Ear hair falling out in chunks!!

[Toby Da Bunny]

Hi! So I posted about this last week, Ollie has flakes on his ears and his hair was falling out when I touched the ears. We went to the vet and she said it wasn’t parasites, but she’s testing for ring worm and we are still waiting on the results. However, I am now noticing the areas on his ear that don’t have much hair are a little red. And when I tested his hair by pulling some out, it came out in CHUNKS! Like seriously his hair on his ears is coming out in chunks when I slightly pull them.. I’m really worried has this happened to you? I don’t want it to be something serious. He seems totally fine, he’s still playful and eating and all that
Note that this is only on the ears

[Bunny House]

I wonder if there is a new allergy and that is where he reacts. Also, there could be lice but you would also have it. I think it’s ring worm since nothing else sounds like it could causing this. Did you switch to any new hay, veggies, litter? Do you put lotion on your hands or something and then touch the ears? I’m just thinking other than ring worm that may be caused by direct contact with a substance

[Bam]

Tests for mites are sometimes false negatives, meaning the test sample doesn’t contain any mites. This happens rather often. By your description it sounds like mites. Kan you feel any hard-ish crusts on the ear? With mites the crusts are typically yellowish white and they are very firmly stuck to the skin so they can’t be removed without causing the rabbit pain. Some vets will treat with Revolution on suspicion of mites. Other vets wont, different clinics have different policies.

And now the warning we always give when possible skin parasites are being discussed: Never use any compound containing fipronil on a rabbit. It’s the active substance in many antiparasitics for cats and dogs, for example Frontline and Sentry. It’s deadly toxic to rabbits.

[bonnie_bunny]

My first bunny, Bonnie, had the same problem. I was pulling clumps of dead skin and fur off her ears. She had three false negatives for ear mites (and I later found out after her death, unrelated to the mites, a vet who didn’t know as much as they lead me to believe). We tried Revolution which didn’t work for her (but I know has worked for others). For us, the thing that helped was a something used to treat cattle mites. I cannot for the life of me remember the name, but it comes in a glass bottle with a dropper and you take one dropper full, put it on a cotton ball, and rub it into the rabbit’s ears. Within a week, no more ear mites. Not only did it work, it only cost $8.

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