Acute Enteritis in Baby Rabbits

1 Symptoms of Acute Enteritis in Kits

Signs include yellow stools and yellow urine, weight loss, fur around the anus soaked in yellow urine with a very foul smell, and a limp, floppy kit that later becomes comatose. The course is usually 2–3 days; without prompt treatment a kit dehydrates and dies within three days.

2 Preventing and Treating Kit Acute Enteritis

1. Prevent mastitis in the doe, since most cases come from her infected milk — strict diet management is the most effective way to raise kit immunity. Before birth, cut concentrated feed and feed more greens; adjust feed to milk concentration (raise concentrate, lower greens if milk is thin). Mix sulfadiazine into her feed at 0.2 g/kg for 3–4 days, or 0.3–0.5 g sulfadiazine with one soda tablet twice daily for 3 days to prevent mastitis.

2. Keep the doe’s nipples clean, washing them often with potassium permanganate solution.

3. At the first sign of mastitis, isolate the kits and foster them onto a healthy nursing doe, and treat the doe with subcutaneous procaine penicillin, 2 ml twice daily for 2–3 days.

4. For affected kits, drip chloramphenicol eye drops or berberine injection into the mouth with a syringe, twice daily (2 drops each) for 2–3 days.