Prevention and treatment

Hey, I’m Dr. Dawson, and today we are going to discuss a critical topic affecting rabbits: fly strikes. This condition can also impact other animals, like sheep and goats, but our primary focus will be on rabbits. Understanding and preventing fly strikes in rabbits is crucial, as they can lead to severe health issues and even death. Let’s dive into what a fly strike is, the risks it poses, and how to prevent and treat this condition in your pet rabbits. So, let’s get started.

What is fly strike in rabbits?

A fly strike is when a rabbit has fly eggs that are laid in its fur. This also goes for other species. If another species has eggs that are laid—fly eggs that are laid in their fur—that would be considered a fly strike as well. Typically, these eggs are going to hatch and turn into nasty maggots. I apologize if any of you are grossed out by maggots. This is going to be a maggot discussion. If you don’t want to hear it, if it doesn’t apply to you, go ahead and skip to the end of the video and check out maybe this video up here.

As we come into fly season this summer, it’s very important that we start thinking about this and knowing about what a fly strike is in case it happens to your rabbit. This can be a very, very serious condition. There have been many rabbits that have been hospitalized. Many rabbits have actually died from fly strikes because the maggots can do so much damage that it’s almost impossible to bring the animal back out of that kind of disease condition.

Rabbits are most at risk of a fly strike.

Factors Contributing to Risk

• Obese animals
• Female rabbits that have a large dewlap or large flaps of skin
• Arthritic rabbits
• Rabbits that have urinary problems
• Rabbits that have dental problems and are just not able to groom effectively
• Preventing fly strikes Strikes in Rabbits
• Key Prevention Methods

So what can you do to prevent it? Because prevention is going to be the number one thing. We’ll get to what you guys can maybe do to treat us here in just a moment. So hold on or check out the chapter here down below if you want to go and check out that part right away.

Prevent Exposure to Flies

• Now this may seem really easy, but I’ve known of indoor rabbits that have gotten fly strikes and have had a very, very severe case of it. So just keeping them indoors is not the only answer, but it definitely can help because their exposure to flies is typically a lot lower than if they’re outside in the weather.

Prevent Matting

• If your rabbit is having urinary problems, if they’re having dental problems, and if they don’t clean themselves well, making sure you’re brushing them out frequently and keeping them from getting matted is going to be key. And it’s better to shave your rabbit, especially in their hind end if that’s where they’re getting mats, than it is to wait until they get a fly strike. So just keeping them clean, keeping them well maintained, so to speak, is going to be the best method of prevention that we can get.

Additional prevention tips

• Diet Consistency
• Make sure you keep their diet consistent. So if you switch up your diet and go from an all-dry diet to suddenly giving them as many cucumbers as they want to eat or lettuce as they want to eat, they very well could get loose stools.
• Dental Health
• Make sure that you keep up with their teeth and that they are chewing on things appropriately. And if they do have malocclusion, make sure you keep on top of that.
• Regular Inspections
• Make sure you’re inspecting your rabbit every day or even a couple of times a day for fly strikes, because this is one of those conditions that can be really hard to tell.

Treatment for Fly Strike in Rabbits

Seeking veterinary care

So the worst has happened: your rabbit has gotten a fly strike. What should you do? Well, a lot of times you do end up needing to go seek veterinary care and this isn’t just me saying you need to go spend money at your vet because that’s not who I am but a lot of times these rabbits are super super painful a lot of times they’re going to get secondary bacterial infections even if you can get all of the maggots out which can be extremely difficult so a lot of times veterinary care is going to be required to get them through it or to help you make the decision of well maybe this is so bad that we need to euthanize and that’s not a wrong decision because it’s extremely painful and a lot of rabbits don’t come out of it very well and it can take months the dog that I mentioned earlier she probably her skin was not better for probably close to four or five months and she ended up having a very large part of her skin just die off and not come back normally at least it took months for that to heal so euthanasia is not always going to be a bad option so if your vet does recommend euthanasia there’s probably a reason and I would at least consider talking about it I’m not saying you have to euthanize your rabbit some a lot of them will make it through just fine but if your vet is like you know your rabbit’s in a lot of pain at least think about it and don’t you know try not to be selfish if that makes sense.

Home Care Tips for Fly Strike

So what can you do at home. if you can’t go to a vet or if you think oh this isn’t that bad of a case whatever well the first thing you can do is clip all of the hair where the affected area is and any mats on the rabbit so a lot of times like.

I said this is going to be around their hind end so clipping their whole back end with a clippers some rabbits will let you do this while they’re awake and some rabbits you have to sedate so that’s another reason why sometimes seeking veterinary care is really helpful if you don’t have to sedate your compliant go ahead clip the whole back end best you can and then start to give them a warm water butt bath now don’t give your rabbit a full body bath please some rabbits will put up with it there are a few but many of them will freak out and they have the risk of breaking their back.

when they’re struggling and so just doing their back end their butt is going to be the best option normally so just a nice warm water bath if you can put your hand in it and hold it in there it’s about the right temperature and if you think you’ve clipped far enough clip further a lot of times there’s going to be maggots that are under the skin that you can’t see that are going to show themselves in the next day or two so just if you think you clipped far enough

you probably didn’t keep clipping now one of the salves that can be really helpful once you’ve been able to give them a butt bath extract as many maggots as you can is a product called bag balm and it’s a lanolin based product and this can be super helpful and soothing for their skin it’s typically safe for rabbits just be careful make sure that you got all of the maggots out before you start applying it because if you didn’t you could actually just trap them in there they could die and start to rot underneath the skin and cause a really nasty infection.

Addressing the Underlying Causes of the Fly Strike

Now the other thing is making sure that whatever caused the fly strike is going to be addressed, so if your rabbit is arthritic, you know there’s only so much you can do if you have a really old rabbit, but you know at least doing what you can to manage pain, doing whatever you can to keep them out of an area where they’re having fly strikes, or just cleaning up their mats for them.

Grooming them frequently can be really helpful if they have diarrhea. Figure out why they have diarrhea and work on treating it, and that may be something you need to talk to your vet about because they may have a better idea. If your rabbit’s having urinary problems, go ahead and talk to your vet. Do a urinalysis so you know that really treating the underlying cause is also going to be very important. If your rabbit just got wet because they’re an outdoor rabbit and got all matted, make sure that you get them all dried off and make sure you keep the mats under control.

• In conclusion, preventing fly strikes in rabbits is crucial. Keep your rabbit’s environment clean, minimize fly exposure, and maintain proper grooming. Regular health checks are essential. If a fly strike occurs, seek veterinary care immediately. Effective prevention and prompt treatment can save your rabbit’s life. Prioritize your rabbit’s health to avoid severe complications from fly strikes.
• Learn more about “Top 10 Rabbit Breeds For Beginners❞