Past Blog / Updates

July 29, 2021

We are starting our treatments for prevention of certain parasites in our herd.  Since it is pretty warm out, we keep our bunnies shaved down in the summer. They were all just recently shaved down and given an injection of ivermec (.02 cc). Ivermec is a cattle wormer but in small doses, it kills fur mites.  We administer to bunnies every couple of months when we are shaving down because wool mites seem to pop up unexpectedly from the yard or hay.

We began our prevention routine then with a two day dose of Toltrazuril (.02 cc) to each rabbit over 8 weeks of age. This is to make sure we do not have any coccidia floating through the herd. We unfortunately started losing some baby bunnies in one litter and we are unsure of what the cause is/was.  We figured that it was something that came in on the farmers hay we purchase. The hay is really good orchard/timothy mix grass hay but you just never know what has touched it before it lands in our barn. So to be safe, we are going through the process of elimination and retreating everyone.

We are giving everyone probiotics for a day then we will begin dosing everyone with panacur daily for 9 days. This is used to prevent an outbreak of e cuniculi. Once this prevention is administered, we will be finished with prevention unless we feel we need to retreat for fur mites (after evaluating).

Not everyone does the same prevention as we do. We are not medical doctors so this is just a list of things we do but not advising anyone else to do the same. You can find all sorts of info on how to care for and keep rabbits. This is what works for us. We do not treat for anything unless we feel it is necessary. With the loss of almost an entire litter, we knew it was time to intervene and make sure it does not spread to any other bunnies. Fur mites are a problem that we must keep under control because we harvest our wool from our rabbits.  We will not sell wool from a coat that has fur mites!

Picture of our supplies used in this prevention intervention.

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July 28, 2021

It has been a long time since I have had time or taken the time to update here on our blog. I thought I would take the opportunity to write a little bit since I was updating the Nursery and For Sale pages today (FINALLY!).

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We moved! Yep, again! This time, we bought a farm in Dunlap Illinois. We enjoyed living in St. Louis with all the things we love so close by. However, my true love is being on a farm verses living in the city. We are awaiting the permit for moving our new bunny barn to the property. Things take time and when you are waiting, time seems to go by slow. But, at the same time, I can say that it seems there are never enough hours in the day for what all I need to get accomplished. At the moment, the bunnies are all in their stacked Wabbitat cages attached to U posts in our garage with two a/c units and several barn fans blowing full blast! The heat index for today was around 111 degrees F. These bunnies are all shaved down for the summer. When it is hot, I keep them clipped every other month and no fiber is saved. We will continue to grow out and harvest when the climate cools down. To me, it is much more important to have healthy rabbits over fiber and show coats!

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As soon as the "Binky Barn" arrives, I will be documenting all of our designs. We will have doggy doors for each bunny to be able to go outside to safe and secure areas for exercise during the day. Every three indoor cages will share an outdoor run so they are not only long runs, but wide as well. This means that the three bunnies living next to each other, will have to either get along well or have to take turns having access to the outside. Outside we will have clear panels separating each 8 - 12 foot rabbit run. Then surrounding each run will be buried horizontal fencing and secure vertical fencing to keep outside predictors away from our precious bunnies. The top of the enclosure will be roofed with hardware cloth so no birds or other predictors can enter. However, we do want rain and sun to be able to hit the ground so we have fresh grass and their yummy rabbit garden (we will call the Carrot Patch) to grow nicely. We will of course have shade for them and they will not be allowed out during inclement conditions.

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We are very excited for our bunnies to have their new Binky Barn. They have no idea what fun is to come for them in the near future!

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