Rabbit Vaccinations

Vaccinations are vitally important to help protect your rabbit from potentially life-threatening diseases.

All of them cause some very nasty symptoms which can result in permanent health issues and, especially in unvaccinated rabbits, can often be fatal. Both outdoor AND indoor rabbits are at risk.

Vaccinating your rabbit is one of the most important things that you can do as a responsible and caring owner to help your rabbit live a happy and healthy life.

Animals are born with passive immunity passed on through their mother’s milk before birth. These are known as maternally derived antibodies. These antibodies protect the new-born from the diseases against which the mother was vaccinated, but only until around 12 weeks of age. This is why it’s important to have regular vaccinations from an early age to ensure continued protection against these diseases.

Vaccines provide antibodies against contagious, life-threatening diseases that your rabbit will come across during their lifetime. All of these diseases have no cure, even if their symptoms are noticed early enough, treatment can be extensive, costly and often unsuccessful.

WHAT DISEASES DOES THE VACCINE COVER?
Our "core" (essential for health) vaccination course provides protection against potentially life-threatening diseases including:

• Myxomatosis
• Rabbit (Viral) Haemorrhagic Disease
• RHD1
• RHD2 (a new strain)

WHEN TO VACCINATE
The vaccination course includes a full health check with the vet and lots of advice about caring for your rabbit.

The initial vaccination course for rabbits in most cases, consists of just one combined injection which protects against all three deadly diseases for 12 months. Rabbits usually start vaccines at seven weeks of age, they can start from as young as 5 weeks of age, but this would mean that a second vaccination would be needed. The protection provided by this vaccine starts at the approximate time that the immunity passed on by your pet’s mother runs out.

Your rabbit needs to be kept away from sources of infection (i.e. going anywhere where un-vaccinated rabbits have been) until three weeks after the injection.

We prefer you to have had your rabbit for at least for a week before starting vaccinations, to ensure that they have a chance to settle in with you and are not incubating any illnesses.

Every year your pet will require a booster vaccination to keep the immunity level sufficiently high. The combined vaccine may not be suitable if your rabbit has previously been vaccinated against myxomatosis but not R(V)HD2. Your vet will advise you which vaccination course will work best for your rabbit.