Consider both husbandry and veterinary issues, of which rhinos have a few.



All WC rhinos and a number of the CB rhinos that I have looked at have been parasitized, in some cases quite heavily. You want both a fecal float and a direct smear to check for amoebas as well as oocysts, and a tracheal wash is also strongly advised with this species. It's not unusual to see hookworms, lungworms and Entamoeba in a single animal. Identify what parasites the animal has and treat accordingly, repeating the dosages every week or so until you get a clean fecal. Wait a few months and check fecal and tracheal again.



If you do not have free access to a microscope, the second best guess is to shotgun with Panacur and Flagyl, 50 mg/kg on each, repeat in 3-4 days, repeat again in 7 days. Get a vet to check fecal and tracheal at this point. If the tracheal shows Rhabdias, you have a problem you will need to discuss. Ivermectin IM at 0.2 mg/kg repeated once in 7 to 14 days supplemented by good hydration and support antibiotics (nebulization with Amikacin) is a reasonable protocol for nematode lungworms that successfully ignore fenbendazole. I would be hesitant to give Ivermectin unless it was clear that this was an appropriate treatment; it's not something I shotgun with because of potential toxicity issues. Also don't fool around on drug dosages by yourself unless you are very sure you know how to compute them correctly.



Husbandry can also be a pain in the rear; they may not drink from a bowl voluntarily and can die of dehydration with a full waterbowl. If you keep them too dry they can have hydration problems, if you keep them too wet they can run into skin problems.



Other than that, they are not hard to get feeding and do fine if you can get them cleaned up.

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