Keep your rabbits inside.

I know someone who lives in Australia, and used to let her rabbits have some time outside in the garden. Due to myxomotasis, she never takes her rabbits out of the house now, unless they have to go to the vet.

The only safe way is to keep them indoors. If you let them out in a run, you can use mosquito netting. If it’s completely out of the buns’ reach you. An use mosquito nets that are treated with permethrin. Permethrin is an insect repellant that’s used in for example malaria-ridden parts of Africa.

Myxomatosis is a terrible disease. It was released in Australia and New Zealand in efforts to control the wild rabbit population. The use of vaccines against it is prohibited in Australia. It’s very sad.

Even fully indoor rabbits can get myxo – it’s something that will stick to your shoes or clothes or in the hay and you’ll get it indoors. It can come in on a fly that flies in through an open window.

Keeping a rabbit 100% fully indoors won’t do much to lower the risk of them being exposed to it.

If there’s any chance it’s in your garden, you or anyone else that goes out there can bring it inside like I said so it’s probably best to let your rabbit run around there if it’s something he enjoys. The risk is the same so he might as well get his exercise and vitamin d.

The only way to prevent myxomatosis is to prevent biting insects from coming in contact with your bunny. This includes mosquitoes AND fleas. So keep your bunny indoors and be sure to treat with a bunny-safe flea preventative like Revolution or Advantage. As Fluffykins said, the virus can be brought in from outside. However, keeping a rabbit inside will greatly reduce the risk because the main mode of spread is biting insects.

Maybe some of our Aussie friends can elaborate on what they do to keep their bunnies as safe as possible.

Hi Shantel, I’m in Australia also

Previously I had an indoor rabbit who I used to let outside, however either last year or the year before there were several outbreaks of myxo and also the RHDV2 virus (new strain of calicivirus which the vaccine doesn’t cover). As a result I decided to keep my buns indoors from then on as a precaution. As suggested, if you choose to let bun outdoors there are a number of precautions you can take, the main one being that you let bun outside in a pen or run that is completely covered with flyscreen/mosquito netting. This is the most effective way of simply preventing the most common mode of transition. Apart from that, you can plant insect repelling plants (outside of bun’s reach as most are toxic) as a way to reduce fly and mosquito numbers and also use fly/mosquito traps or bug zappers outside while your bun is out playing. (Don’t use the sticky paper traps as the stuck insects can attract birds which can get stuck on the paper also).

Additionally, morning and evening are the most common time for mosquitoes so it can be better to avoid these times, however that being said, avoiding that time often leaves you in the heat of the day which can be dangerous to buns, and often flies are more active in the heat of the day than morning and evening. If I had to choose, if the weather was suitable I would avoid the main mosquito times use late morning or early afternoon (weather permitting). Also do what you can to avoid increasing the mosquito population. Make sure you don’t have any standing water in your yard where mosquitoes like to breed. If you have a bird bath or similar make sure you empty it and replace with fresh water daily, empty buckets or any other containers that may be holding water.

I hope that helps

I am so terrified of this happening to my buns. They are fully indoor house rabbits but I live in a 70 year old house and bugs get in no matter what! I have mosquito netting over their “bedroom” but I do tend to let them free at dusk as they just love to race around the house at that time. I have a variety of bug repelling plants around my house, rosemary and chemicals at every window. The town gets sprayed for mosquitos as it is such a bad area for them and there is a large wild rabbit population, my vet warned that the vaccines will not protect from most recently released virus and she said they just drop dead all the time around here I do all I can to keep my buns safe but in this place its may be just a matter of time. They are near a window but due to the heat they havent seen a whole lot of direct sunlight since we moved here. Is this a major health risk? More so than myxo? They are very active and loving house bunnies, I just want to do the best by them.