Diagnosis and treatment of endoparasites in pet rabbits

Background : Rabbits are popular pets and members of the veterinary team play a critical role both as providers of species‐specific medical care and a source of informed advice regarding husbandry and preventive medicine. Rabbits can potentially be infected with a somewhat bewildering array of endoparasites, but pathogenicity and significance of infection vary widely according to the parasite and the clinical context. Rabbits are hindgut fermenters and the balance of the microflora of the caecum and large intestines is critical in maintaining gastrointestinal health. Therefore, administration of therapeutic agents that may potentially disrupt the gastrointestinal microbiome needs to be carefully considered. Routine deworming of rabbits is thus not recommended. Aim of the article : The goal of this article is to identify some of the more common or noteworthy endoparasite infections in rabbits and to explore therapeutic strategies when appropriate. Many of the therapeutic strategies suggested in this article are off‐licence and should be prescribed following the veterinary medicines cascade. This process includes obtaining informed consent from the client for prescription under the cascade and recording this consent via an off‐licence consent form.