When and why to vaccinate rabbits?

More and more gardeners, summer residents and farmers are paying attention to raising rabbits in their backyards and summer cottages. Rabbit breeding is not difficult, but beginners usually have many questions: what to feed and where to keep rabbits? What and when to vaccinate rabbits? How to keep and increase the livestock? It is easy to get answers to these questions on your own, and then breeding rabbits will provide the breeder not only with valuable fur. Caring for rabbits is simple, but eared rodents are gentle animals, and, unfortunately, beginners and experienced rabbit breeders, are prone to a number of very dangerous diseases, after which the dead animals can only be disposed of. But everything is not as bad as it might seem at first. Veterinary medicine does not stand still, and an attentive owner will not allow the death of pets. And the first helper in this is rabbit vaccination.

So, the cages are built, the feeders and drinking bowls are installed, the eared inhabitants fervently crunch with grass and stumps, reproduce regularly. And now the question arises: when to vaccinate rabbits? And whether to do at all?

What are vaccinations for?

Rabbits, like any living organism on Earth, tend to get sick. Poor ecology, poor-quality feed, outbreaks of epidemics can pretty much upset a novice rabbit breeder who reads a business plan on the Internet with the words "Rabbits are not only valuable fur ...". Often, inexperienced breeders invest considerable funds in breeding eared eared, trying to provide themselves and their families with this most "easily digestible meat". The most common and dangerous diseases for rabbits are HBV (rabbit viral hemorrhagic disease), myxomatosis, rhinitis, coccidiosis, pasteurillosis and stomatitis. Vaccinations exist only against some of the diseases, the breeder will have to take care of preventing the rest. Still, vaccination of eared rodents can reduce the risk of herd mortality by 80%.

Only absolutely healthy animals are vaccinated.

What vaccines are there?

Domestic manufacturers of bacterial preparations produce only three types of vaccine for rabbits:

1. Monovaccine (monovalent) for myxomatosis.
2. Monovaccine against HBV (rabbit viral hemorrhagic disease).
3. Associated vaccine for rabbits against both diseases simultaneously (bivalent).

Monovalent vaccines are usually "stronger", while associated vaccines are easier to administer. These vaccines contain dead and weakened pathogens. Once in the rabbit's body, they are not able to bring him tangible harm, a maximum short-term increase in body temperature and lethargy, but the animal's body will learn 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 the necessary storage conditions are strictly observed.

Advice and advice from experienced (or not so) breeders is good. But vaccine manufacturers are constantly working on their products, modifying them.And if a neighbor rabbit breeder confidently recommends using a certain vaccine in one way or another, motivating it by the fact that he uses it this way, it is quite possible that the manufacturer has already changed, for example, the age at which vaccination of the animal begins.

Before using the vaccine, be sure to read the instructions and strictly follow all recommendations

There is no unequivocal opinion about which vaccine is better - mono or associated. Much depends on the experience of the breeder, conditions of detention animals and the quality of the food they consume. And not always in an affordable veterinary pharmacy there are both vaccine options. In any case, rabbits need to be vaccinated, so we vaccinate with what we have.

How many vaccinations do rabbits need?

When you decide to vaccinate rabbits, look at the recommended regimens. Vaccination options for rabbits have been developed and tested. The two most common vaccination regimens are most commonly used:

1. The first scheme - at forty-five days of age, rabbits are vaccinated with an associated vaccine. Then, after 60-70 days, we repeat to strengthen the immunity. And in the future, we carry out vaccinations every six months until the logical finale in the life of a rabbit.
2. The second scheme is more complicated. It is designed for the use of monovaccines. First, at 45 days, the rabbit is vaccinated against VHKB, as against the most dangerous disease. Two weeks later, we vaccinate against myxomatosis. After another 14 days, we re-vaccinate from the VGKB, for consolidation. And again in two weeks we fix myxomatosis. In the future, every six months, we vaccinate with either an associated vaccine or monovaccines with a two-week interval.

The vaccination schedule must be followed very closely. Having made one vaccination, and skipping the next, prevention will have to start over.

Along with good care and proper nutrition, vaccination for rabbits is very important. It will allow you to preserve and increase the farmed livestock of eared, to please the owners with a good weight gain and excellent skins, which can be used for various purposes.

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