mucus and gas bubbles, and accompanied by a foul fishy odor, it is 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 a lot and quickly at night, and making crisp sounds when chewing forage; by contrast, a sick rabbit is depressed, with eyes half open and half closed, often squatting in a corner of the cage, with reduced appetite and no desire to eat.

3. Touch: A healthy rabbit dodges as soon as it is touched and is not easy to handle, and its constitution is sturdy, 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 exposed, and its spinal bones can be counted one by one like abacus beads. If you touch a female rabbit by hand and her spinal bones stay still and she shows a posture with the back arched and the limbs lifted, it indicates that the rabbit is in estrus and should be taken out promptly for mating.

4. Measure: On the basis of checking, looking, and touching, combine this with measuring body temperature, finally confirm what the disease is, and then treat it according to the symptoms. The normal body temperature of a healthy rabbit is 38.5°C-39.5°C; generally, young rabbits are higher than adult rabbits, and old rabbits are lower than young and prime-age rabbits, while in summer it is slightly higher than in winter, and in the afternoon slightly higher than in the morning. The body temperature of a sick rabbit, however, is either elevated or lowered.