[Gpdd] HEALTH. Guinea Pigs and Rabbits. Bordatella.

Penny Charlesworth piggyfriends at tesco.net
Sat Jun 23 05:10:32 EDT 2007


I know nothing about rabbits, other than the pesky wild one in my garden last night that was after the piggies' lettuces, but here is a quote from Richardson's Diseases of Domestic Guinea Pigs. She's a vet in England.

This is rather long so those of us not contemplating keeping a rabbit can move on to the next story.

" Bordatella bronchiseptica may be introduced via symptomless carriers of other species, e.g. dogs, cats and rabbits, and care must be taken if the species are brought into close contact with guinea pigs. Outbreaks of Bordatella are precipitated by stress. The incubation period is 3-7 days."

Prevention: (here there is a description of the perfect environment for piggies e.g. humidity, temperature, cleanliness etc.) then it goes on as follows-

" Vaccination using an autogenous formalin killed bacteria given intra-muscularly has been described. 0.2ml. of a porcine bordetellosis vaccine was given and repeated 2-3 weeks later. This gives adequate protection for 4-6 months and its use was successful in eliminating the carrier state from an affected colony. Porcine Bordetella bacterins will also protect guinea pigs against fatal pneumonias. Vaccines must not contain aluminium hydroxide as guinea pigs may react to it.

Several drops ( one drop in each nostril ) of a canine intranasal vaccine may provide similar protection against Bordatella. "

So, there you are.  That would be enough to put me off keeping rabbits although I have always had a dog and from this book, it appears that they can be carriers. Hopefully a digester who keeps both piggies and rabbits will know more.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.




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