Advice on possible mites/scaly skin?

[Emily]

I have a 1-year old holland lop named Mango, and she’s had some health problems recently. The main concern right now is the possibility of mites, and if I need to find further treatment or if she’ll be okay.

She had these white, circular patches of ‘dandruff’-like stuff on her skin at the back of her neck, starting almost 5 weeks ago. I took her to the vet who found she had a bacterial infection due to her recent spay (Mango bit at where her stitches were after they were removed and gave herself and infection..) The vet wasn’t sure what the white patches were, so she looked for mites under the microscope, found nothing. Then she did a fungal culture for ringworm – let it grow for 2 weeks, saw nothing. So for 2 weeks I wasn’t giving anything to Mango except the antibiotics, and it didn’t really improve. 

After nothing grew for 2 weeks, vet suggested maybe it was mites after all, and gave me revolution. I used the revolution 1x per week for 3 weeks, last dose was last Wednesday (today is Tuesday). After the first dose, the patches did clear up significantly.

I’m looking for advice as to if this has actually cleared up, I need to give it more time, or if I need to get more medicine. Mango had hair loss on the back of her neck/back, but it is starting to grow back. It’s still very thin, but at least it’s coming back. I don’t see the circular patches anymore, but the skin looks kind of scaly and dry. I don’t know if it’s really just dry skin, or if there are more mites. I attached some pictures but it’s pretty hard to see – the scaly part is at the bottom of the hair loss area. 

I’m also attaching a picture of her ear – at the edge of her ear, there are these hard deposit things, very small, and I don’t know what it is. It’s the whitish-yellow stuff in between her fur. She’s had this for quite a while but I never did anything about it. If I poke at it, it will come off, but Mango seems uncomfortable. Thoughts?

So – any thoughts as to what I should do? She doesn’t seem to be itchy. Do I need more revolution? Do you think it was actually mites? Do I watch it for a while and see if it gets better? Or is there something I can do for dry skin?

Thank you!!

-Emily

[jerseygirl]

It does sound typical of fur mites. And the fact you saw a change after 1st dose revolution points to that too.

The hair growing back is a good sign things have been taken care of.
She might have had subclinical level of fur mite that grew after her immune system was occupied with the bacterial infection.

How much (quantity) was each dose? I had thought the follow up doses were a month apart but perhaps the dose was quite low?

[Bam]

It sounds like fur mites (Cheyletiella parasitovorax). It’s very common in rabbits, they often get them from their mothers in low numbers, then they start to multiply when there’s a dip in the bunny’s immune defense, like there would have been in your bunny when she got the post-spay infection. Sometimes you don’t happen to catch any mites in a scraping so they are not found in the sample. They could still be the culprits though, and from your pics I can say it looks a lot like my bunny’s fur mites back when he had them and the fact that you’ve seen rapid improvement after the Revolution is also consistent with fur mites.

Revolution is the preferred treatment for fur mites. It’s very efficient. House Rabbit society recommends re-application once a month for three months, I only did one repeat treatment with my bunny. http://www.rabbit.org/journal/4-9/skin.html (scroll down to Mites in ears fur or skin.)

If the skin on the bunny’s back is dry and scaly, you could try some natural bees-wax cream (no scents or medicaments in it, just f ex sunflower seed oil and bees-wax) and see if it helps. The dandruffy stuff is dead skin and fatty matter produced in excess, and it will come off, but if there’s a rash it could be a hypersensitivity-reaction to the mites themselves and you may need a mild cortison ointment (no more than 1%, you should ask your vet.) On your pic there doesn’t appear to be a rash though.

[Bam]

Haha, Jersey beat me to it =)

[jerseygirl]

Lol, “great minds”.
Good detail bam!

[Emily]

Thank you both! The revolution was for 5-10lb dogs. I think it might have been 60mg? I threw out the box so I’m not positive. Do you think I should contact the vet and see if I need to give her another dose in a month?
Thanks for the idea for the beeswax cream, bam!

Couple more questions – after the treatment, will she be free of mites or might this happen again if she’s under a lot of stress?
How likely is it for a human to contract mites or for the rabbit to be re-infected? i.e., how paranoid do I need to be about cleaning her cage/running area with bleach to kill the mites? Also, any thoughts on the ear thing?

[Bam]

My bunnies never had mites again after that first time. (I found them outside, previous owners had probably “set them free”, and living outside for a house-bunny will of course cause stress). I think you could call your vet and ask for a prescription for repeat treatment, because that would imo be standard and you shouldn’t have to take your bunny back to the vet for that. If your vet insists to see the bunny again, then he/she insists. No harm in asking though. Here is a chart for calculating dosage of Revolution: http://www.rabbitsforpets.com/rabbit-mites/

Fur mites may cause transient itching on humans. They can’t survive on humans though. There are no guarantees that a bunny doesn’t get re-infested at some later point in life, since Revolution doesn’t provide the bunny with life-long immunity (it wears off in like 8 days or so). But I don’t think it’s sth you need to worry about, Revolution is effective.

There is sth called diatomaceous earth that you can use for pest-control of carpets, just make sure the bunny doesn’t breeth it in because it’s finely powdered earth and could cause respiratory problems. It’s non-toxic. I don’t think I used bleach when I cleaned ut my bunny’s living-area, just vinegar and water and and a bunny-safe disinfectant (Virkon-S). Washed all toys and rugs etc. Mites never returned.

[Emily]

Thanks for all the information, that’s really helpful. And I feel a lot less worried! I called the vet and was able to get another dose of revolution, so I’ll use that in 3 weeks. Thanks again!

[bri_kayyyyy]

I’m following this thread due to the possibility my Henry might have mites . We’re taking him to the vet on Tuesday since tomorrow is Labor Day, but I hope we can get this settled. How much did the prescription of revolution cost you? Thanks in advance!

[Bam]

Hi! We ask members not to revive old thread. Please start a new thread on the same subject if you like. You can do that here:https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/afv/post/aff/2/Default.aspx

I’m locking this thread now.

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