Reoccurring Pin-worms

[Bunnisox]

One of my rabbits has had what my vet diagnosed to be pinworms twice. They were treated twice. Now today, I noticed them again in her poops. I asked my vet where they are coming from, and she said they are contracted from other rabbits — which would make sense, except my other 2 rabbits have never had them, and she’s the only one that keeps getting them.

I’m hesitant about giving her de-wormer again, because the last time I did it caused such a bad reaction:
The Update on 06/02

I hate to keep having to treat her over and over again, and am unsure about where she keeps getting them from. Do you think they every really went away from the first time over a year ago? Am I doing something wrong with her treatment?

Does anyone else have any experience or advice about this?

Thank you so much!!

[tobyluv]

I’ve never had experience with pinworms, but I just checked Lucile Moore’s book, A House Rabbit Primer, to see what she says about them. She says they are very common in rabbits and may be difficult to prevent even with good sanitation. They are transmitted through ingestion of contaminated food and water. Spores are shed in the urine and can remain viable for months. She also says that pinworms rarely cause a rabbit problems and they are often not treated unless it’s upsetting to the owner. The treatment for them is to use a parasiticide such as fenbedazole or oxyfenbendazole. Or, adding piperazine citrate to the rabbit’s water can be effective.

It seems strange that your other rabbits don’t have pinworms, since I assume they would be eating and drinking the same thing as the rabbit that does have pinworms. Or they might have picked them up by sharing a litter box, if they do share one, so I do wonder why they also don’t have pinworms.

Is your rabbit excessively grooming her anal region? If not, the pinworms may not be bothersome to her, so maybe you could forego using a de-wormer since she had a bad reaction.

 One of my past rabbits, that I found on the street, had tapeworms.  She was given an injection of Droncit.  That was a while ago, and I’m not sure that is still the treatment.  Is your vet sure that these are pinworms?

[Bunnisox]

I’ve talked with my vet and he’d like to treat the pinworms ASAP as they seem to be causing her a lot of problems, and it’s so sad to see her going at her anal region so frequently and furiously.

She’s going through a stasis episode right now for about 5 days at this point, so we’re holding off until she recovers.

Since she’s had such a rough experience with Panacur and Fenbendazole, he recommended trying Grapefruit Seed Extract. I’ve never heard of this before, and after doing a lot of research online, I’m still coming up a bit short on answers.

Has anyone here tried using Grapefruit Seed Extract to treat worms? Are there any side effects or precautions I’ll need to take? My vet said it was perfectly safe but that I should also give her probiotics alongside with the treatment. I’m concerned as I’ve been told something was “perfectly safe” for my buns before, several times, and it turned out that it wasn’t. I can’t seem to find super rabbit-savvy vets around here…

[Author]

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