White Ear Flakes/Scales

So Wrangler has always had somewhat dry ears for the most part. The vets were never concerned. But since my bun has started seriously molting this season the dry flakes have become more prominent. Please tell me these flakes are not mites (they do not appear to be moving). His inner ears look almost like scales in appearance and if I rub my finger back and forth over his ear flakes and hair fly off. View attachment ImageUploadedByRabbit Forum1429226790.893429.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByRabbit Forum1429226804.359263.jpg

I'm not sure but I had a rabbit with flakey ears and the answer was -- sunburn. She was always laying in the sun and I had to move the position of her cage so she couldn't lay out in the sun so much.

My bun does not go outside...but thank you for the response.

The vet would be able to take a skin scrape and tell you if he has ear mites or possibly a fungal infection.

I would be tempted just to put some olive oil on it to see if that helps. People say it will suffocate ear mites and it might help with the flakiness even if their aren't ear mites. If it is ear mites you would probably want to treat with something stronger though like Revolution (not frontline because that kills rabbits).

There is a kind of mite that doesn't make the skin red, and eats just the hair and makes flakes, but it usually shows up on the back of the neck behind the ears, not on the ear surface like yours. Might be easiest just to go to the vet and get the scraping like majorv says.

Hmm I have never heard of applying olive oil. Interesting. I am assuming that it won't make my bun sick if he licks it? I would like to apply some sort of topical to see if it would improve. Buns are just so delicate though and I wouldn't want to apply a topical that would make him sick.

He is molting terribly and it makes me wonder if the flakes are associated with the molt. The flakes are located on the ears only. If it doesn't improve I most certainly will take him to the vet.

If it were dandruff then you'd only have some flakes. The scaly skin on the inside of the ears makes me think there may be something else going on. I've heard of using mineral oil in the ears for mites...haven't heard of using olive oil. Revolution is typically used for mites.

We used olive oil on one if our buns every other day for about 2.5 weeks. The dry scales are completely gone. Some people rub oil on the inside of ears once a week when grooming their bunnies. Hope this helps.

My buns had the exact same thing, 1 was lying in the sun too much, 3 were just dry skin~dandruff I knew they were not mites as the rest would have them too

The flakes have subsided since he ended his molt which makes me think it was dry skin.