Shades pulling her fur out

[hln917]

Shades, my lop has been pulling her fur out of both sides of her body. She is definitely not pregnant. I've heard of fake pregnancy syndrome but I don't see any nest. I havean appointment with the vet on Thur so I will ask him but was hoping someone here may have some insight on her behavior. My husband want to use the bitter apple spray on her skin to prevent her from pulling her fur. The bottle says it's safe on skin but I'm wary.

 

[Pipp]

No bitter apple from what I know. I'm pretty sure I remember somebody using that stuff and it seemed to sting like heck and caused a big stress-out.

How old is she?


sas :?

 

[Pipp]

I honestly think you need to do some more diagnostics before her surgery to remove the incisors.

The hair-pulling could be stress from a medical issue.

It may be more than her teeth if other things have been off.

(You're sure she's pulling it? Not being pulled by another rabbit or coming out in a weird molt?)

The vet can check visually for infection around the tooth roots and feel for any intestinal masses or lumps, that sort of thing, but it may take radiographs or blood tests.



sas :clover:

 

[hln917]

Thanks Pipp for the advice and suggestions! Shades is about 2 years old. I will definitely not use the spray.

I'm not sure if it's just a weird moult or more. She started shedding when the hot weather came in. I know it's not Cappy pulling her fur out. We check the skin underneath and it's fine. No bite marks. The new hair is coming out.

The vet will be doing blood work prior to thesurgery to make sure her health is fine. I also called this afternoon to explain her fur/skin problem and ask that they look at it and run further test if necessary.

I took some pictures of her side today. The white part is actually white hair and not bare skin.

 

[tonyshuman]

Hmm. Is it like that on both sides? Also, it sounds like you don't actually see her pulling it out, but you see her missing large patches of fur, right? It could be fur mites but may also be a funny molt if it's on both sides. My Muffin can get like that during a bad molt sometimes too. The fact that the edges of the area don't have fur that comes out easily makes me think it's not a molt, though. Is there any dandruff on the skin?

 

[hln917]

OMG~ I did see some dandruff last week but not within the last couple of days. I really hope that's not the case. I just spoke to the vet's office and they will run a complete checkup before the dental work. Now I'm concern, if it is fur mites, I'm not so concern as having her incisors removed immediately but they will need to be trimmed. Do you think it will affect either procedure? Since Cappuccino is accompanying her, I will also have them check her.

 

[kirbyultra]

ray:Hope it is just a molt and nothing else....

 

[hln917]

Thanks Pipp, Claire and Helen. So I did see her pull her own fur just now.:? Just another 14 hours to go before we can get it checked out. Keeping my fingers crossed it'll be ok.

 

[butsy]

goodluck !

 

[hln917]

Thanks Tiffany, now it's just the waiting game.

 

[hln917]

The vet did not see any evidence of fur mites. (He thinks it's more of a behavioral problem.) However he did say even with a skin scraping, sometimes the mites may not be detected if they are burrowed too deep into the skin. As a precaution, he gave her a dose of Revolution.

 

[tonyshuman]

That's good. I don't know why she would be pulling her own fur out unless there's a painful issue below it, or she's upset about something. :?