Violent VHD reaction...

Has anyone experienced a reaction to the Cylap VHD vaccine in any of their rabbits which manifested as a serious skin burn causing progressive baldness, peeling, bleeding and scabbing as well as facial swelling?

I have spoken to the vets and he has an emergency appointment first thing tomorrow but is otherwise fine in himself at the moment. I have been told to keep him inside to monitor his behaviour and respiration overnight.

Fudge had his vhd jab november/december time last year and had a little patch of redness/scab and slight lump for a few days-he kept trying to scratch it but it was in his scruff and couldnt get to it. I used sudocreme to sooth the itchie/irritation. I didn't notice any changes in behaviour although he was a bit grumpy and less hyper for that evening but to be honest Im also grumpy after jabs!I told myself not to get paranoid and it soon settled-had it not gone in a few days or he continued to be typical grumpy woe is me male I would have rung the vets.

Hope the wee man is fine until his appointment.

I haven't noticed any difference with my buns. Just checked their vac records and they have both had Cylap. I will watch them after their next one.

Which bun has been affected? I hope it isn't poor Mack who has been through so much. I hope he is better soon.

None of my Buns have had VHD vac as the first and last time I had two of my Bunsters vaccinated with it I lost them both within a week of having it. The vet told me not to worry when I took them back to see him as they didn't look themselves.

Foxglove had a bad reaction - huge patch of hair loss with a great big scab in the middle. got to have the other one next time - the one that has less reactions.

After losing Rory we are always nervous as hell when we take ours for their VHD. I've never heard of such a violent skin reaction before. I do hope the vet will be able to soothe Marley. sending him loads vibes x x

Marley has had the area cleaned with hibiscrub and then smothered in Flamaine which I have to put on 3 times a day for the next week. He also has a buster collar as he keeps licking the area.

Vets were on the phone top Forte Dodge (manufacturers) when I arrived and they are picking up the bill for all his treatment, a report has also been filed to the VMD. He has a check-up next Friday to see if the inflammation is reducing, else we may need to use a steroid.

Very worst case scenario involves the skin being removed surgically.

One of my Buns had a dreadful 'burn' reaction to Cylap and he almost needed a skin graft

Personally I wont allow any of my Buns within a mile of a Cylap vaccine nowadays. We always use Lapinject and so far noBun has had any reaction of any form *touches wood*

I hope poor Marley heals well. It took about 8 weeks for my effected Bun to heal.

They had Lapinject sitting on the counter when I arrived today, I asked them to order it Tuesday as I couldn't risk Juno having the Cylap limp.

Most of Marley's scab came away today and has revealed nice clean healthy skin underneath which is great. I think it will all be off by next week and *hopefully* his fur will then grown back.

Good news. Bertie has had Cyclap every time, and had no reaction, but as it seems it can hit with no previous, then I may well insist on Lapinject from now on.

I had one VHD limp with Jack from Cylap but nothing with the others. I changed practices though when Jack's incisor cavity infection went undiagnosed (when even I knew it was infected) and they used Lapinject.

That is a shocking reaction Sooz. Poor Marley btu I'm glad the new skin is healthy.

Little Moo had his check-up today and everything is healing fine. Have to continue with his cream for a few more days as the new skin is quite dry and it remains to be seen if the fur will grow back or not, but the main thing is he won't be needing an op.

glad hes all healed ...

it was cylap that Traceys bun Chance had a very sinilat reaction to .

Yeah, I've not heard of it with Lapinject Angie. The vets have decided to ditch Cylap permenantly now.

Hi, I am new to this forum and am trying to make as many bunny owners as possible aware of the reaction that their bunnies could have to the Cylap vaccine, as some of mine did.

Some of you may have seen on other forums that several of my rabbits had a very severe reaction to the Cylap VHD vaccination in September 2008. You can view the report I made for the manufacturer, Fort Dodge, here:
www.englishrabbit.org.uk/cylapreport.pdf

Please make sure that your vet reports any adverse reactions in your bunnies, it is the only way that we can get some action. Since I completed the report in May, the bare patch on Nutmeg has not changed 4 months later, I do not believe the fur will ever grow back now, in addition, Cinnamon who had been completely recovered has a new bare area which I noticed last week.

I will never use the Cylap vaccine again for my bunnies, there is an alternative called Lapinject which has been available since 2007 and which I will use from now on.

Thanks for the info Fiona and welcome to HH

Thankyou for that and welcome to HH! Please get stuck in. x

If anyone is interested Marleys fur did grow back completely normally and he has no lasting damage. None of mine will be having Cylap again though, that's for sure.

If only I had read this thread before I took my rabbits for their VHD vaccinations yesterday. Harvey was fine yesterday but is not himself at all this morning. I found him lying in an odd position with his head tilted upwards. He is having difficulty moving around, his back legs seem powerless and when lying down he feels rigid along his back.

He is still eating and going to the toilet though thankfully.

After reading about all the known side-effects from Cylap I am surprised and disappointed that it is still being used. I am going to ring the vet tomorrow to let them know about his reaction. He's completely blind too and this must be really confusing for him.

Vickie, have you got any painkiller you can give him?

Yes, I have Metacam, I am going to see if it helps ease his discomfort.

Harvey is a lot better now, thankfully he recovered within 24 hours. I sent an email to the vet to let them know about his adverse reaction. To my surprise I got a call from the vet the next evening very concerned about it but said he had never seen this before after administering Cylap. He was going to report it to the manufacturers though.

He had looked up the differences between Cylap and Lapinject and said there was very little difference between the two and they actually use both vaccines.

He also said that it would be better if I did not get Harvey vaccinated against VHD in the future as his reaction could be worse next time and might even kill him. This has really given me something to think about. He assured me that VHD is quite rare and he was not trying to push me either way but if it was his rabbit he would not vaccinate. What do you think to this?

So glad to hear Harvey is feeling better and recovered quickly

VHD is most certainly not rare, it's more common than ever, the reason vets say it's rare is that most bun owners don't bother to get a pm done when their bun dies so they are not included in the number.

We used to have them vaccinated with Cylap and quite a few were off-colour and had front limb pain for a couple of days, this time we used Lapinject and had no trouble at all. If I were you, I'd ask for Lapinject next time and see if there is a reaction, there's no way I'd risk not having my (healthy) buns vaccinated unless there was certain risk of severe problems, I look on it as a choice - bun dies a horrible death or suffers a reaction for a few days.

Adventures is my rabbit and she's a wild cottontail i saved from my cat. I had her vaccinated for calicivirus and she got a huge cyst immediately after the jab which went down slowly over the next few hours. The next day she was inactive, wouldnt eat and had a temperature. She had a huge swelling where she got the jab which was fire engine red. I took her to the vet and he gave me anti-inflammatory drugs and pain killers for her. my other rabbit is a dwarf lop and he was fine. Now a week later all the skin has peeled away and is scabby and sore. I thought she was just biting but the skin actually broke down and died because of the swelling. the vet said she'd be fine but also that he hasn't seen this reaction before.
I should note that I'm in Australia and thus my vaccine may be slightly different here to account for natural mutations in the disease.
I'm just worried about what happens when i need to get her booster vaccine next year