Okay either I'm paranoid or my buns always have something wrong

[Faerin]

Peter my male holland lop looks like he has dandruff on and in his ears. I don't know if it's just dry skin or something more serious. I don't know what mites look like but I can't see anything moving at all and his ears are clean it just looks like he's peeling. He's eating and drinking fine and he's running around when he's out. Other then washing himself all the time like he always does he's not bothering with his ears and he's not scratching them as far as I can tell (and I never see him doing it). Am I being crazy or should I get this checked out. I would appreciate comments from fellow lop owners since this could be a random lop ear thing. He's always had thinner hair on top of his head and small patches that look sort of bald under his ears where they attach to his head. I'll see if I can get some pictures but the camera I have is just a crappy cell phone camera.

 

[Maureen Las]

I've had a few lops so i don't think this is a lop thing; your rabbit may have fur mites and earmites. ; the baldness around the ears isn't normal, particularly if it is patches ; the mites could also just be affecting the external portion of the ear at this point. very treatable but you do need a vet visit and a skin scraping ..

and yes rabbits are high maintenance pets

 

[Faerin]

I should mention my dog seems to think she has to clean Peter and tends to lick his ears, face and butt to make sure he's presentable. I don't know if that could make a difference or if that's not so great.

 

[Maureen Las]

I can't comment on that but only wish that you had a picture to show us

Someone else may have a diffenet opinion but i don't think it is from dog saliva

 

[tonyshuman]

Yep, that sounds like mites. Time to get them to the vet. I don't think the dog is affecting him negatively, although since the fur is weakened by the mites, he may be making it come out more quickly. It might help if you keep them inside, as they will be exposed to fewer pests that way. I seem to recall that wasn't really an option for you, though. I have 4 bunnies, the oldest of which I've had for 2.5 years, and we've never had mites, fleas, stasis, or a real URI. We've had a runny nose with sneezes that went away before I could get him to the vet (the next day), several gas bouts, bad teeth from previous mistreatment of a shelter bunny (that grew out just fine), and fur in the poo, but that's all the health problems we've had (KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on wood!!!!). They're all indoors bunnies.

 

[Faerin]

Peter is an indoor bun and Babs is outdoor. I'll see about having him looked at by the vet but since money is non exsistant at the moment I'll have to wait until Thursday to see a vet since there is a free vet check up thing the SPCA puts on then. Is there anything I could do in the meantime?

 

[Flashy]

Is he moulting?

 

[Faerin]

Yes he is molting at the moment. I took a look at quite a few pictures of what mites look like and really it doesn't look like that at all. It reminds me of human dandruff. Can buns get dry skin like that? Everything I have read says that with mites there is yellow or brownish stuff in the ears or around the affected area and they scratch like crazy and toss their heads. He's not doing that at all and the only thing I can see is dry looking skin and white skin flakes.

 

[Flashy]

I have found that one of my indoor rabbits gets dry skin on his ears when he moults. He never got it outside but maybe the air is different inside and it's dried him out. I tried giving him sunflower seeds to try and help condition his skin, but he spat them out (he's helpful like that).

It might be worth getting your bun checked out, but it may be something similar if nothing else shows up.

 

[tonyshuman]

Frida has gotten some dry scaly skin on her bum from sitting in wet litter. The vet gave us an antiseptic and moisturizing spray for it. I think you could use a little bit of olive oil to moisturize a bit as well. It's really important to keep them off of wet litter, so I use plastic grids for crafts known as plastic canvas on top of the litter.

 

[Faerin]

Peter is getting worse shedding wise and now it looks like he has eye goop and a possible eye infection. The skin around his eyes looks red and inflamed and one is worse then the other. Today he's not eating to much and scratching a whole bunch and I just noticed the eye thing when I went to put him back after his run time. The shedding has gotten slightly worse since I first saw it but I figured the vets must know what they are doing.

I had tests done and they said no no it's not mites but I don't believe them so I'm wanting to take him to see someone that actually knows what the hell they are doing. It's so far to go out to coquitlam but I think it's necessary at this point.

I'm trying to scrape up enough funds to take him to the vet but it may be a while before I have enough. I have put polysporin drops in his eyes to see if that helps. Could it be due to mites or something entirely unrelated?

 

[tonyshuman]

A lot of times they can't see the mites, so a treatment (which is cheap and well tolerated) is a good thing to do. It sounds like he has conjuntivitis, which needs antibiotics. Neosporin is good but won't fix it.

I'd ask the vet to give you antibiotics (either oral or for putting on the eye) and just do the mite treatment. It shouldn't be too expensive.

 

[Faerin]

Is that fine to do even if he doesn't have mites though? Dawn said it could possibly be a fungal infection if they couldn't find mites. I'm going to talk to them about it when I get him in to be looked at.

 

[tonyshuman]

It could be fungal, but mites are so common. Very few bunnies have a bad reaction to the anti-mite meds, like Revolution or Advantage.

 

[Faerin]

I would be using ivermectin not revolution or advantage. I have heard horror stories of bunnies that have used those and it killed them so no thanks.

 

[tonyshuman]

We have a few horror stories about bad reactions to Ivermectin. Ivermectin is stronger, I think, so it would be fine to use. The one you can't use on bunnies is Frontline. I know every bunny that comes into the shelter I help at gets a dose of Revolution when they come in.