Intense Molts(Possible Overgrooming?) – Potentially Graphic Pics

[Muffin]

My bunny, Muffin, has had pretty heavy molts ever since he’s reached adulthood, which was about a year ago. This lead to him having small bald areas, but I wasn’t concerned. The skin wasn’t irritated, there was no sign of mites, and the hair came back in quickly. He ended up needing to go to the vet for an unrelated problem, and the vet did confirm that there were no mites. When I researched it, he pretty much matched the descriptions and pictures for just having extra heavy molts.

 

Then, near the beginning of this summer, I broke my back and was pretty much bedridden for the first week. During that time my mom took care of Muffin. He kept pretty much is regular schedule, the only difference being that he only got to see me for short periods of time in the morning and evening. We are very bonded, he’s my baby and I spend almost all my time at home with him, so this was a large and upsetting change for him. It was at this time that he started to lose a lot of hair, giving him quite large bald spots. At this point I was concerned, not that there was anything medically wrong with him because it seemed reasonable to think he was just stressed from being unable to see me like he usually would, but because his skin was getting dry and irritated. I gently cleaned off the excess dead skin with baby wipes, and then moisturized it with my salve until hair started growing back. I have very severe eczema and horrible allergies, and that salve was the only thing I can use for it. It’s completely natural and clean, so it seemed like the best choice for him. But in case I’m wrong, the ingredients are: calendia, comfrey, chidkwee, chamomile, plaintain, and lavender essential oil in an olive oil and beeswax base. It never affected him negatively that I could tell. In fact, it did really seem to help in moisturizing and healing the irritated areas. It’s never made him sick, but I try to make sure he doesn’t ingest much of it by holding him for a bit after applying it.

 

Cut to now, and he’s lost a ton of hair again, and I have no idea why. He still doesn’t have mites, and he seems perfectly healthy and happy otherwise. He’s eating normally, he’s active, he comes and asks for cuddles and pets, he plays and runs, all like he usually does. I can’t think of anything going on currently that would cause him stress. So, why the hair loss? And is it possible he’s over grooming?

 

I’ve tried researching again to see what it might be but nobody’s descriptions or pictures quite match what is happening. I’m going to add pictures here and beware: he does look very pitiful! But like I said, he’s perfectly happy, and we’re treating it again with my all natural salve.

It’s hard to tell here, but it is improving, and you can see new hair growth. The “wet” looking hair is from the salve.

I don’t want to waste a trip to the vet, both for financial reasons and the fact that it’s stressful for him, but have nothing against taking him to the vet if necessary. I just want to be more certain. Since he’s acting normally otherwise and this is his only symptom I’m lead to believe it’s probably something he’s doing to himself, or some sort of environmental factor, instead of him being sick.

 

He gets oxbow adult rabbit pellets morning and night, and a salad morning and night. His salads usually consist of kale or baby kale, arugula, parsley and/or cilantro, sometimes baby endive, and dill. He gets basil, a tiny baby carrot, and one berry(depending on what we have on hand) every day. He gets benebac and an oxbow digestive treat in the morning. Whenever he’s looking particularly needy, I’ll give him a couple sweet potato leaves, and whenever I leave the house he gets a small treat, usually a dried banana chip or a hay and fruit cookie(I think the bag I have now is apple banana). He eats grass hay, and a LOT of it. He’s always been a great eater and pooper. In fact, it’s sort of a joke about how much he can poop. Anyway, I know a deficiency could likely cause hair loss but his diet seems well balanced to me.

 She hasn’t heard back yet but my mom also recently got in contact with some supplier in the netherlands that creates animal onesies for medical conditions. If we can, we’ll get one. If he’s overgrooming maybe that will help prevent that, and if that’s not the problem then he can at least wear it while he’s healing.

 

So really, as far as I can tell it’s not a serious medical problem, but it’s clearly uncomfortable for him, and losing and growing that much hair has to be stressful for his little body! I’m doing the best I can to treat it and it works pretty well but I’d like to try to prevent it from happening again.

 

Any ideas? 

[vanessa]

Wow… I’m not sure how to prevent it… but he might need a higher protein pellet to help with the new hair growth.

[vanessa]

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/furloss.html
Give that a read.
P.S. thanks for posting the pictures. But they also might need a sensitive picture warning…
Sending many vibes )))

[LBJ10]

I added a warning to the title.

There appears to be redness and swelling in spots. You said he doesn’t have mites. Did you try treating him for it anyway? Sometimes mites and mange don’t show up on skin scrapings.

[tobyluv]

Besides the site that vanessa linked to, here is another one dealing with skin problems:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Skin_diseases_main.htm

Maybe another vet visit would be in order, to see if a cause could be found for the problem, and hopefully easily treated. I hope that you can find some answers and that Muffin will get better soon.

[Author]

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