Donations Needed – RHDV2 Biosecurity Measures

We are currently looking for donations for help cover the additional RHDV2 biosecurity measures that we’ve taken at the shelter. We’ve had to buy a lot of new equipment and other items not normally purchased to prevent the virus from entering the shelter.

Thanks to our wonderful volunteers and Bunny Boutique shoppers, HRRN is doing better than a lot of other nonprofits out there. But we’ve still taken a big hit financially. The RHDV2 virus is highly contagious and only affects wild and domestic rabbits, but it does so with devastating consequences. With housing anywhere from 150+ rabbits at any given time at our shelter, we are currently planning and implementing new shelter protocols to keep our shelter bunnies as safe as possible.

We are asking for donations to help us obtain two new quarantine/isolation cages for the shelter. These isolation cages will allow us to isolate incoming rabbits (especially strays) as we don’t know what they might have come into contact with. The rabbits would likely stay in these cages for up to a month, depending on their history. We are even considering building a separate intake area or building at the shelter as this is a highly transmissible disease and it’s essential to separate intakes physically from the shelter buns, store traffic, adoptions, etc – although once they are vaccinated they will be “safer”.

For those interested, these are two of the potential cages we are looking at – we would likely need something to completely contain the rabbit and their pee and poop (full front glass). These cages are not cheap -a 2 stack starts at $2500.
ISO-Care™ Quarantine Cages
Northgate Veterinary Supply – ISOCAGE – Portable Multi-Use Isolation Cage

Along with need donations for isolation cages, we are also using the donation pool to help us cover the cost of having all the shelter bunnies receive the RHDV2 vaccine. Our friends over at White Rock Animal Hospital have actively worked toward getting multi-dose vials to vaccinate all the shelter buns, which we all appreciate.

Donations will be going through our GiveGab page (hosts of Amplify Austin and #GivingTuesday). Click the Donate Button below to help out. Thank you!