Ear flakes; maybe mites?

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tamsenmc

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Location
Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
I'll post the info asked for in the sticky first.

IMMEDIATE INFORMATION:


Location: Fairbanks, AK; inside rabbit

Description (Breed, color, weight): Mini-rex? Black & White; Don't know weight, but healthy by vet standards.

Age: Going on 2 years.

Sex: Male

Concise Summary of the Rabbit's Condition:
Ears are flaking and sometimes will bleed a little when they flake apart. It has been going on for about four months and getting worse.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION / CHECK LIST: (Please fill in relevant info).

Fecal and Urinary Output

- are the bunny's poops and pees normal? Yes
- when did they last use their litterbox? Today
- any unusual behavior? straining to pee? unusual litter habits? Nothing unusual
- what litter and/or bedding do you use? Carefresh and ripped up clothing.

Medical History

- spayed/neutered? Neutered
- has s/he been to the vet or been sick before? Yes
- is s/he on any medications? No

Diet

- what specifically does your bunny eat? Timothy hay and food pellets made of timothy hay.
- when and what did s/he eat last? Today
- any changes in the way s/he eats? (ie: not eating a particular food, odd chewing motions, etc) No changes


Other

- movement - any unusual movements? Is s/he hopping normally? Normal movement
- is the rabbit molting? Currently molting (at least, that's what we assume...this is the first time we've seen it and the vet wasn't sure what was going on).
- any weight loss? No
- any sign of drooling? wet face? No
- runny eyes? Maybe a little extra gunk, but otherwise normal.
- wet nose? coughing? sneezing? No
- is s/he breathing normally Yes

Additional

- any plants, chocolate or other substances within reach? No
- has the rabbit been outdoors? Once in snow in December.
- any other pets? if so, have they been ill? Dog and cats at beginning of symptoms. Now rats and a cat. No illnesses.


Full description:
My rabbit, roq'ta, has been in and out of the vet's quite a bit lately. He had an abscess in his face in December, which he got antibiotics for. I pointed out the ear flaking, but the vet didn't know what it was. She took a sample and looked at it under the microscope, but found nothing.

When he was better from the abscess, I had him neutered. I think he hurt one of his feet while he was in their care, so he got some antibiotics and we put some cream on his foot.

He was out at the same time with the rats while my boyfriend was cleaning their cages. The rats seem to be attracted to the scent of the cream and nibbled on his foot, so he got some more antibiotics.

He also started losing clumps of hair. The vet didn't know what was causing it. After looking around at various sites on the Internet, I suggested that it might just be molting; either stress induced, or temperature induced (we had our fifth coldest January and our bedroom can get pretty chilly), or maybe both. He has nice fur growing in, so I think it's safe to say it is only molting and not something else bad.

A little over a month ago, when he was getting antibiotics for his foot, they took a sample for a fungal culture (and did a microscope check again; still found nothing). The results recently came back negative. I've been putting some anti-fungal medicine on his ears that I was given in the meantime. It doesn't appear to have helped, which is not surprising since the test came back negative.

I talked with the vet and she said her next guess would be a vitamin deficiency, but she doesn't really know what is going on. She said she would try to find more information about this kind of thing and to give her a call next week if she doesn't get back to me by Friday.

The ear flaking started as a small spot on one ear (around November, I believe) and has progressed to multiple spots on the edges of both his ears. The base of his tail also seems to be doing something similar. My best guess is mites, but it doesn't appear typical as far as what I've found on the Internet. The vet hasn't found any mites any of the times she's looked. If treating for mites won't hurt him, I was thinking we'd try that next.


These aren't the best pictures, but hopefully you can see it well enough. I'm not sure if the last one uploaded properly.

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If someone can give me some advice based on these pictures and my description, I would really appreciate it.
 
Rabbit Health in the 21st Century says that fur mites [cheyletiella] are hard to see on rabbits, that they can't always be seen under a microscope. Besides flakiness, symptoms are thinning hair on middle of the back & shoulders, & itching. Ivermectin is recommended daily for 10days-2 weeks.

I hope with all the antibiotics, roq'ta has gotten probiotics afterwards, to restore the necessary good bacteria.
 
It is true that a lot of the mites cannot be seen under the microscope. This looks more like the mange mite, which she could have picked up from the other pets or anywhere. I'd have all the pets treated, whether they are showing symptoms or not.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/Mange/Sarcoptes.htm

Weird shedding from the tips of the ears happens sometimes, but is never accompanied by skin cracking or bleeding. My Tony gets it, but I don't think it's what your bunny has based on the pic:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Molting/Ear/Shedding_ear.htm

The traditional ear mite of rabbits starts inside the ear, not at the tips.

I would try treating for mites before looking to a vitamin deficiency. Another possibility is fungal infection (ringworm) or poor blood flow to the ears. Poor blood flow often looks like frostbite, in which chunks of the ear tips come off, but it has to be quite cold for frostbite to occur and usually there is no bleeding.

Finally remember that ivermectin is not ok for dutch, vienna, or blue-eyed rabbits. They have a susceptibility to it that is akin to what collies have and it is very dangerous.
 
LakeCondo wrote:
Rabbit Health in the 21st Century says that fur mites [cheyletiella] are hard to see on rabbits, that they can't always be seen under a microscope. Besides flakiness, symptoms are thinning hair on middle of the back & shoulders, & itching. Ivermectin is recommended daily for 10days-2 weeks.

I hope with all the antibiotics, roq'ta has gotten probiotics afterwards, to restore the necessary good bacteria.
He does have thinning on the bottom of his ears and back of his head. I haven't noticed much itching, but I have been wondering if he has just been having a milder case. I'll talk to the vet about Ivermectin.

He's had Enrofloxacin by mouth and another antibiotic that was injected. The vet said that the kind we had injected could not be given orally because of the destruction of the good bacteria. Do you think it is still necessary to give him some probiotics? It's been 2-3 weeks since his last dose of Enrofloxacin.

tonyshuman wrote:
It is true that a lot of the mites cannot be seen under the microscope. This looks more like the mange mite, which she could have picked up from the other pets or anywhere. I'd have all the pets treated, whether they are showing symptoms or not.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/Mange/Sarcoptes.htm

Weird shedding from the tips of the ears happens sometimes, but is never accompanied by skin cracking or bleeding. My Tony gets it, but I don't think it's what your bunny has based on the pic:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Molting/Ear/Shedding_ear.htm

The traditional ear mite of rabbits starts inside the ear, not at the tips.

I would try treating for mites before looking to a vitamin deficiency. Another possibility is fungal infection (ringworm) or poor blood flow to the ears. Poor blood flow often looks like frostbite, in which chunks of the ear tips come off, but it has to be quite cold for frostbite to occur and usually there is no bleeding.

Finally remember that ivermectin is not ok for dutch, vienna, or blue-eyed rabbits. They have a susceptibility to it that is akin to what collies have and it is very dangerous.
Mites are not usually an issue here. The climate is pretty unforgiving for them. Where we live now, we have one cat that had ear mites when we got him (this is long after roq'ta's problem started), but we were warned he probably had ear mites. He was treated immediately and just got a second dose of Revolution yesterday.

Do you think I should still look into having the rats treated?

They did a fungal culture and found nothing. The fungal medicine we had for him doesn't seem to have helped either, so I am leaning towards the possibility of mites.

He seems to be losing fur and the skin is getting crusty and flaking, but he's not losing actual chunks of ear. He definitely doesn't get cold enough for frostbite. He sleeps by us, so we'd freeze along with him.

He is not dutch, vienna, or blue-eyed, so I will go ahead with talking to my vet about Ivermectin.



Thank you both for the advice!
 
Injected antibiotics will get into the bloodstream & then into the digestive system, so will kill good bacteria, though maybe not as thoroughly as ingested antibiotics. And probiotics can do no harm.

Really, all pets that come into contact with each other should be treated at about the same time. Otherwise the mites [or anything communicable, for that matter] will just go round & round from one animal to the other.
 
Would I be able to find probiotics at any pet store or from a vet, or is that something I may need to order online?

The rats shouldn't come into direct contact with roq'ta again, not after they nibbled on his foot, but they do get the opportunity to climb over his cage, so I will look into mite stuff for them as well.

Thanks. :)
 
I think most people would recommend benebac, but because rabbits' digestion is so different from cats' or dogs' digestion, I'm not sure how much it helps. Benebac for horses might be better, as horses' digestion is like rabbits in that it takes place past the stomach. But what I think is better is a human probiotic called Longest Living Acidophilus by futurebiotics which I got from vitacost.com. The capsules are easy to open & I just sprinkle some of the powder into Honey's water.
 
The vet gave me two treatments of revolution. He got the first one Friday and will get the second three weeks from then.

If it is mites, how long is it likely to take before I see a marked improvement?
 

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