DKRabbitry
Ridin' The Range
Anyone else have an issue with this in certain bloodlines?
It first cropped up here last year. I had a new Champagne D'Argent buck I was using and the first litter he sired 2 of the kits got what I thought was conjunctivitis at the time. The usual pus, swollen eye lids, etc. So I brought those kits inside and quarantined them from the rest of the herd. Started them on terramycin treatments and keeping the eyes cleaned as much as possible. At the time, I had thought the infection had caused the entropion and blindness in the eyes, but now I am having second thoughts... Anyways, two more in that litter ended up getting it, but the rest (5 more) showed no signs of problems. The pus went away with the antibiotics, but the blindness stayed as well as the entropion so I ended up stopping antibiotics and butchering them after the withdrawal period. I did a repeat breeding of this pair of rabbits 3 more times, in the next litter there were two that had the same problem, litter after that there was 1, then the very last litter before the doe died and I butchered the buck there were no eye problems out of 8 kits. This was the only doe I had bred that buck to.
Now, I just got a new Giant Chinchilla buck. He is so gorgeous and I was having fertility issues with my other giant chin buck, so I bred both of my giant chin does to him. I got a litter of 3 (which is pretty normal for that particular doe) and a litter of 7 (of which two died on the wire). Of these remaining 8 kits, every single one of them has entropion to varying degrees, with the worst one having the blindess which I now realise is corneal lesions from the eyelashes rubbing on the eyes. She will be culled today (at 4 weeks old) because I feel she must be in pain. The rest of them just have it slightly, but it is on every eyelid. Both of these does have been bred before to my other buck and I have never had this issue with any of the kits, and I have not changed any of my husbandry practices. This is why I don't think it is an environmetal thing. I figure I will just let the rest of the kits growout and use them all for meat since I feel this is a genetic defect and not an infection as I had thought previously with the Champagnes. I will be breeding both of these Giant Chin does again, one to the sire to all of these kits, and one to a different buck, to see what the outcome is. I will also be breeding this buck to a doe that is not a Giant Chinchilla to see what happens.
The main question that arises with me is whether or not the entropion is recessive and both my buck and does carry the problem, or if it is different and possibly only the buck carries it or maybe just that particular mix of genes (my two giant chin does are littermates, so there genetic makeup is very similar to each other). I really want to get this issue out of my program, but I am a small operation, so getting rid of those three would pretty much wipe out my entire giant chinchilla herd, which I obviously don't want to do if I don't have to. Also, my whole damline of Champagnes comes from that one doe that produced kits with it. I only kept one doe out of that particular pairing (who didn't have any eye problems in the one litter she has had), all the rest do not have that sire in there pedigree and have never produced entropion, but I would really like to know if it is lurking there.
It first cropped up here last year. I had a new Champagne D'Argent buck I was using and the first litter he sired 2 of the kits got what I thought was conjunctivitis at the time. The usual pus, swollen eye lids, etc. So I brought those kits inside and quarantined them from the rest of the herd. Started them on terramycin treatments and keeping the eyes cleaned as much as possible. At the time, I had thought the infection had caused the entropion and blindness in the eyes, but now I am having second thoughts... Anyways, two more in that litter ended up getting it, but the rest (5 more) showed no signs of problems. The pus went away with the antibiotics, but the blindness stayed as well as the entropion so I ended up stopping antibiotics and butchering them after the withdrawal period. I did a repeat breeding of this pair of rabbits 3 more times, in the next litter there were two that had the same problem, litter after that there was 1, then the very last litter before the doe died and I butchered the buck there were no eye problems out of 8 kits. This was the only doe I had bred that buck to.
Now, I just got a new Giant Chinchilla buck. He is so gorgeous and I was having fertility issues with my other giant chin buck, so I bred both of my giant chin does to him. I got a litter of 3 (which is pretty normal for that particular doe) and a litter of 7 (of which two died on the wire). Of these remaining 8 kits, every single one of them has entropion to varying degrees, with the worst one having the blindess which I now realise is corneal lesions from the eyelashes rubbing on the eyes. She will be culled today (at 4 weeks old) because I feel she must be in pain. The rest of them just have it slightly, but it is on every eyelid. Both of these does have been bred before to my other buck and I have never had this issue with any of the kits, and I have not changed any of my husbandry practices. This is why I don't think it is an environmetal thing. I figure I will just let the rest of the kits growout and use them all for meat since I feel this is a genetic defect and not an infection as I had thought previously with the Champagnes. I will be breeding both of these Giant Chin does again, one to the sire to all of these kits, and one to a different buck, to see what the outcome is. I will also be breeding this buck to a doe that is not a Giant Chinchilla to see what happens.
The main question that arises with me is whether or not the entropion is recessive and both my buck and does carry the problem, or if it is different and possibly only the buck carries it or maybe just that particular mix of genes (my two giant chin does are littermates, so there genetic makeup is very similar to each other). I really want to get this issue out of my program, but I am a small operation, so getting rid of those three would pretty much wipe out my entire giant chinchilla herd, which I obviously don't want to do if I don't have to. Also, my whole damline of Champagnes comes from that one doe that produced kits with it. I only kept one doe out of that particular pairing (who didn't have any eye problems in the one litter she has had), all the rest do not have that sire in there pedigree and have never produced entropion, but I would really like to know if it is lurking there.
