Healing myxomatosis? Possible?

I probably won't have the time to check replies until next week end, but I have something to ask you guys.

There are two users on the hamster forum I go to who claim to have healed their rabbits from myxomatosis, by cleaning out the pus from the eyes and the nose daily...
To my knowledge rabbits die from myxomatosis because of the abscesses and small tumors, and the red eyes were just a first symptome?
I was sure I read that there is no cure for myxo, could it be that their rabbits didn't have that and instead had convonctivitis or an infection of somekind?
Or is it actually possible to cure it?
Here is a video one of the users posted of their rabbit being "cured":

As far as I know, Myxi is a disease which kills an unvaccinated - and often a vaccinated - rabbit. If it were as simple as cleaning out the rabbit's eyes, I am sure that vets would do that!

I think that these rabbits perhaps didn't have myxi. However, I would NEVER recommend doing anything along those lines unless expressly recommended to do so by a vet. Just cleaning their eyes gently with sterile water would relieve them a little, but it does absolutely nothing to my mind, to stop the process of the illness itself.

I think letting people have the idea that myxi can be controlled in such a fashion is dangerous. The only security you can have is that you have your rabbit vaccinated regularly and properly and even then they can contract the nodular form of myxi which can be a serious illness, and this year, even a few vaccinated rabbits have died.

I totally agree with what Nickie has said

I have sent a link to this post to my vets and will report back if they respond.
Jan

As I understand it, if you spot you bun has Myxi whilst it is in the very early stages then it can be treated. This involves eye bathes along with anti-biotics to prevent secondary infection. But this only works for mild cases. For more aggressive cases euthanasia is advised. The pus from the eyes is highly infectious and so needs to be carefully removed and disposed of. I think it is the case that whilst a few survive most buns with myxi die.

There is a bit about Myxi and it's treatment at medirabbit here

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Viral_diseases/Myxo/Myxo.htm

And a sticky here

https://happyhoppers.forumotion.co.uk/t33-myxomatosis-the-importance-of-vaccination

Karl Collins, MVB MRCVS, Old Stone Vets, Alston, Cumbria says this: "Cleaning rabbits eyes and nose every day for any upper respiratory tract (URT) infection is always beneficial. There are many types of bacteria that can cause URT infections and as such the hygiene procedures mentioned as well as vet prescribed antibitoics +/- anti inflammatories in conjunction with extra husbandry & attention to the individual patient can be mostly succesful in treating URT infections of bacterial nature in rabbits. In Myxomatosis however, we have a very virulent viral invasion of the body that not only affectes the upper respiratory tract of rabbits, but also the internal organs and the genetalia externally. Purely cleaning eyes and nose will NOT cure myxomatosis. There is no recognised cure for this nasty virus as yet in rabbits but efforts are ongoing in research to find a way. Vaccination to prevent your rabbit contracting the disease OR complete 100% separation and isolation from any source of the virus will help keep spread to a minimum".
Karl gave me permission to post this quote.

Poor bun

I wonder how long it was kept alive like that.

There are always biological anomalies with living beings. When Myxi was introduced 99.9% of rabbits died. The 0.1% survived it, and went on to breed, sending those genes with them. If the same strain of Myxi were introduced now, it's beleived that only 60% would die, as the rest have a resistance, so yes, it's possible, but very unlikley.

But whatever it is, that is not the cure for Myxi, as Karl Collins has confrimed ( )

There's a whole tribe in Africa that are absolutely immune from HIV - it's bizarre.

aww poor bunny

I saw a wildie with Myxo yesterday sitting (blind) by the roadside Normally I would have necked it, but I can't risk touching it with Stewie at home, so I just had to leave it - I felt so awful about it