Ear wax or mites?

[CCWelch]

I noticed Thumper my ?? age mini lop (He is a rescue) shaking his head a lot today so I checked his ears. He has yellowish stuff that looks like earwax in there and some flakiness like dry ears. I pulled some out and put it under the microscope and saw no evidence of mites.

1) could it still be mites?

2)if it is earwax how do I clean it out on a lop? On a regular up ear rabbit we use a syringe with warm water then swab it out and let them shake their head to get it out the rest of the way. I don't think that would work on a lop because his ears touch the table, he would damage his ears.

3) I asked my rabbit savvy vet and she isn't sure about cleaning his ears either. She thought swab it out and put a drop or 2 of alcohol in to displace the water...I am thinking ouch.

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

When my Holland lop (Jelly) had mites, I just swabbed it with Mineral oilfor several days, and it cleared right up. It wasn't too bad of a case with her ( like I don't know how her mites were compared to your bunny's) but I'd think that would work. Some say to use a dropper, but then it seems to drive them crazy rather than swabbing it on.

 

[kirbyultra]

CCWelch wrote:

She thought swab it out and put a drop or 2 of alcohol in to displace the water...I am thinking ouch.

I don't know what you'd do for a lop to try to remedy this, but I honestly would ask my vet for kitten dose of Revolution to take care of ear mites. The problem resolves itself painlessly after dosing and the flakes of mite junk would simply detach and fall off on its own. Pulling the flakes off, if it is ear mites, is extremely painful for the rabbit. Alcohol would burn like crazy. We had a case of ear mites with one of our shelter buns. The vet on duty that day apparently didn't know any better and swabbed the ears with alcohol and the normally very sweet and docile rabbit violently fought against it, then refused to be held down for the rest of the "procedure". I would not recommend doing this.

 

[slavetoabunny]

This is a great device for cleaning ears. A couple of friends of mine that have disabled buns use it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007916PW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Sweetie]

I would get kitten revolution and dose the rabbit with it. It will take care of the mites like everyone says that it does.

 

[CCWelch]

After we get through this cold night I will check with the vet for some, he seems to be ok right now after I cleaned his ears out with some peroxide on a q-tip, then I put in some organic lavender essential oil(calms the inflammation and promotes faster healing)