Rabbit Vent Disease

We have experienced vent disease (aka Rabbit Syphilis) one time with a rabbit that was ours from a young junior then she moved to another rabbitry for four months. She came home to us with something wrong with her but we couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was it for a while. Thankfully, she was never bred or around any other rabbits (caged alone). She kept having a build up of crusty scabs on her nose. Nothing ever appeared on her actual vent. We took her to our veterinarian with the thought of it being syphilis and he gave us injections of penicillin IM (intramuscular) to administer to her daily for five days. This did not seem to work completely. She appeared to be getting better, but then it came back. We then did some research and found another way to treat.

We then did the subcutaneous injections of Dura Pen (1/10 cc per pound) every seven days for five weeks. I have since read that some cases are more stubborn and should be treated once a week for six or seven weeks. This treatment cured our rabbit and she was no longer contagious.

It seems that the first round of treatment was on the right path of healing the bunny. It just wasn’t quite enough. The second treatment was NOT per our vet but from researching treatments online.

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‍Please note that any medical information written here is just a documentation of how we treat problems in our rabbitry and not veterinarian advice. We are not medical professionals.

Unfortunately, I can no longer find the photos we took of our rabbits nose showing the scabs.