COCCIDIAN ENTERITIS IN RABBITS. INTESTINAL COCCIDIOSIS.
Causes. In rabbits the coccidium perforans is the psorosperm which usually attacks the bowels. The coccidium oviforme which produces hepatic coccidiosis is also occasionally found in the intestines. The perforans is smaller than in cattle being 15 to 25 μ long, by 12 to 15 μ broad, approximating to the variety found in man.
Lesions. There is extensive congestion of the intestinal mucosa, with thickening and softening of the epithelium so that it breaks down into a pulp under pressure, also free desquamation with the formation of abrasions, sloughs and ulcers. In some instances extensive croupous casts of the intestine are found. As in the other animals the coccidium is found abundantly in the epithelial cells of the affected parts which swell up and degenerate. When the parasite has escaped from the cells it lives free in the abundant mucopurulent and sanguineous secretions of the bowels.
Symptoms. There are loss of appetite, swelling of the abdomen, profuse diarrhœa, the fæces yellowish in color and containing mucopurulent matters and blood. The disease may prove fatal in a few days without much loss of flesh, but if protracted it leads to extreme anæmia, emaciation and debility and the animal dies in marasmus.
Diagnosis is always to be certified by the profusion of coccidia found in the fresh liquid discharges.
Prevention must be secured if possible by the removal of the healthy rabbits from the infected and from the hutch or warren in which the latter have been. The greatest care must be taken to prevent them from obtaining access to the droppings of the sick, or to streams, ponds or wells, into which the drainage from such manure can have found its way. The safest course is to destroy the sick and burn up them and all their droppings, as the latter ground into powder can blow on the wind.
Therapeutic treatment has proved unsatisfactory but may be attempted along the same lines as for the larger animals.