Ear Mites

[bonnie_bunny]

I’m very frustrated. My Californian, Bonnie, has had ear issues since I brought her home. I took her to the vet after about a month of no improvement and they told me she had ear mites despite checking twice before during a simple checkup and her spay and telling me it was just stress. I got her revolution and was told to try another dose after a month if they weren’t better. When I called the shelter to let them know since the vet thought she’d had them for a while, they told me they knew and were treating her when they adopted her out to me . So now, a month after the first $116 treatment, her ears are flaking again. Since I’m home from school, it’s a different vet who’s charging me $65 just for the exam and god knows how much for the medication. Of course I’ll pay, I just wish this could’ve been avoided by the shelter by either providing me the proper medication or at least letting me know so I could expect it as an expenditure.

Her ears aren’t scarred or scabbed or infected looking, just patchy with skin peeling up and taking the fur with it, so I don’t imagine it’s a bad infestation, just a stubborn one. The question now: if she truly has had these mites since December of 2017, and the shelter treatments and the one I had done weren’t enough, is she ever going to be rid of them? Or is there a different issue beyond ear mites? Obviously y’all aren’t vets but I don’t know what to think at this point.

[ThorBunny]

I’m sorry to hear about Bonnie’s ear mites!

Mites have a habit of re-ocurring, so what most vets will do is prescribe multiple treatments of Revolution about a month apart. When Thor was treated for possible mites, we got three doses of Revolution and gave them to her at 6 week intervals. Also if you are worried about vet prices, in some countries you can buy Revolution over the counter which can be much cheaper.

Mites need host rabbits to survive, but they can hide out in carpet or wooden hutches for short periods of time. That’s why it’s important not only to treat the rabbit but also to do a thorough clean/vacuum of their area after each treatment.

Don’t worry, they can be beat! It stinks that the shelter didn’t tell you about them though, how frustrating!

Edit: One other thought. Did she get better with the first Revolution treatment? If so it is most likely mites, but it might be worth checking her for a fungal infection as well. 

[tobyluv]

I just read a list of symptoms and types of ear mites in rabbits on petmd.com, and it does mention hair loss and peeling of the skin around the ears, which your bunny has, but since you aren’t seeing any other symptoms, it seems like the vet needs to make a definitive diagnosis of ear mites, ruling out any other conditions, before proceeding with treatment.

Here is the list I found at https://www.petmd.com/rabbit/conditions/ears/c_rb_ear_mites

Mild to moderate itching around the ear, head, and neck
Intense itching (more common) primarily located around the ears, head, and neck; occasionally generalized
Head shaking and scratching
Affected areas may become extremely painful
Thick, brown to beige crusty exudate in the ear canal
Occasionally, brown to beige crusting and itching occur on the ears and feet only
Hair loss and peeling of skin around the ears
Signs of ear infection may also occur
Mites and lesions may extend to the face, neck, abdomen, perineal region, and even feet via grooming

The vet who treats the rabbits at the sanctuary where I volunteer gives injections of Ivermectin for ear mites. I believe the rabbit gets 3 injections, one a week for 3 weeks.

I hope your bunny’s ear condition will clear up soon.

[bonnie_bunny]

ThorBunny: Bonnie has a cage and an X-Pen (which she just escaped for the first time, posing another problem) that has fleece so she has some traction. Both fleece blankets get cleaned on a regular basis, as do the other things in her pen (litter box, food dish, water dish, ceramic tile to stay cool). I’m not sure if Revolution is over the counter here or not, but I certainly hope it is. I’d much rather be paying $20-$30 to administer something myself than $100 to have the vet do it. She definitely got better after the first treatment which was sometime around the first or second week of May. Her ears weren’t as crusty and they weren’t peeling as badly. But in the past week I’ve seen an uptake in the hair and skin flaking and she hasn’t regained any of the other fur, so I’m thinking the first treatment didn’t quite kill them all. Having said that, she was also placed on an antibiotic at the same time, so I can’t be sure it was the Revolution that made her better and not the antibiotic.

tobyluv: The third time she went to the vet I insisted they check for mites and a scraping showed mite eggs, so I’m pretty sure it’s mites, though they could be in combination with something else. The shelter alerted the public that they had a ringworm outbreak in the cats no more than three days after I got her. The vet didn’t seem concerned. The hair loss and skin flaking is most prominent, but she does scratch her ears and they tend to be very very red most of the time, though they occasionally soften to what I assume is a more normal pinkish color. She shakes her head sometimes, but nothing that’s led me to think she has an ear infection or anything else. She had a small spot on her nose as well. I’m not sure if injections are available where I live.

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