Bordetella in Rabbits

Bordetella in rabbits can look and act like snuffles, but how to tell the difference? Is Bordetella dangerous? Treatable? Recognize the symptoms and how, or if, to treat.

Bunnies can be susceptible to Bordetella infection. Thankfully, these 7-week-olds are healthy.

Bordetella bronchiseptica germs hang out in the throat and trachea of the rabbit. They like to infect the airway cells that grow the little cilia - tiny waving hairs that help push the gunk, dust, germs, and secretions upward and out of the lungs and airways.

This may be why the presence of Bordetella makes other lung infections much worse - possibly because the cilia may not work correctly and the mechanism for cleaning out the lungs becomes crippled.

If there’s any season during which illness from Bordetella in rabbits is more likely to occur, it might be when temperatures are cooling in autumn. Reports of seasonality span species and include rabbits, dogs, guinea pigs, and hedgehogs.

It is common for rabbits to be infected but not show any sign of illness. These rabbits are carriers, chronically shedding germs throughout their environment and anything they come into contact with, including you. While very common in rabbits, bordetella by itself doesn't usually make rabbits sick.

But some rabbits do get sick from just Bordetella. Symptoms are actually quite similar to those of Pasteurella (snuffles):

Healthy Holland Lop show rabbit

• Runny nose. Mucus may be quite runny and clear, or thick, white and gloppy.
• Coughing and sneezing.
• Eye drainage.
• Loss of appetite.

Bordetella bronchiseptica can protect itself from the rabbit’s immune defenses by hiding itself in a protective film.

Bordetella in rabbits can make it easy for other infections to take hold by crippling the lung cilia so that mucus and germs start collecting in the airways.

Other germs that cause upper respiratory infections in rabbits are:

• Pasteurella multocida (the overwhelmingly favorite suspect)
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Moraxella catarrhalis
• Mycoplasma spp
• Chlamydia spp
  
  

Keep Your Rabbits Healthy

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Two very important questions that rabbit owners ask are:

• What do these symptoms mean??
• How do I keep my rabbit healthy and happy?

Overall health comes from a strong immune system. A strong immune system is essential for the rabbit to ward off threats to its health (such as snuffles), and to stay healthy (such as keeping rabbit feet healthy, well furred, and free of sores).

We've done our best to provide you with strong website resources to help you keep your rabbits healthy! Our e-book, Keep Your Rabbits Healthy, is an enhanced compilation of ALL the health- and disease-related pages, information, and photos on the Raising-Rabbits website. 

The only resource more extensive that I know of is the book, Rabbit Raising Problem Solver. Check them out!

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IMPORTANT: Rates of infection with Bordetella bronchiseptica are higher in weanlings than in adults, while more adults get sick with Snuffles than do weanlings.

This means that you should consider treating a sneezing weanling with antibiotics, especially if the symptoms are mild.

It helps to be aware that bordetella might predispose that weanling to snuffles (pasteurellosis) later, as it matures. That is a possible headache that you may wish to avoid. (In herds of rabbits, for example in show or commercial rabbitries, overall herd health is important. Culling an individual is a valid choice to ensure the health and safety of the herd as a whole, when an individual rabbit can be soon replaced.)

Cleaning, Treatment, Prevention of Bordetella in Rabbits

Prevention:

Other animal species such as dogs, guinea pigs and hedgehogs commonly carry bordetella germs. The best way to prevent bordetella in rabbits is to avoid contact with other animals. That said, we know many rabbit lovers (including breeders) whose rabbits, dogs and cats are best buddies.

Additionally, Bordetella in rabbits is already very common. (The rabbits that get sick are usually sick with Bordetella AND another germ--their immune systems are not up to par.)

Cleaning:

Bordetella is easily purged from the environment by common disinfectants. Scrubbing the cage, feeder and watering crock, valve or bottle, and then using a 1:10 bleach solution is very effective.

Treatment:

According to www.criver.com:

"Treatment of animals with antimicrobials may serve to treat illness [caused by bordetella], but rarely, if ever, resolves the carrier state, nor will [oral] antibiotic treatment eliminate bacteria from the bedding or cage surfaces. Thus, treatment is only recommended to ameliorate clinical signs."

To rephrase: Treating Bordetella in rabbits will probably result in the rabbit getting ‘better,’ as in, improve the clinical symptoms, but the rabbit will likely remain a carrier, and a shedder, of the germ on a long-term basis.

Plus, carriers of Bordetella may become more susceptible to Pasteurella, because of the ability of Bordetella to disrupt the function of the lung cilia.

Other vets state that over time, the rabbit's immune system, if strong enough, may be able to fully eradicate the infection.

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Handling Bordetella in Your Rabbits

Commercial:
Replace affected breeding stock with healthy animals.

Rabbitry for show or backyard meat:
Eliminate from the breeding pool if you have a healthy replacement animal. If not, then treat the animal, then breed and obtain healthy replacement animals from its offspring. Find more details on how to breed health into all your rabbits on our Pasteurellosis page.

Pets:
If your pet rabbit has a ‘simple’ case of bordetella alone -- we can always hope! -- antibiotic treatment may very well help your pet return to health. Just know that according to some vets, it will probably still carry the germs even if it is no longer sick, and may be prone to respiratory problems in the future. But who knows, maybe it will go on to live a long happy life...!

Below: Rabbit Raising Problem Solver offers extensive info on health challenges.

The Rabbit Raising Problem Solver, available in paperback or Kindle, is laid out in a Q&A format with questions and answers for everything you need to know about rabbits, from health to housing:

• Diseases and injuries and how to treat
• Native Behavior, Diet, Breeding
  
• Housing
• Care of Kits and their Mamas
• Solving the Gritty Problems 
• And lots more!

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References:

• http://wildlife1.wildlifeinformation.org/S/00dis/bacterial/Bordatella_bronchiseptica_Inf_HHog.htm
• http://www.rabbit.org/care/pasteurella.html
  
• https://assets.www.criver.com/storage-account-container/resources/InfectiousAgentSheetBordetellabronchiseptica.pdf
• https://medirabbit.com/EN/Respiratory/respira_main.htm
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordetella_bronchiseptica