Changes

==Treatment==

==Treatment==

Although the mortality rate in affected rabbits is high, recovery is possible. High ambient temperatures have been reported to increase recovery rates and a warm environment should be provided. Antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories are commonly used to treat the disease, however corticosteroids are contraindicated due to their immunosuppressive effects.

Although the mortality rate in affected rabbits is high, recovery is possible and treatment can be worthwhile:

*Increase ambient temperature to 29.5°C - the virus is more virulent at lower ambient temps

*Antibiotics that combat pasteurellosis, procaine penicillin (SC q 3-4d) or oxytetyracycline (SC q72h)

*pro-kinetics if you can get them

 

There are anecdotal reports of the use of Interferon in myxomatosis  - some cases recovered and some didn't. Did the ones that recovered receive the dose prior to clinical signs? How would you know that the rabbits were going to get the disease? Were they going to recover anyway, in spite of treatment? Rabbits that had full-blown clinical signs didn't recover, even when given Interferon. There were, apparently, no bad side-effects as a result of administration of interferon and clients might appreciate that the clinician was doing his best to help sick or in-contact rabbits. 

 

Myxomatosis is spread rather erratically by contagion, more by vectors, so the use of “preventative treatments”  (interferon or vaccination) in the face of an outbreak is difficult to justify.

 

In-contact rabbits might not be actually incubating the disease as they might not be infected yet and therefore the vaccine has a better chance of working. If they are already incubating the disease the vaccine won’t work so there is definitely no benefit if clinical signs are established and no point using it as a therapy.

==Literature Search==

==Literature Search==