Help puffy ear!

[bubbles]

Hi, I am wondering if anyone can help me out. My 3 yr old mini lop has a puffy right ear.

He was taken to the vets the at the end of April as he was off his food which was very unusual, they couldn’t see anything wrong other than a slightly puffy right ear and immediately thought it was mixy we had to take him home and endure a very stressfull few days to see if his symtoms worsened. Luckily they DIDNT get worse, he started eating again and acting his normal self. We took him back to the vets after a few days as requested and she was happy that it wasn’t Mixy but still concerned about his ear.

When examined from the inside there were no signs of mites or infection or anything unusual. They put it down to a reaction or a bite or maybe even a scratch.
He had a corse of antibiotics and an anti inflammatory injection and was told to keep an eye on it but it may take a while to go down and they don’t really know what it is.

Four months on and his ear is still puffy but has now developed slight crusts on the very tip of his ear and it feels rough to the touch on the inside. The inside looks clear from what I can see.

He has no sign of head tilt and it doesn’t seem to bother him, he just cleans it now and again like he does with his other ear (which is completely normal).
Has anyone else heard of this or experienced it with their rabbit, any information would be greatly appreciated.

[LBJ10]

Define “puffy”.

[bubbles]

Basically its thicker than the other one. At first it was down one side now it has spread to the whole ear. There isn’t much flexibility in it like the other. There isn’t any heat from it. It feels firm not soft. I would put a picture on but you really cant tell just by looking, more by feel. Thank you.

[LBJ10]

Did you treat with Revolution just to be safe? The roughness and crusties have me suspicious. The swelling could be a reaction to the mites, if there are mites.

[bubbles]

No we didn’t get any treatment, we ruled mites out as the vet didn’t seem to think it was that. But now with the new symptoms occurring (ear crusting) they may think differently. I will make another appointment and ask to get treatment just to be safe. Thank you for getting back.

[LBJ10]

Did they do a skin scraping? There are often false negatives. Revolution certainly wouldn’t hurt anything. If the problem resolves itself after the Revolution is applied, then great. Mites were the problem. If the problem isn’t resolved, then no harm done.

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