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Ksom

Ksom

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2013
Messages
12
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Location
Scotland, UK
Hi everyone,

I'm Karen and I'm a first time rabbit owner. This October I got Rosie and Jim (Anyone remember the 1990s kid's TV show "Rosie and Jim"?)from a local rescue centre where they'd been for nearly a year, surprising as to me they were the cutest!

I have no idea where they came from originally, their ages or breeds. Both are neutered/vaccinated. And both have lop ears. Jim's a big, REW, friendly and adventurous. He climbs on anything, no matter how high!

Rosie is smaller, black with a long fringe. She's rather timid. She squirmed so much the vet needed a nurse to hold he down to trim her nails. In the last few weeks she has allowed me to stroke her head and back, but she still runs away from anyone else.



I'm not sure if this is the right place for this but Rosie has a problem:

She's going bald in places. When we got their nails cut, the vet looked at the bald spot on the back of Rosie's neck - she said the skin looked pink and healthy, but to watch if it gets bigger. Now it's bigger, and now I've noticed another bald spot on her underside too - only visible when she twists round to clean herself.

She is still eating and drinking and pooping and running and sleeping and washing her face and being cute - no change to anything else, just wee baldy bits! So I made a vets appointment for later today.

Sorry for the massively long post! I'd appreciate it if anyone else has had problems with bald spots in the past, could you let me know your outcome? Is it common? I'm new to this and I'm a terrible worrier...

Thanks, Karen x
 
Hi and welcome to RO!

I have no experience with the issue but hopefully someone will come along that may have some idea.

Are your two buns bonded and spend time together? I ask because I wonder if it is possible that your male bun is just over grooming the female a bit.
 
Welcome to RO! Scotland's one of my favorite places. What part of Scotland are you in?

I take groups of American Boy Scouts to the Blair Atholl Jamborette at Blair Castle every even numbered year - I'll be back again for the tenth time next summer - and I love the country. I posted pictures from my trips in 2010 and 2012 to the Camera Corner forum, which I'm the moderator for - you can find them at http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f72/what-i-did-summer-photographically-70376/ and http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f72/what-i-did-my-2010-summer-vacation-photographically-56078/

As to your question on Rosie's bald spots, is it possible that Jim is over-grooming her? I have heard of that happening, where one of the bonded rabbits gets a bit overenthusiastic about grooming. My own bunny, Natasha Rabbitova, has been doing that with her companion, Butter - but luckily, Butter's a stuffie, so the damage can be repaired by needle and thread. Not quite so easy with real rabbits, but perhaps the vet can suggest something.
 
If you see a flaky, soap like substance and part of the area is red around the edge that would be a bacterial problem. Over grooming is another possibility. We had a male mini Rex that got a bald spot on the back of his neck every spring for 4 years, for no apparent reason. Sometimes you need a crystal ball, but, mine's in the shop. Welcome to the forum, too.
 
Sounds as if the male over grooms her, my male dwarf did that to my female. I gave them more things to play and climb on and he stopped over grooming
 
Welcome! Poor bunnies... I can't believe they were there for a year. I imagine they'd given up on ever finding a good forever home - what a surprise it must've been when you came along!
 
Thank you for all your replies!

I watch them a lot (their room has a glass door) and they don't seem to groom each other... They do have lots of space (8ft by 4ft) and things to play with/climb on. Plus I let them out every day to run around the room/the hall. She does run around when she's out. She does groom herself a lot, but she couldn't reach the back of her head, and it doesn't look licked, but the vet said her underside does look like she licks it.

My Mum took Rosie to the vet again yesterday and she looked at her fur under a microscope and definitely no bugs. That's a relief, but frustrating! The skin in healthy, pink and with no crusty bits or redness. The vet wondered if she's rubbing against something, so we removed the plywood house that they never go in any more and their log.

A friend told me about someone's cat that got bald bits just like Rosie when she had an allergy to her dry food. My Mum said to give it a few days to see if she gets better with out things to rub against first. I found an article saying that grains that cause allergies in humans can do the same to rabbits? Has anyone got any experience of that actually happening to rabbits???

I give them half a cup of Chudley's rabbit pellets between them once a day. They have Timothy hay, and some grass and brassica leaves from the garden - pesticide free.

Thank you all,
Karen x
 
MikeScone said:
Welcome to RO! Scotland's one of my favorite places. What part of Scotland are you in?

I take groups of American Boy Scouts to the Blair Atholl Jamborette at Blair Castle every even numbered year - I'll be back again for the tenth time next summer - and I love the country. I posted pictures from my trips in 2010 and 2012 to the Camera Corner forum, which I'm the moderator for - you can find them at http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f72/what-i-did-summer-photographically-70376/ and http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f72/what-i-did-my-2010-summer-vacation-photographically-56078/

As to your question on Rosie's bald spots, is it possible that Jim is over-grooming her? I have heard of that happening, where one of the bonded rabbits gets a bit overenthusiastic about grooming. My own bunny, Natasha Rabbitova, has been doing that with her companion, Butter - but luckily, Butter's a stuffie, so the damage can be repaired by needle and thread. Not quite so easy with real rabbits, but perhaps the vet can suggest something.
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Hello Mike,
When my brother was a Scout, 7ish years ago, he went to Blair Atholl! My whole family went up to visit them. He brought home a Texan scout and one from Iceland to come and stay with us for 4 days afterwards. The Scouts are fantastic, I was always so jealous of Neil, he got to go skiing in Sweden and he went to Japan just days after Blair Atholl - leaving behind the 2 boys he'd brought home for us to entertain! We have some great memories from back then.

We live in Fife, in the countryside. I love Scotland too, but I'm biased! :)
Karen x
 
MikeScone said:
That would be 2006, then. You might find his picture (or yours, at the Country Fair) on my 2006 gallery - http://www.bpmlegal.com/scotland/2006/gallery1.html
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Thank you so much! My mum just looked out my brother's scout shirt and it does have the badge for 2006! Those photos bring back so many memories, it's funny the things that stay with you - didn't recognise anyone though. We must have photos somewhere too...
Kx
 
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