Help with flakey fur

[HarveyH]

Hi Can anyone advise regading our 11 year old lop eared rabbit Harvey. He is losing his fur on the back of his neck/back and his skin is extremley flaky. He is very old and a bit doddery and Im scared a trip to the vet may be too stressful for him. Does anyone know of any alternative treatments I could try other than antibiotics from Vet?
Thanks

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

It sounds like it could be fur mites. These are pretty easy to treat, but it is a good idea to go to a vet. Some vets will do house calls, so you can try asking about that. They usually won't prescribe medication without seeing the rabbit and getting an accurate weight.
Mites are contagious to other rabbits, so if you have other rabbits it is best to separate them and wash your hands after handing him. Changing clothes after holding him is a good idea too.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I'm with Kate, my first thought was mites as well. When my girl had flaky skin on the back of her neck, it was mites. She and our other bunny (only had 2 at the time) were both treated with some cat/dog ointment. Can't remember which medication it was though and I would not want to lead you astray, bun needs something prescribed by a vet Good news though is that the mites went away with 1 treatment, no problem!

Are there any other signs? I know this sounds gross, but... one of the big signs my girl had mites was that they were biting ME. I held her a lot and they would get on me and chomp. Very itchy! My husband didn't really handle her and they never bit him. Mites can't live on humans though (or at least not the kinds bunnies have) and they stopped biting me within a couple days of her being on the meds. It actually firs occurred to me that my girl may have mites when I realized I was being bitten by something. Her flaky skin wasn't all that noticeable at a casual glance, but it was there.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Sounds like ring worm. Is there a lot of white flaky bits that feel kind of soapy? We had two out of our six with symptoms like you're describing--treated them for ringworm and all is well. We sanitized the whole room too.