New to the forum my rabbit is sick ! (hair missing on head, housed with guinea pig)

[beebop11]

My rabbit is a year old or around 8 months old . I bought her off Kijiji in my town she has been wonderful. My roomate moved out and her guinea pig was my bunnies buddy they shared the same cage and were great friends. I put another guinea pig in there to give her company . She has pulled all the hair off the top of her head ? Why ?

 

[tonyshuman]

Its common for bunnies to overgroom guinea pigs, it's one reason that many recommend not keeping them together. Is it the bunny that has lost hair, or the guinea pig? The guinea pig also may have brought fur mites with her and that could cause hair loss.

 

[beebop11]

The bunny has lost alot of her fur right on top of her head , this happened today the guinea pig has been in with her for less than 2 days I took the Guinea out as soon as I noticed . She lived with the previous guinea pig for 3 months very happily with no problems

 

[tonyshuman]

Oh ok. Usually the bunny overgrooms the guinea pig, and the piggy goes bald, so that's not what's happening here. I would guess that the guinea pig has mites of some kind, and that has caused the bunny's fur to fall out. The vet can give you mite medication.

 

[beebop11]

Mites would have caused that in less than 2 days ? And why wouldn't the other guinea pig have them ?

 

[tonyshuman]

Well, mites can cause skin irritation really quickly, and the rabbit can pull out the fur because the skin is irritated. The mites wouldn't necessarily be present on the other guinea pig if he wasn't carrying them. I'll change your title to see if we can get some input from other members who own guinea pigs and may have better info.

 

[Maureen Las]

Most guinea pigs have mites ( on some level) ; the guinea pig rescue here treated every incoming pig with ivermectin just as 'routine protocol"

I also had a guinea pig and rabbit here (fosters from the shelter ); they were bonded on surrender and we were going to see if we could separate them with undue stress.
The rabbit had missing hair from the pig grooming him and both also had fur mites.

I know that a rabbit can be be treated with a small amount of selamectin/ Revolution, howeverI do not know how to dose a pig with Revolution.

Possibly research this on Guinealynx (great guinea pig site ) or better yet take them both to a vet that treats small mammals.

Guinea pigs can contract and die from bordatella which often is a latent infection in a rabbit.
The guinea pig experts totally discourage placing pigs and rabbits together. usually too dangerous for the pig.

 

[beebop11]

Thanks for the information .