Nothing necessarily wrong with doing a treatment based on slight, educated guesses. Wick has been treated successfully for ringworm, URIs, and a tooth infection, all without doing tests. Generally antibiotics when prescribed at a realistic dose won’t really harm a healthy rabbit. Potentially an upset stomach, but if it’s precautionary, it won’t kill it unless it’s a very sensitive rabbit.

Did your vet attempt to look at the back molars with an otoscope? This can give a somewhat better idea of teeth problems which can cause excessivice salivation, which leads to crust and fur loss.

How was the test for ringworm conducted? That honestly looks exactly like Wick when he had ringworm. Ringworm isn’t a single bacteria type. There are multiple bacteria which can cause ringworm. Ringworm is actually just a visual descriptor, rather than the infection. Ringworm is a descriptor for fungal infections. Generally Wick’s vet doesn’t do any tests for things like this because there’s always a chance the test is contaminated or wrong, so sometimes it’s good just to start treating to see if it helps instead of letting it get worse.

Is that black patch new fur coming in? I’m unsure what necrotic skin looks like from experience, but I know that turns up as black as well. If it seems like new fur growth, that’s actually supporting evidence for ringworm, because ringworm spreads continuously and will abandon some past area as it spreads since it cannot live there (hence the name ring worm. Fur loss in a circle and as it moves out, fur regrows inside where it used to be, making a worm of bare skin).

Also, potentially find a new vet. Unless they’re being considerate of your finances, they really should be a bit more firm in saying “let’s try this since you’ve been in so often and it’s getting worse”.

Also, all rabbits will drink from a bowl more than a bottle. The bottle requires a lot of work and because of this they drink less water than they want so drinking from a bowl is ideal.

I would move forward and at least try some sort of topical or antibiotic treatment to see if it helps.

Itraconazole is an oral antibiotic which can assist your rabbits immune system so it doesn’t spread too crazily, if it is ringworm. That skin pattern can come from other causes, but I’m mainly familiar and experienced with ringworm, so this is written based on that.

For topical treatment, I used nolvasan (soap used to disinfect skin before surgeries) to clean the area, then applied either clotrimazole (liquid topical fluid) or silver sulfadiazine (lotion topical cream). Wick would lick it off, but as long as it stays on for about 20 seconds, it will absorb pretty quickly and your rabbit will groom off the excess. You want to not slather on too much for your rabbits sanity sake.

Hmm… right now, it looks more like a fungal infection than anything else. Is this the worst it has looked? If it gets worse and thick crusts with sores underneath start to develop then it could be something like syphilis. These are just guesses of course.

Hope the antibiotics help!

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