Excessive washing and scratching?

[earthisours]

Hey all, it’s been a while.

Over the years, I’ve gone through quite a bit of issues with my two rabbits and consider myself pretty knowledgable, but I’m finally completely stumped. It doesn’t seem serious enough for a vet (and I just took one of the rabbits for a teeth floating) so I want to see if it’s something I can solve myself first.

One of my rabbits, if you may remember, has no front teeth. Because of that, I imagine, he can’t wash himself properly.  Never has, no real idea why. He tries, but usually gives himself mats. That’s easy enough to deal with, I just give him lots of grooming sessions.

Thing is, over the last few months, he has gone totally obsessive in his washing. He’s also scratching a bit too, but it seems more like washing to me. It’s gotten so bad that the mats have developed much faster. He spends hours and hours and hours washing and scratching now. Just yesterday his entire belly was matted. I’ve had the rabbits for 6 or 7 years now, so I do know what’s ‘normal’ for them. Also, they are completely free-run, so no cage for either of them, but the issue is with only one of them. (They are separated due to bonding issues some years ago)

It’s not fleas, I’ve dealt with that before early in their years, and when I search his fur, nothing. What I DID notice was extremely dry skin, and a lot of flaking. Not sure if it’s bad because how much he scratches, or he scratches because how dry it is. There is no redness or sores.

I was thinking of maybe adding a tiny bit of flax seed oil to help with that, but I don’t want to simply deal with the symtpom– I want to get to the bottom of it.

Any suggestions? If you want clarification or extra info, let me know.

[Monkeybun]

flakign dry skin could be a sign of mites, you may want to take him in to check.

[earthisours]

What are other signs of mites? Is this common? We have no other pets and these rabbits never go outside, how is it transmitted??

[Monkeybun]

mites are fairly common, and are hard to see except by a microscope. A skin scraping will usually tell a vet if they are present. Excessive scratching, grooming, anxiety in a rabbit can indicate mites.

Mites can be brought in on hay, other animals, bedding, humans… it varies.

They can be treated fairly easy, your vet can give the treatment. A full cleaning of your bunny’s environment will have to be done if he does have them.

[earthisours]

Hm, looks like a vet visit is to be in order… sigh.

It’s strange, though. This has happened for the past couple months, I’d say, but the other rabbit has no such signs whatsoever (and from what I read it is easily contagious), and I do travel between the two quite extensively. I looked up more regarding mites, and it’s certainly doesn’t look so bad. Barely any flaking compared to the pictures shown, and he washes more than scratches. Absolutely no hair loss, but he has no front teeth, so maybe that’s why. But I don’t know how long it takes to get ‘bad’ so maybe it’s just beginning. =/

At least the house is all wood floors, so it’d be easy enough to clean, if it does turn out to be mites.

EDIT: If not that, what else could it be?

[Monkeybun]

There are other causes, liek a fungus or some such. The vet can tell you more about those

Or, it could just turn out to be dry skin, who knows lol.

[earthisours]

Me and the vet are fast becoming best friends, lol. Third visit in under two months, sigh. If not one problem, it’s another…

But okay. Hope it’s nothing.

 

[Monkeybun]

I’ll cross my fingers and all 4 pairs of bunny ears for luck that nothing too involved is going on

[earthisours]

He’s an odd one as it is. Before all this, he would sit and wash his chest, create a mat and then suck on the mat for hours until it’s a huge thing that needs hard brushing. >.> And then do it over again after a few days of a well groomed chest. But he never had mats under his belly, which is why it’s especially concerning.

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