Medications for Rabbit Mastitis and Yellow Urine Disease

1 Treating Doe Mastitis

Find and remove the cause; clean the nipples with 0.1% potassium permanganate, apply a cold compress early then switch to warm compresses from the next day (15 minutes, 3 times daily). For severe cases, inject a mix of 50,000 IU penicillin and 30 ml procaine under the skin at several points around the gland base. If the gland abscesses, surgically drain it, clean the wound with 0.1% potassium permanganate, dust with antibiotic powder, bandage, and intramuscularly inject 50,000 IU penicillin sodium with 3 ml of a houttuynia injection, twice daily for 3 days.

2 Treating Kit Yellow Urine Disease

Orally give all nursing kits gentamicin, 1 ml each, once daily for 3 days. If a kit is severely dehydrated, add glucose or saline, 2 ml each, 3 times daily; kits usually recover in 2 to 3 days.

3 Preventing Yellow Urine Disease

Start with the doe: near birth, adjust the feed — more alfalfa or greens, less concentrate — to avoid oversupply and mastitis.

After birth, watch the nipples for redness or hardness; stop nursing and see a vet at once if you see it, and use a milk replacer during treatment.

Mastitis often hits 5 to 20 days after birth from poor pre-birth care or post-birth infection; if kits drink infected milk they get yellow urine disease, so treat the doe and kits together and promptly.

Keep the nest and hutch clean and disinfect regularly.

Give the doe one sulfamethoxazole tablet daily after birth to prevent mastitis.

Put 2 to 3 drops of chloramphenicol eye solution in newborn kits’ mouths to prevent the disease.