Hey everyone it's Dr. Leigh here from Your Vet Online and tonight we've got a very
cool night for you we're going to be talking all about pocket pets, now the
other exciting thing we have tonight is we've actually got a special guest to
help us with all of this because sometimes yeah even though I've
practiced with these guys a little bit myself I think it's worthwhile having
someone that does it all day and every day so yes we're going to discuss all
those little furry little creatures we're going to talk about rats, mice, guinea
pigs, rabbits, ferrets and all the little peculiarities related to each one of
those so we're going to talk about what to feed them how to house them and
anything else that's extra special that you need to know so let's get right to
it my name is Dr. Leigh if you haven't
already met me before and I've been a vet for 18 years now one of the key
things as I said before is that I although I've worked on these animals
quite a bit in my emergency days especially I would like to introduce to
you Dr. Bree and Dr. Bree is here she actually practices at let me see make
sure I get this completely right at Camden University, the Sydney University Camden
facility the Avian Reptile and Exotic Pet Hospital so it's extra
special yay so welcome Dr. Bree and I want everyone to make sure they say
hello and ask lots of questions so Dr. Bree how about telling us a
little bit about yourself! Hi everybody I'm Dr. Bree
I practiced at the Avian Reptile and Exotic Hospital which is part of the University of
Sydney like Leigh said out at Camden I have been a vet for nearly 10 years now
and I've worked at the University for four years this is great I get to see all
different kinds of animals every day every day is a different day with the
animals I get to see so I work with rabbits guinea pigs ferrets rats mice
fish snakes everything so I can see lots of different things and I get to look at
lots of amazing people it's really really fun, That's awesome
so guys you've got a lot of experience here so if you have any questions you
want to ask make sure you pop them in and we'll make
sure we answer those we might answer them at the beginning like it just depends
how the talks going but sometimes what I do is we just wait until the end and
goes through them there so why don't we start with rabbits so let's see Dr. Bree
what's the most important thing that you want to know us to know about keeping
rabbits. Probably the most important thing to know and the thing that I get
asked about the most is diet so hay hay hay and more hay give them the right
diet early on you're going to have a nice healthy rabbit for most of its life
so okay oh carry on Oh I was just going to say because I know a lot of
people love feeding them carrots and lettuce and all that sort of thing and
maybe a bit of broccoli is that okay? So everything in moderation so if you
remember from Sesame Street there's the Cookie Monster and it used to always
love high-beam cookies but these days now we know a little bit more about diet
we know that cookies are only s "sometimes food" exactly the same thing
for carrots the carrots are only as sometimes food okay
I only recommend giving them only teeny tiny bits maybe once or twice a week
okay only when they're doing good things so a little bit like our dogs where we
might give them a little treat and that's only for when they're behaving
same goes for our rabbits then? Exactly rabbits have a real sweet tooth and
they're very very good at asking you to give them the naughty things
but you're not supposed to give them the naughty things only when they're being good, I mean really small
amounts but only a little bit. So I have lots of clients that say
they give a carrot a day to their rabbits, and um and that's probably really little bit too much that puts a
bit too much weight on them carrots are quite high in sugar
and they don't have a lot of fiber in them compared to the other types of food
that we can feed them so we only want to give them a small amount and only
a couple of times per week maximum. Oh okay that's really good to know because yeah again
like a lot of the clients that I see with their rabbits they do feed a lot of
carrot the other thing I was going to ask is there a particular type of hay
that's better than another type of hay? That's a really really good question and
that's something that I have to deal with on a regular basis so bunnies need
to eat grass hays so that's things like Oaten hay, Timothy hay, Meadow hay pasture
hay so these grass hays are better for their digestive system and
they've got a better balance of nutrients so we want to stay away from
things like lucerne hay, unless your bunny is a baby or it's pregnant
lucerne hay is too high in calcium and too high in protein and can contribute to
obesity and also bladder sludge which is something that we often see and
that's too high - the calcium building up into the bladder and causing this
sort of sludge just to sit in there and it makes it hard for them to go to the toilet
okay so get grass hay when you're looking in the shop. Excellent good so grass hay and not too
many carrots maybe only once a week yep so you want to give them lots of
green leafy vegetables so it feels like kale and small amounts as well any
of your herbs so parsley, basil, coriander you can give them all your Chinese herbs as well
that's really good and then you keep your carrots as a source of treat. Okay
Got it! So do we need to desex our rabbits?
It's really a really good idea to desex
your bunnies especially females unfortunately by the age of four
80% of female bunnies will have a type of cancer in their uterus
and that can spread to their lungs unfortunately, but if we desex
before then we get a really good chance of getting rid of any of these pre-
cancer cells and any cells that might be wanting to try to go to the lungs but also
it's really important to desex your boys as well because you don't want any
unwanted babies and also you don't really want your boy getting a little bit too frisky
let's say and causing a bit of trouble around the house and that can be urine
marking, running around the children and those kind of things so can boys get
a bit rough as well like
yeah they can get a bit too frisky and sometimes they can snatch your feet and attach to
your ankles and that's just them doing a little love dance if they'll do
towards the girls but we don't need that so it's good if we can desex them because
we will decrease the unwanted behaviors in the male bunnies. Ah okay now we often
hear questions and queries about vaccinations what do we need to
vaccinate our rabbits against? So in Australia we are only allowed to vaccinate
against Calicivirus. There's two viruses that will kill our bunnies
unfortunately in Australia that's myxomatosis and calicivirus we're not
allowed to vaccinate against myxomatosis here but we can vaccinate against
calicivirus and so it's really important that when you get a new bunny
you take them to the vets for that and you get that vaccination. Okay that's great and
- so myxomatosis is what they're probably more your your bunnies that live
outside of probably more risk of that disease are there any ways we can
minimize them getting it what is it it's a good question, we can't minimize that we
can't get rid of the chances 100% but we can certainly take steps to try and
decrease the chances that they get it and that is include involving putting
the mosquito netting around the cage making sure that you don't have any stagnant
water around the the bunnies cage if possible bring
them in around dusk when there are many mosquitos around and also trying to keep
their cages clean making sure that there's no sort of dirt around even
though it's not on it's got the myxomatosis virus as such but it can
just keep everything clean so that they're not sick, so that their immune system isn't on
ailing and that they can try and keep on top of these things
yeah unfortunately it's still something that does occur I mean we can't tell
what but we are lucky enough that we can vaccinate Calici which is another
fatal disease that bunnies can get and that is also spread by bunny sex as
well as other bunnies, wild bunnies going around the cages and transmitting it
through saliva and secretions as well and so you do the same type things
putting your net mark around the bunnies making sure that wild bunnies
can't touch them making sure insects can't get to them and bite them and
bringing them in at dust as well as well as vaccinating. Okay excellent
and as far as the bunnies home at the rabbits house is there anything special
can they just live in your bedroom or do we have to have a special cage for them
and or do they need toys for enrichment what the bunnies really need? Well it's a
good question and that depends what kind of person you are, so some people like to
have their bunnies inside the house and once you have them as free-range bunnies
you can toilet-train bunnies to go into a litter tray so they will
urinate defecate in there and so some people will have them around the
house and they will put them in a designated area to sleep at nighttime I
have some clients that let their bunnies sleep under their bed at that time so
they trust them a hell of a lot to let them go under their bed with all the cords
so you do have to make sure that if you do let them in the house
that you do bunny proof the house it's about putting all your cables away
making sure that the area behind your your lounge is free of cords because
bunnies let's keep their area really nice and clean so they'll just chew up
and try and get them out of the way but if you don't want anything else
that's fine um you can have them in an enclosure outside but you want to make
sure it's a nice big enclosure so that they can run around they can
flop they can have a bit of a Bink and that it's easy to clean so we don't want
anything that has any wire flooring because that is really painful on
their feet and because they can get pododermatitis and that's where it's
all it's all sore from sitting on hard surfaces all the time and we don't want it
to be hard to clean enclosure so we don't want it to get dark and smelly and
all sort of humid in there because that can increase the chances of nasty bugs
getting in there and and flies deciding to lay their egg so you can do whatever
you sort of want with bunnies as long as you're committed to it, so like for my
rabbits, my rabbits a free-range they are allowed in the house allowed outside but
when I want to put them in a second area it's a nice safe area and I know
predators can get to them they're out of the wind they're out of the sun, we've got
fresh water all the time and there's nothing that they can get into that they can
hurt themselves. Awesome it sounds great
Shall we talk about guinea pigs? Sure, yes let's talk about little piggies, yes so again what is probably the most important
thing you want us know about guinea pigs?Similarly like with rabbits it's all
about diet for these guys okay guinea pigs need to have hay as well to make
sure that their tummies work properly and but they also need to have a
constant supply of vitamin C because these guys can't make their own vitamin C and
vitamin c is is really important for just general health also
for skin you've probably heard of people getting scurvy guinea pigs can get scurvy as well
if I don't get vitamin C so it's really important that you do your research of
what guinea pigs can eat and what they need to eat and then be providing it on
a regular basis so your grass hay again, your dark green leafy vegetables and
then your vegetables and fruits that are high in vitamin C so that's the main
things that I want people to know about that and also think that they can get
dental disease if they're not fed the right food and that can cause a lot of problems. Ahhh, so should your, you be visiting the vet
every year for your guinea pig to have their teeth um cleaned and trimmed maybe?
yes so everyone even with your rabbits guinea
pigs rats mice through everything like that we do recommend that you give them
you take them to the vets every year to get a health check and we will check their
teeth now if they are eating the right from a diet and they've got great genes
then we won't need to trim their teeth but If they've been born with sort of bad
teeth or maybe a misaligned jaw and they're not fed the right food and we
might have to give them a dental procedure and trim their teeth, the important thing for
people to know is if your guinea pig does have dental disease if they do need
their teeth cleaning it's very unlikely that we can cure them of this it's
more of a management thing so what they have dental disease and once they've had
those changes in their teeth and it's down in their roots we can't necessarily cure
that we have to manage it and try and make it as good as possible to keep them as
comfortable for as long as possible. Excellent, so what's a good treat for a guinea pig something
they can have a little bit like with rabbits it was the carrot is it the same
for guinea pigs? Yes guinea pigs love to have carrot as well so you can give
them carrot otherwise they love coriander too - you know ooooo they love to
to have a great big smorgasbord of vegetables ahh you can give them some strawberries
so I gave them strawberries as a treat mmm a little bit of kiwi fruit if they
like that, a little bit of banana but again these are all treats they're all quite sugary so you
just want to get small amount at that time okay
excellent so they're similar and what about feeding pellets to them like I
know a lot of people go to the pet shop and buy a big bag of pellets yeah so
that's a something that I have to talk to clients about regularly is use of pellets
with rabbits and guinea pigs and even I grew up thinking that pellets as fine
for the rabbits and guinea pigs but the more that we've learnt about their
nutrition in their digestive system the more that we have realized that pellets
are not the best for them they're great as a as a supplement and in small
amounts but not as the main part of their diet
definitely not those pellet mixes that you see so there
Pellet mixes all or more commonly known as stud mixes and you'll see that they have
quite a bit of corn in them they'll have some sunflower seeds and quite often we'll do molasses
mix through there on and that's because in pigs and rabbits both have sweet
tooths so they love these sweet and these oily foods but they're not good for them
whatsoever so we want to try and stay away from those if you do want to
feed a pellet mix a pellet food you want to stick to the brands that
actually have a nutritional analysis on the back and you only want to feed small
amount as a supplement to the main part of the diet which with your hay and the
vegetables. So when you say a supplement are you talking like are we talking 10%
of the diet are we talking 20? We're talking maybe 5% maximum of their diet
so you're only giving them a small amounts of it, yeah because when we
feed pellets to these guys or to any sort of the herbivore animals we
actually change the way that their jaw works so it's not working as a normal
plane so when they're eating their grass and their hay their mouth is working in
a lateral sort of movement and that's how we want their teeth to work because
that's how it wears their teeth out properly and keeps them nice and healthy but when we
give them a pellet they actually work in a vertical action and so they're
chomping up and down and that's how you get uneven wear of their teeth, so only a
small amount unless they're really really sweet or there's a medical reason
that your vet will tell you to increase it you only wanted a small amount and
there's some people that actually don't give any pellets for their rabbits or guinea pigs.
okay and so what about housing for them is it just the same as a rabbit? It's
nearly the same as a rabbit so these guys do need to have lots of area to run
around move around but they're also quite skittish animals so we want to
provide lots of hidey holes for them so we want them to go in and snuggle away
and feel nice and secure if they want to get out and they're a little bit more of an adventurous
type of animal then allow them to run around but we still want to make sure that
they're protected from the elements too so a nice big cage fresh water on hay
and areas go to the toilet which is different to an area for them to
sleep and then little I'll choose for them to run in a little hidey holes and places
like that fabulous cool well shall we talk about ferrets
now? Again, what is the main thing you want us to know about ferrets? That they
are mischievous little animals that like to get into all sorts of trouble so many
of times we had people come in that they've lost ear plugs and things around
the house that the ferrets decided gives a quick little treasure and they're
gone and hidden it, so that's one oh they've hidden it, they haven't eaten it
hidden and/or eaten it so sometimes they might hide them and we get there
before they've eaten it and then other times we get it that there actually eaten it and
then we have to go in and surgically go and find them inside okay so does that
mean that you've got to have a different type of housing for them is it safe to
keep them out all the time or is it even more important to have a special cage
for them so it's very important that you have a ferret proof house and a ferret proof cage.
so we recommend when you do have them out, which you should get them out to play
because they are quite smart smart animals and so they do need that mental
stimulation but when they are out that you're watching them because they like
to get up and underneath the couch, they're really good at getting up inside for climbers and so
when people go and then open up the recliners the ferret is actually in
there in amongst all the mechanics of the springs
I am so you're going to have to make sure that you know where they are all time and also that
that I get underneath the fridge and get stuck on the fridge which some have done
and so important that you're watching them when they're out and then when you
do have your cage make sure that it's big cage that they have spent some time
in when you're at work it has a designated sleeping a designate the
toilet and then area that can eat away from the toilet but also that that cage
is secure that they can't escape from it mmm
so again what about food for ferrets is there anything special and the do's and
do nots yeah so ferrets are what we call obligate carnivores and so their
body is made to eat meat and meat byproducts. They can only handle some
small amounts of carbohydrates and fibers and so when we're feeding them we
want to find the diet that is high in animal fats and plant and animal protein
and high and very low in carbohydrates and fiber so you're looking at things
like organ meats, muscle as well as a good quality pellet food as a supplement
as well so there's some people that will feed just a pure raw diet or a
whole-prey diet to ferrets and then there's some people that will feed
that but in addition to a good quality ferret kibble or a good
quality kitten kibble as well and so it just depends on what your beliefs are it's a
very it divides a lot of people when we talk about a ferret diet but the main
thing no matter which way you do that make sure that you're trying to cover
all those bases of giving them the protein we don't want to feed them um
sort of just plant things or vegetables they're not gonna eat those and they're
not good for their belly and their bellies can't handle that others will feed them
prey foods so some people will actually buy them little mice to eat or even go to the
butcher and get a rabbit's leg to feed them and then they'll give them a good
quality for the cat food or a good quality ferret food in addition to it okay and
can they have cooked meat have we got any concerns about feeding them raw does
that mean we have to worm them more often do we have to do anything special
with the raw meat? Well it's always good to buy human grades meat when you are
buying it and you don't want to sort of get the offal from the pet shops because
we don't know what that if that's been treated with anything what the grade of it
is but because they can get helicobacter and
they can get Campylobacter as well and that can cause tummy upsets on but
generally if you get a good quality raw organ you can feed that to them raw or
you can freeze it and then thaw it and then feed it to them because the
freezing will kill off some of the potential parasites that might be in
there and the bacteria that might be in there ah but they are generally pretty
good at handling a good quality human grade raw meat you can cook it if you
want to but you will lose some of the nutrients okay excellent
and what about vaccinating ferrets is that something that you recommend yeah
so ferrets need to be vaccinated against distemper virus so that is a
fatal disease but luckily you don't see a lot of in Australia and that's because
we do vaccinate against it um and so we do recommend that when
they're little kits that they get vaccinated kind of like a dog and a cat they
get their initial booster vaccinations and then we do it every year after that
the other thing that you do have to think about with ferrets too is giving
them heartworm prevention because they can get heartworm just like dogs get so we
do recommend that you treat them with a monthly preventative thing what
revolution or advocate for cats so that's a really good thing that you can
use for them, it's very easy to apply it's just on the back of the neck. Okay that's fantastic
right well should we move on to rats and mice and if we go Yes! so tell us the most
important thing you want us to know about rats and mice so the most
important thing that I want people to know about rats is that unfortunately
most of them are going to have respiratory disease and it's something
that you need to research about and be prepared to look after one because nine
times out of ten they will get it and again it's something that we can't cure
it's sort of in them and it's been bred into them over the years so
it's something that we can't get rid of um and it's something that you need to learn
how to manage and you can do a lot of at home management before you come to the vet.
also you'll be doing sort of multimodal management at home with
the medicines that the vets will give you too so that's the biggest thing about
the rats and then with rats and mice they are really prone to getting cancer
unfortunately and so again you will get probably cancer in one of them um the good
thing about it in at least rats is that usually it's benign and so if we remove it
then you've got a pretty good chance of end up going back there are about 20% of
cases that cancer malignant in rats, in mice unfortunately most of them are malignant
and so with an already short lifespan they get this cancer than an unfortunately
it decreases it even more so the other thing is in terms of illnesses that I
want people to know about so they're great great pets they've got such cute
personality where a really really like rat and they are really fun to have
around the house and they've got this really bad stigma about being
messy, yucky and dirty but they're actually really clean animals and and
they don't smell and they're great to have around but they're not around for long enough with these disease they get. How long do they live for?
You can kind of get two years three years out of a rat so it's not very long
I mean usually a bit shorter for mice unfortunately well now that we are
learning more and more about them we're getting better medical
treatment and people looking after them better we
are being a little bit longer but it's not it's not a lot longer unfortunately
hopefully we'll get there one day. Yeah do you recommend people weigh their rats
and mice a lot like how we are we seeing these cancer lumps or are we getting to
them too late or what how do we know yeah without seeing them being huge
unfortunately a lot of times yeah owners will see them when they are
big or they will say they're going to look at it and recheck it in a week or so and
then it's doubled in size that can be quite fast growing but the main thing that I
think is important as a pet owner for any of these animals is learning what
is normal for your animal so the one thing that I do feel is important is when
you get your animal is to give them a really good pat but when you're patting
them to feel them and feel underneath their jaw or feel underneath their armpits and
feeling between their legs along their tail and on their ears and do that on a
regular basis and so you might then pick up a lump that's teeny tiny that
could be like half a millimeter in it but because you've been checking your
animal regularly you're going to notice that it's different and now it's exactly
I know this is something different now I'm maybe I might monitor it for a
week but I know exactly where it is I know how big it was on this day I felt it
on this day and then that really helps us and when we're trying to figure out
what it could be in terms of it's course and that you know that
this is your animal it's normal and now this is what's not normal
so that's really important the biggest thing I think even like these rabbits
with dental disease on their jaws learning what is normal along the jaw the
lumps and bumps of what would be normal for them and then when it changes and
so that would be the same for your rats and mice and you must look at those lumps that's a
xxxx I can hear you still a good one of the things that I see a
lot of rabbits for is when they get bloat um what are some of the signs that
people need to look out for with their rabbit especially rabbits and maybe
guinea pigs a little bit, when you know they're going if they absolutely must
get to the vet straightaway so one of the if they do have bloat um we've got
to make sure that we figure out whether it's actually an obstruction or if it's
just a really bad stasis ah so like an obstruction meaning that there's no
food or liquid or gas that can pass through something that's stuck in their
tummy versus a stasis where that is where the
tummy slows down to a point where nothing is moving I mean that's just
because there is something wrong with the peristalsis of it so it's really
important that we figure that out first but um usually
rabbits and guinea pigs will eat constantly though they
might not eat during the night as much because they're sleeping but they'll be
eating during the day grazing during the day so if you ever see that your animal
hasn't eaten for longer than four hours and that is something that is abnormal
that's four hours yeah Generally it's four hours I mean there's
some bunnies that can go a little bit longer because they've sort of learnt from an early age but if your bunny
is a normal bunny that you see just grazing on the grass or the hay and all
of a sudden you're like "I haven't seen him eating for a couple of hours" then that is
definitely not normal And then if you see them lying on their
sides or they're shifting because they don't look comfortable that is something
that is abnormal as well and if their belly looks big then you need to be
getting to your vet straightaway you're getting in your car driving and calling
them saying that you're bringing a bunny that potentially has an obstruction or
has really bad stasis that then could turn into an obstruction if nothing is
moving for long enough one of the things that I often get called about on Your
Vet Online is the ferret that collapses and is really kind of wobbly
and walking not very well and a lot of times sorry
and sort of am probably gazing like this stargazing yes yes so what do you
suggest that might be and what can people do if they see that happen? So the
most common thing that ferrets get that sort of aligned with those clinical
signs is a disease called an insulinoma and that is a cancer of the
pancreas and then so that's where one of the cells in there isn't working
properly and it causes a really bad decrease in
their blood glucose sort of to the point where they don't have the energy to really lift
their head or do any sort of anything and so they they kind of go all wobbly
because they don't have any energy so if you think that your ferret does have
that call your vet but in the meantime you can try and put a little bit of
honey on their gums to get a little bit of sugar a little bit of an energy hit
but it is really important that you get them to the vet straight away so that
we can collect some blood to diagnose that because the other
thing we have to think about it but isn't that unfortunately the next common
things that ferrets get is cancer elsewhere and is often lymphoma and
that's a totally different ballgame that we need to discuss with you but insulinoma
is super super common and causes the decrease in their blood glucose that's
really really woozy and we need to get that sugar level back up so that they have the
energy because the brain can't handle no glucose going to there so we don't want
them to go into a coma and if it's bad enough unfortunately sometimes they can pass
away before we can treat them ya know I mean there's some one of those things
that I often get called about on Your Vet Online as I said and yeah it's
really important for people to get that you know honey
onto their mouth and just get them straight into that clinic because I
and decrease any external stimulus too much, we don't want them over excited but you
want to make sure that they stay conscious so that we can try and get the
treatment as soon as possible yeah no that's great well thanks so much
Dr. Bree I don't know if we've got any questions which is a bit of a shame but
we've had a great chat here and I hope people have found that really
interesting um I certainly have and I'd like to say thank you very much
and why don't you tell us how people can contact you or check you out on
Instagram or Facebook if you want yeah that'd be great
so I have a Facebook page and it is a Dr Bree and so I put lots of stories up
there and pictures up there of cases what's going on but I also have an
Instagram that's also Dr. Bree I think you want to
keep it nice and easy for everyone so that you can find me ask me questions
and I'll try it's hard to be about you're the perfect platform to ask
veterinary medical questions i'm so it's always hard for me when i get people asking me
specific medical questions because you always want to see the
animal like you do by video or by asking questions
but I try to answer as many questions as I can I love seeing what
people are up to and their animals as well so I quite often try and make it
interactive but you can find me yeah Facebook Doctor
Bree or on Instagram Dr Bree and I'd love to see you guys there and and you
learn all about your animals as well yeah now I love um keeping keeping an
eye on your Instagram page in particular you have some great stories on there so
everyone make sure you check out dr. Bree's Instagram and her Facebook page
and just before we go last moments to ask any questions is there anyone
probably not but if you do have questions you can ask your questions later yeah exactly
they can ask any questions below and we can get out on and answer them for you
otherwise head over to www.yourvetonline.com I'm Dr. Leigh
and this is Dr. Bree and thank you very much for listening tonight see you
guys
you
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