Poisonous for rabbits?
Stefaan Cottenier
I'm not a regular subscriber to any of the newsgroups at which this
message is sent, but I have a question which some of you might be able
to answer. Sorry if not all the groups I selected are appropriate.
Recently, our pet rabbit which we loved a lot unexpectedly died. It was
very quiet for some hours, then started bleeding through eyes and nose,
and finally heavily vomitted blood. According to our veterinarian it was
an accute case of poisoning. We are searching the reason of the
poisoning now. The only uncommon feature we can think of is that we put
quite of lot of a soecific kind of Sweet Pea (Lathyrus latifolius) on
the bottom of his cage a few days before this happened. He eat this
often before when he was out of the cage, and he liked it. Therefore, we
did not - and still do not - think Lathyrus latifolius could be
harmfull. But it is the only possibility we can think of. Maybe the
seeds are poisonous? Can someone give a definite answer to this?
As I said, I'm not used to the newsgroups at which this message is sent.
A copy of an answer by e-mail would therefore be a lot of help.
Many thanks to all of you,
Stefaan Cottenier & Ann Nuttin
e-mail: Stefaan....@fys.kuleuven.ac.be
Hillary Israeli
Stefaan Cottenier <Stefaan....@fys.kuleuven.ac.be> wrote:
*Dear all,
*
*I'm not a regular subscriber to any of the newsgroups at which this
*message is sent, but I have a question which some of you might be able
*to answer. Sorry if not all the groups I selected are appropriate.
*
*Recently, our pet rabbit which we loved a lot unexpectedly died. It was
*very quiet for some hours, then started bleeding through eyes and nose,
*and finally heavily vomitted blood. According to our veterinarian it was
*an accute case of poisoning. We are searching the reason of the
*poisoning now. The only uncommon feature we can think of is that we put
You should ask your veterinarian to find out if you have rabbit
calicivirus in Belgium. That disease will cause massive hemorrhage. There
is, IIRC, a vaccine against it.
*quite of lot of a soecific kind of Sweet Pea (Lathyrus latifolius)
Well, that isn't in any of my poisonous plant lists, but that doesn't mean
it isn't toxic to rabbits for sure. I don't know. I doubt it, though. Any
chance your rabbit could have gotten some rat or mouse poison? Aspirin
overdose?
--
hillary israeli http://www.hillary.net in...@hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
upenn school of vet med class of 2000
Stefaan Cottenier
We thank all people (>10) who answered us by e-mail. The most complete answer
has been given by Donald Haarmann, and we copied it here below. Indeed, the
seeds of the Sweet Pea Lathyrus latifolius are very toxic. We will make sure
this will never happen to our rabbits again!
Many thanks,
Ann Nuttin
Stefaan Cottenier
(Scanned text, some words may be corrupted)
JM Kingsbury
Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada
Prentice-Hall 1964
Toxic Species Of Lathyrus
SPECIES
Lathyrus hirsutits L.
Lathyrus latifolius L. 927. <<<<===============
Lathyrus odoratits L.
Lathyrus pi(silhis Ell.
Lathyrus sphacricus Retz. (?)
Lath ' j,riis yplendens Kellogg
Lathyrus striclus Nutt.
Lathyrus sylvestris L.
Lathyrits tingilanus L.
Lewis, H. B., and A. R. Schulert. Experimental Lathyrism in the
White Rat and Mouse.
Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. and Med., 71: 440. 1949.
Species of Lathyrus which have been shown toxic in experiments using
laboratory animals are listed in the accompanying table, These species
have been divided into two groups on the basis of symptoms produced in
rats (463,910, 1076, 1419). The seeds of one group (species sylvestris,
splendens, and latifolius; decreasing toxicity in the order named) are
highly toxic. In sylvestris and latifolius, they produce characteristic
nervous symptoms of hyperexcitability, convulsions, and death
without skeletal lesions. The seeds of the remaining species (tingitanus,
strictits, odoratus, hirsutus, and pusillits; decreasing toxicity in
the order named, except for the last) are less toxic and produce
lameness, paralysis, and skeletal deformity. It was postulated ( 1419)
that death supervened before skeletal deformity could appear in the
case of the high toxicity of the first group, but it now appears that
two different toxic compounds are involved ( 1076, 1332,1333).
The substance in Latryus sylvestris and L. latifolius which produces
nervous symptoms of hyperxcitability, convulsions, and death without
skeletal lesions is L-alpha,gamma-diaminobutyric acid (1332, 1333). It
has been proposed (1333) that L-alpha,gamma-diaminobutyric acid and
beta- aminopropi oni tril c, the skeleton-deforming principle in other
species, are biosynthetically related to the same precursor,
beta-cyano-L-alanine, itself a dehydration product Of L-asparagine.
Beta-cyano-L-alanine has been detected in physiologically significant
amounts in the seeds of two species of another closely related legume
(Vicia sativa L. and V.angustifolia L.) ( 1333). This compound also is
toxic, producing symptoms similar to the hyperexcitability syndrome of
Lathyrus poisoning.
1333. Ressler, C., P. A. Redstone, and R. H. Erenberg. Isolation and
Identification of a Neuroactive Factor from Lathyrus latifolius.
Science, 134: 188.
1961.