I. Causes of mastitis in female rabbits
Because the female rabbits ingested too much feed and supplemented too much nutrition before and after childbirth, the milk secretion was strong and the milk thickened. At the same time, the young rabbits were weak in constitution, weak in sucking, or the female rabbits gave birth to a small number of litters. The young rabbit needs to be fed, which causes the excessive milk to stay in the mother’s udder for a long time. During this period, the udder of the mother rabbit is infected with bacteria, which leads to mastitis in the mother rabbit. This is an internal cause; Bite, or the breast is scratched by sharp objects in the delivery box, and pathogenic bacteria such as staphylococcus and streptococcus take advantage of the situation to cause infection, which in turn causes mastitis in female rabbits. This is an external cause.
2. Types of symptoms of mastitis in female rabbits
1. Acute Type
Does with acute mastitis usually have symptoms such as loss of appetite, lack of energy, refusal to breastfeed, and body temperature rising above 41 °C. After a period of illness, the skin of the udder of the female rabbit is blue-purple or blue-purple, and the feces are small and dry, sometimes with jelly-like mucus in the feces. If the sick female rabbit is not treated in time, the female rabbit is likely to die from sepsis, and even if she survives, there will be many sequelae.
2. Chronic type
Does suffering from chronic mastitis generally have local redness and swelling of the breast, a burning sensation, tight and shiny breast skin, reduced milk production, and rejection. Breastfeeding, lack of energy, loss of appetite, rise in body temperature, etc.
3. Suppurative
If the female rabbit suffers from suppurative mastitis, there will often be decreased appetite, elevated body temperature, and breast abscesses.
III. Diagnosis and preventive measures of mastitis in female rabbits
Generally, the initial diagnosis can be made by the symptoms such as breast redness, swelling, fever, pain, refusal to breastfeed, elevated body temperature, lack of energy, refusal to feed, breast turning black and purple, and purulence in the female rabbit.
However, attention should be paid to distinguishing rabbit mastitis from rabbit staphylococcal disease, because both rabbit mastitis and rabbit staphylococcal disease will have breast swelling, hardening, purple breast skin, pain, and elevated body temperature. Lack of energy, loss of appetite or abstinence, pus in the breast and other symptoms.
Preventive measures:
1. Pay attention to regularly cleaning and disinfecting the rabbit cage and the rabbit house, keeping the cage clean, and paying attention to removing all sharp objects to prevent the female rabbit’s breast and surrounding area. Skin is damaged.
2. In the three days before the female rabbit gives birth, reduce the feeding of concentrated feed and green juicy feed to maintain the normal secretion of the female rabbit’s milk. After the female rabbit gives birth, pay attention to check whether the female rabbit’s milk is sufficient. If the amount of milk production is low, it can be appropriately fed with high-quality juicy feed.
3. One tablet of long-acting sulfanilamide can be given orally to the female rabbit before and 2 to 4 days after childbirth, which is beneficial to prevent mastitis in the female rabbit.
I will introduce the symptom types and diagnostic methods of mastitis in female rabbits here, I hope it will be helpful to everyone.
