This problem was misdiagnosed over 4months ago- she had an itchy ear & I took her to my rabbit vet, she couldn't see any mites so popped her on baytrill as she found bacteria in a swab. The ears didn't really stop itching afterwards and I felt it didn't do anything but make her condition worse! As soon as Baytrill finished she started loosing heaps of fur around her legs and lady bits n it also produces a waxy film on top, this then proceeded to loosing hair on her body in patches and the hair became really course! Took her back to previous vet and was told it was a dermatitis & to wash her bum with Malaseb- the Malaseb worked and hair grew back but them after a couple of weeks would start thinning out again.
I decided to change vets! I took her to see Laura an expat Pom who wanted to specialize in rabbits. By this point Coco had an ear infection- Laura did swabs and sent them off to the lab and found out they grew two types of bacteria very aggressively- she popped coco on an non steroidal ear drop antibiotic & this cleared her up!! She then said let's treat her for mites- I thought no thats unnecessary as Coco had been checked by 4 vets by then and no mites to be seen- she said she researched a lot for Coco and a couple of pictures caught her eye as they looked exactly like Cocos ear- we treated Coco and her brother & dad and literally within 2days hair started growing back!!! Laura was right!! After about 2weeks the symptoms started to arise again and by 3 weeks we treated her again- it wasn't as quick to respond but it was ok and not getting worse- it's been nearly 2weeks and I feel I need to treat her again- her skin around her genitals is going red and loosing hair plus on her neck area I found a small spot with Dandruff on- vet thinks she may have pickup another type of mite: but here is my plan & Laura the vet agrees:
I need to clear out the bunny play area shed- it's carpeted and the mites obviously live in there now to I'm also getting rid of the soft beds and toys, washing all her bedding again and putting it through a hit dryer! I'm getting my hay from a previous supplier as we feel the mites may have come on one of my bales I got from a farm! And treat Coco & my other buns Now and again in 2weeks with Selamectin. It's getting really cold here in NZ now so hopefully those little annoying buggers die from cold and leave my poor puffy alone!!!!!!!
I groom coco twice a day and keep her very clean & that's the only reagonthe vet thinks is why she doesn't have canker ear and severe fur loss plus I use Vaseline over irritated skin and organic ACV on itchy area because remember this has been happening for 4 months!! She also sleeps inside at night in her cage that is high up on a table & that's cleaned every week!
So what do you guys think? Can you recommend anything? Or do you think this is a good plan??this has been seriously doing my head in, sometimes I can't sleep at night worrying about little puffy so I'm looking forward to having this problem gone, mites and all!!
