148 PRACTICAL RABBIT KEEPING 



and chronic disease. In any rabbitry where 

 the animals are heard to be continually sneez- 

 ing and are to be seen rubbing their noses with 

 their paws, trouble of this kind is to be sus- 

 pected. One should go slow in buying rabbits 

 from such a place. There is a constant dis- 

 charge of mucous which is carried to the feet 

 and causes the hair to become badly matted 

 and wet. 



The first step towards a cure is to keep the 

 animals in the open air. Indeed, snuffles is 

 not likely to develop where the ventilation is 

 perfect, unless the hutches set on the ground 

 or become damp from some other cause. The 

 writer once had a large number of young ani- 

 mals kept indoors afflicted with snuffles. Al- 

 though it was winter, he fenced in a consider- 

 able piece of ground outside, provided large 

 boxes filled with straw for the animals to 

 burrow in, and turned the rabbits loose in this 

 enclosure. Withm a few weeks, all of the 

 trouble had disappeared, and the rabbits were 

 as frisky and as happy as a rabbit well can be 

 There is this to remember, that snuffles, while 

 easily eradicated at the start, is very hard to 

 get rid of after it becomes well established. 



