I had posted here a few years ago when my lionhead rabbit
developed mouth/lip sores that my vet was unable to treat. He has continued to
stump the second vet I’ve brought him to and I’m totally at a loss. I don’t
know what else to do.
This is the whole story:
Issue #1
My male indoor rabbit developed scabs/scaly sores around his
lips. I took him to my vet (who was recommended for rabbits) and she did every
test imaginable, including a biopsy. Nothing explained the sores. She finally
started to wonder if he had an allergy and recommended Benadryl, which had no
effect. Several weeks later both he and my other rabbit developed a very bad
case of ear mites. Both were treated with an Ivermectin shot and all was well
for a while. Then the mouth sores came back. He was treated again with Ivermectin.
And they came back.
I had a bill of $2000 and a very grumpy bun so I had to take
a break. I started to notice that the sores were sporadic. They would flare up
very badly and then disappear completely. When they’re at their worst they’re
very thick, crusty and greenish with a tinge of black. If you remove them, his
skin in very pink and bloody in spots. Sometimes they’re just flaky and white.
They’re nowhere else on his body.
He doesn’t spend a lot of time grooming his face or rubbing
it on anything. He will let me touch them. He didn’t always have them – it was
about a year after I got him that they developed. In that time, his diet and
environment was the same.
Issue #2
About five months ago he started peeing outside the litter
box. He was perfectly litter trained. It started with once or twice, a few
weeks apart. Once it started to increase, I took him to a new vet. She tested
him and found he had crystals in his urine and gave him medication and wanted
to increase his fluid intake.
I took both buns off
the small amount of pellets they got with their daily greens and hay and switched
to a lettuce/greens/hay only diet. Neither bun drinks from the water bottle – I
think the water content of the lettuce keeps them hydrated? I tried to give him
apple juice flavored water but he hated it. When I took him back in his levels
were still high so the vet recommended another round of medicine. When she
tested him a third time she still thought his levels were high. She suggested feeding
him a slice or two of orange every day. While he enjoyed that, it didn’t help.
I’ve given him another litter box. I tried changing the
boxes twice a day instead of once. I moved his food to the second floor of the
cage once he started to pee on his food. That ended that behavior but he now
pees and poops all over the bottom floor of the cage…yet I still see him use the
litter box. The urine varies in color. Sometimes it is pale yellow/clear and
other times it’s a darker yellow. The one positive is that he never ever pees
when he’s outside the cage.
The new vet also looked at the sores, treated him again with
Ivermectin and studied the scabs under a microscope. She was also at a loss and
eventually suggested allergies. I try to
rotate his greens. I went to lettuce/hay/no greens for a week with no
improvement. I changed the hay to orchard grass. No change in symptoms. I’m not
positive but darker greens seem to cause a flare but it’s not consistent. I
can’t think of anything in his environment that would cause it.
So here we are: $3000, a lot of time, a lot of medicine, a
lot of tests and I have a bun with terrible sores who now pees like it’s his
job. Just not in the right place.
I’m incredibly frustrated and I feel like I’ve failed him.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I would appreciate it.