The Situation: Snot on new rabbit
Snot and Rabbits
Anyways, here is what I know about snot.
1. snot means an immunlogically challenged rabbit.
2. snot comes in different colours. Yellow tends to mean pneumonia. White tends to mean pasturella. Clear tends to mean something odd is going on... ingrown tooth, hay up the nose, dust in the air/hay etc.
3. snot means you have a problem.
How to handle it
How you deal with snot depends on your animal husbandry choices.
Some folks see snot and isolate, then culture to know what they are dealing with and then make a decision based on that culture as to the best approach with that animal. Bordatella is fairly treatable, Pneumonia is often a death sentence, pasturella...can be treated, but tends to be out of the price range of most rabbit enthusiasts, so the prognosis for pasturella is NOT good. This waiting has it pros and cons. Cons: Keeps the infective rabbit around which is a herd health risk. Pros...if it is treatable then YEAH!!! you get to save a rabbit.
Other folks have a relatively simple approach, blow snot, die. Solves the problem immediately. Keeps your herd safe. People who follow this reasoning take the long-term view of their rabbitry. It is better to cull one unhealthy animal immediately than it is to risk the entire rabbitry. Pro:immediate solving of problem. Con: what if it was treatable?
When a rabbit has clear snot it's a harder one to figure out. Is it an irritant? Is it a tooth issue? If an irritant ..remove the irritant, solve the problem. But what if it's just a precursor to a larger problem???? What if it's just one rabbit? What if it's several rabbits? It's a harder one to figure and how you handle it depends on your perspective in raising rabbits.
The long term view point
White snot tends to mean pasturella. Pasturella is a NASTY bug. it can cripple rabbits, causes major breathing issues, cause seizures, slow growth, cause abcesses and a whole host of other issues. It can be hiding right in plain sight (as in you don't know your rabbits have it until a doe kindles or a teenage rabbit moves from one home to another), it can be painfully obvious in that you have a rabbit blow snot, or have messy front legs. It can be culling a rabbit for the freezer and finding white globs in the lungs...even though for intents and purposes that rabbit looked and acted healthy. It is wide spread.
SO the long term view point rabbit keeper says... Cull dead the obvious immediately. The does...if they seem fine but their kids all blow snot... cull the doe. If the buck seems fine but the doe he was with blows snot upon kindling, cull the buck (and the doe of course). Cull hard, and be mentally tough because in the LONG RUN it will be the better for your herd.
What else does this mean?
If you have ONE rabbit running clear snot and you know it's a hay dust allergy but ALL your other rabbits are fine...DO NOT breed that rabbit. DO NOT sell that rabbit as a pet unless you neuter it first. Just don't do that. Why would you want to breed weakness into your lines? This goes for any other issue: seizures, bad teeth, weepy eyes, poor hocks, breeding problems, slow growth etc.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS breed for health. Not for looks, type, colour, breed lines, temperament or anything. Breed for health FIRST. Doesn't mean the other qualities aren't important, but if you don't have health...you don't really have a rabbit worth breeding.
And don't take it too hard if one rabbit you sell ends up showing a health fault. It shows you something about your herd. It gives you a chance to practice good animal husbandry. It doesn't mean that you are a horrible breeder (unless you knew of this problem ahead of time and said nothing to the buyer). It just means that one of your rabbits showed a hidden illness. You can offer the buyer a replacement. Do make sure the buyer is aware of your health policy before buying.