slight hair loss, yellow flakes around mouth

[usawan]

Location - japan

Description - fuzzy lop, normal weight

Age - 9/10 months

Sex - female, unspayed

Concise Summary of the Rabbit's Condition:

today while brushing down one of my buns i noticed that at the corners of her mouth on both sides there was some hair loss, and the skin and hair had an almost waxy feel, with a flaky yellow substance stuck to the skin at the base of the fur. (the waxy feeling could be from her sweating, however, as it is quite warm here) she doesn't appear to be in pain, and allowed me to examine the area and scrape a bit of the yellow flakes off without a fuss. the fur was also slightly yellowed, and i'm pondering if the substance is crystallized urine. she eats the hay that falls into her litterbox, and so i am wondering if the urine that gets on the hay is the culprit. she also sits in her litterbox quite a lot. her skin is naturally a very bright pink, and so i cannot tell if the area is red, but it doesn't appear to be inflamed or broken, just slightly flaky (i presume from the hair loss, so the top layer of the dermis is dry) i have no idea how long she has had this condition, however her behavior has been unchanged, and she still eats and drinks normally so i had no reason to be alerted to anything. this condition is also not present anywhere else on her body, hence why i decided to link it to the hay, as if it were urine scald it would show up on her feet.

my phone camera is the only camera available to me, so i apologize if the image quality is lacking, but you can still somewhat see :

the loss is only at the top portion of the picture, the pink skin visible at the bottom is normal skin that has been exposed because i'm pushing her fur around.


i will start cleaning out her litterbox of hay and see if the condition doesn't improve, however beyond that i am rather stumped on how to remedy this beyond letting it heal on its own. it's difficult for me to see a vet here, so please keep this in mind.

thanks in advance for any advice that people might have

-BAS

 

[tonyshuman]

Is she drooling out of the sides of her mouth? Has she ever had problems with her molars? Are there scabby portions anywhere else, like on the nose, around the eyes, or on the genitals?

 

[usawan]

it could possibly be drool, the fur at the sides of her mouth was slightly wet when i checked this morning. no scabbing around her genitals, i combed her body over thoroughly and couldn't find anything amiss. she has never had any problems with her teeth, and ate breakfast as usual.

the yellow crystals seem to have diminished overnight, perhaps she is cleaning them off, i wonder if they will build up again this evening. i will have to check again.

 

[usawan]

just an update, perhaps you can confirm or deny this, claire..

i was talking with my friend tonight, and she posited that perhaps the drool is from her being too hot, as her ferrets drool when they overheat (i do my best to keep my girls cool, but they are just so furry that it's hard sometimes to judge what is 'cool' enough), and the hair loss is a result of the drool ? the yellow stain i see could be from the hay she eats. i just checked her again and the crystals seem to have become less clumped but a slight crystalization is still present at the base of the fur, and the dampness is still present at the corners of her mouth.

she is currently prancing around and binkying into walls so i think she is feeling fine.

i'll see if i can't up my efforts to keep my house cooler and hope that she stops drooling, but what is your input ? does it seem plausible ?

 

[tonyshuman]

Bunnies will breathe faster when they're hot, and may end up mouth-breathing in order to breathe faster. This could lead to drooling. I would expect, though, that simply drooling won't make the hair fall out. The crusty stuff could be dried drool, but it could also be a fungal infection of the skin around her mouth from it being wet all the time. How much hair loss is there? Is the skin at all flaky where the crystal stuff is? I know Mouse_Chalk's Giant Papillon rabbit had some fungal infection around her mouth similar to this and the vet just told her to disinfect it daily and it went away.

 

[usawan]

there is a sizeable amount of hair loss on one side, it extends from about the whisker base to under her chin, perhaps i could fit a couple quarters vertically over the entire area ? the other side is not so bad.

the skin does look a bit dry and is flaking somewhat, i just had a good long stare at it and it could possibly be fungal. it has that...look to it. is there anything available over the counter that i could treat it with ? would a standard disinfectant useable by humans be suitable for a rabbit, full strength or watered down ?

 

[tonyshuman]

The stuff that Mouse_chalk used was called Hibiscrub (active ingredient is chlorhexidine gluconate)and it's available in some drug stores. I also like Povidone Iodine (also called Betadine), diluted 1:1 with water. They're ok if they lick them off. I wouldn't use an antifungal cream right now because most of those aren't ok if ingested, and that area is really prone to licking off. I wouldn't use alcohol.

 

[usawan]

alright, i will have to go on a quest to locate those tomorrow (well, later today...it's about 2am here). i don't see why they wouldn't have them here. thank you for your help, i will report back later with my findings.

 

[usawan]

hey claire, i managed to locate some povidone iodine, although it's used as a throat gargle here. it should have the same effect, yes ? however it is not PURE iodine, as it is used for gargling so there are additives of ethanol, l-methanol, and saccarin sodium. i assume to make it palatable. is this alright ? i don't think that there are any other options for me here so this might be it.

i'm not home tonight so i can't administer it immediately, however i will be home first thing in the morning. how often should i apply it ? i assume i'd apply it with some cotton etc.

 

[tonyshuman]

That would be fine. Pure iodine is too strong, and since this is made to be used in the throat it should be safe. It might sting a little with the ethanol and methanol in it, so be careful about that. A cotton ball or on a tissue would be good ways to apply it.