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. More and more gardeners, summer residents and farmers are paying attention to raising rabbits in their homestead farms and summer cottages. Rabbit breeding is a simple task, but beginners usually have a lot of questions: what to feed and where to keep rabbits? What and when to vaccinate rabbits? How to save and increase livestock? Answers to these questions are easy to get yourself, and then breeding rabbits will provide the rabbit breeder not only with valuable fur. Caring for rabbits is easy, but eared rodents are gentle, and, unfortunately, beginners and experienced breeders, subject to a number of very dangerous diseases, after which dead animals can only be disposed of. But everything is not as bad as it may seem at first. Veterinary medicine does not stand still, and the attentive owner will not allow the loss of livestock pets. And the first assistant in this is the vaccination of rabbits.
So, the cells are built, feeders and waterers are installed, eared inhabitants provocatively crackling grass and stumps, regularly reproduce. And now the question arises: when are vaccinations to rabbits? And whether to do at all?
What are vaccinations for?
Rabbits, like any living organism on Earth, tend to hurt. Poor ecology, poor-quality feed, outbreaks of epidemics can upset the novice rabbit breeder who read the business plan on the Internet with the words “Rabbits are not only valuable fur. ..”.Often, inexperienced breeders invest a lot of money in breeding eared, seeking to provide themselves and their family with this very "easily digestible meat."The most common and dangerous diseases for rabbits are HBV( viral hemorrhagic disease of rabbits), myxomatosis, rhinitis, coccidiosis, pasteuriz, and stomatitis. Vaccinations exist only for some of the diseases; the rabbit breeder will have to take care of the others. Still, vaccination of eared rodents can reduce the risk of death of the herd by 80%.
Vaccinate only completely healthy animals.
What are vaccines?
Domestic manufacturers of bacterial preparations produce only three types of vaccine for rabbits:
- Monovaccine( monovalent) for myxomatosis.
- Monovaccine from VGBK( viral hemmorrhotic rabbit disease).
- Associated vaccine for rabbits for both diseases at the same time( bivalent).
Monovalent vaccines are usually “stronger”, associated ones are easier to use. These vaccines contain dead and weakened pathogens. Once in the body of a rabbit, they are not capable of bringing tangible harm, maximum short-term fever and lethargy, but the animal's organism learns to produce antibodies that can effectively resist healthy pathogens.
When purchasing a vaccine, it is important to remember that its storage temperature is +2 - +4 degrees, so it is best to buy the drug only when you are going to vaccinate rabbits and only in veterinary pharmacies where you strictly observe the necessary storage conditions.
Tips and tricks from experienced( or not) breeders is good. But vaccine manufacturers are constantly working on their products, modifying it. And if the rabbit neighbor recommends using a certain vaccine in one way or another, motivating it with the fact that he uses it this way, it is quite possible that the manufacturer has already changed, for example, the age at which the animal begins to be vaccinated.
Before using the vaccine, be sure to read the instructions and strictly follow all the recommendations of
There is no unequivocal opinion as to which vaccine is better - mono or associated. Much depends on the experience of the rabbit breeder, the conditions of the animals and the quality of the food they consume. And not always in the available veterinary pharmacy there are both versions of the vaccine. In any case, vaccinations should be done to rabbits, so we vaccinate with what we have.
How many vaccinations do rabbits need?
When you decide to vaccinate rabbits, pay attention to the recommended regimens. There are rabbit vaccination options that have been developed and tested by experience. The two most common vaccination regimens are most commonly used:
- The first one - at the forty-five-day-old rabbits inoculated with an associated vaccine. Then after 60-70 days we repeat to consolidate immunity. And in the future we carry out vaccination every six months until the logical final in the life of the rabbit.
- Scheme two is more complicated. It is designed for the use of monovaccines. First, in 45 days, the rabbit is vaccinated against VGKB, as from the most dangerous disease. Two weeks later, we vaccinate against myxomatosis. After another 14 days, re-inoculate from the UNHCR, to consolidate. And again in two weeks we fix myxomatosis. Subsequently, every six months, we vaccinate with either an associated vaccine or monovaccines with a two-week interval.
Vaccination Schemes must be followed very precisely. Having made one vaccination, and having missed the next one, prevention should be started anew.
Along with good care and proper nutrition, vaccination for rabbits is very important. It will allow to preserve and increase the livestock of eared livestock, to please the owners with a good weight gain and excellent skins, which can be used for various purposes.
