I had to have one of my patient bunny friends help me recently with a matted lop too and she just had to work and snip out all the mats including the one like you are describing on his tail. It took her 2 1/2 hours to totally demat him. Bathing won’t help at all, probably just make it worse. You are going to have to turn him on his back to work on the tail mat and just comb and snip (carefully snip of course) until you get that mat out – all he had left when she was done was his little stump for a tail – be very careful snipping. She would just kind of gently poke sometimes at the mat with the tips of her scissors (get the kind of scissors you would use for your hair) to loosen it up. She also had a few different razors too so that helped a little too. If you got him from a rabbit rescue ask them if they have someone who is competent in grooming long hairs and would be willing to help demat him.

It sounds like Wabbit is in great need of the TLC he is finally able to get by having a home I have not personally ever worked on mats in this area before, so I would definitely recommend going to a rabbit rescue, or perhaps a veterinarian that can help you get these mats out. I have heard that sometimes vets can shave bunnies if they have a badly matted area, but I am not sure if that would be appropriat eor not in this circumstance, so its best to ask someone from the rescue, or maybe the vet that has had more experience in this area. Sometimes rescues can get so overwhelmed by bunnies they don’t groom them as much as they probably need to be groomed to prevent mats from occurring, since it can take quite awhile to groom a bunny all over. Also, if Wabbit was in a smaller cage, he may have sat in his pee or something like that once which led to the fur sticking together, and collecting other dust and matting it all together. It is definitely a good idea to tend to this as soon as possible, it is probably too hard for Wabbit to groom himself.

I also think it’s a good idea to have a rescue group or vet help you with that mat.   Skin can be easily torn and cut if you’re not used to it.  

Here is a link to advice regarding get out mats from allexperts.com http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/fur-mats.htm

They do say not to cut the mat, but I know that at shelters, depending on how bad it is, it’s sometimes better to relieve the tension that the mat can actually cause. 

It is wonderful that you are giving this bunny a wonderful caring home with you.  Sounds like he needs it!

Keep us updated on what you ended up doing, and how it all worked out.

I just read this last night about mats in my new rabbit magazine, but according to several vets

be REALLY REALLY careful trimming mats!!!

Phew! Sorry I had to yell there…According to the vets talking about mats, they see very serious injuries and in fact, the most serious injuries they see are from trimming mats…

You see, rabbits skin is so thin it can get pulled into the mat and cut open very very easily!! I know you have no intention of hurting your wittle wabbit, but be very careful!!  The vets in the magazine recommended taking them to a vet to have the mat removed (which is maybe pricey )

Anyways just wanted to pass this along!! I’ve only had one little mat to work out when we first got kahlua and it combed out in about one episode of House (hehe) so so far i have been lucky.

Good luck getting it out!