Mites & Ivermectin

[shantimercado]

The medicine subscribed by the vet doesn't seem to be working. I clean rabbit's cage with bleach and disinfect their area everyday. It's been 1 and half week and my rabbits' mites have gotten a lot worse. I could see more lesions and the past ones have gotten a lot bigger. The vet said to give them 0.01ml of ivermectin everyday for 21 days. Is it really like this? Or should i consult another vet??

 

[**SRonchi1]

I don't no what country your in but Revolution (topical treatment) for puppies and kittens works almost instantly for mites, they use it all the time here in NZ and I have just given my 6 buns a preventative treatment last week. Have they discussed topical treatment with you? If not consult another vet!

 

[JBun]

Did the vet do a skin scraping to positively determine if it is really mites or something else?

I think that what your rabbits have may not be mites, but could possibly be Treponematosis, or rabbit syphilis. Are you seeing any lesions or swelling around the genitals as well? Rabbit syphilis can cause lesions and fur loss around a rabbits eyes, nose, mouth, and genitals. If this is what your rabbits have then it needs to be treated with penicillin procaine/benzathine injections (NEVER orally). With where your rabbits fur loss is and it not responding to ivermectin treatment, this is what I would suspect it to be.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Bacterial/Syph_gen.html
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Bacterial/Syphilis.htm

It might also be possible that since you were applying the ivermectin to the skin, that there was a bad reaction to it causing the increased fur loss.

What is your general location? I think you may need to see a vet more experienced with rabbits.
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f28/finding-vet-13366/
http://rabbit.org/vet-listings/

 

[squidpop]

I would also double check with the vet that the dose is right and you are using the right increments on the syringe. You may be using a different concentration of ivermectin then the one my vet gave me but I was told to give a slightly higher dose than that.

 

[squidpop]

Also, if you vet didn't do a skin scraping, it could also be ringworm (a fungus) which causes circular bald red patches and circles.