Itchy ear

[DaisyBun]

Hello,

Every once in a while my rabbit gets a terribly itchy ear. It’s always just one ear and it’s not normally the same ear, it’s rather random. However, when she gets this itchy ear it really bothers her and she ends up laying her ear flat while the other one operates normally. I always check inside the ear and I can’t see a single thing wrong. There’s no liquid and no crust, it looks completely normal. The itch eventually figures itself out and she is completely fine within a few hours of itching and shaking that ear and it doesn’t happen for another few months. But today she has a really bad itch, and I just can’t figure out what’s wrong. She’s acting completely fine, she’s eating her food, playing with toys, and even doing a few binkies but she has to keep stopping to itch her ear and shake it.
When I’ve asked about this from some other experts, I was told that it could be loose fur itching the inside of her ear, and I found this to be likely because when she’s heavily shedding this problem seems to return. When I look in her ear I do see some fur but I assumed this fur is natural and is just a part of the inside of her ear? Anyways, I just feel really bad when this happens because she seems restless and I can tell it really bugs her, so is there anything I could be doing to prevent this from happening?

[DanaNM]

Has this been checked out by a vet? Even though it’s intermittent I would still want to have a vet take a peek deeper in her ears to make sure there isn’t an infection or something stuck in there that’s bothering her. If she is a lop they can be prone to more ear issues and sometimes need their ears cleaned by a vet.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[DaisyBun]

Sorry for the late reply, but I’ve decided that we’re going to get her ear checked out by the vet soon. When I got her checked a while ago, they didn’t see anything and it must have been random, but whatever has been going on these past few days has actually been in the same ear which has never happened before. It used to be random and switch off, but her right ear has been consistently bothering her so I’ve scheduled the appointment to get it checked. It goes away for some hours of the day and doesn’t bother her at all, but out of nowhere it returns and she chooses to rest her ear so that it doesn’t itch as much. She is a netherland dwarf, and I’ve taken a flashlight to her ear to see if there’s anything there, but I can’t, so I imagine it must be something really deep in her ear that she can’t reach. When she tries to itch it, she goes in deep for the base of her ear so it must be something I can’t see. It’s just so unfortunate that I can’t do anything to help in the meantime.

Mites are pretty small right? So if she did have them right now I wouldn’t be able to see it? I’m just so baffled because the inside of her ear doesn’t look crusty at all.

[LBJ10]

If this has been going on for some time, I would think the presence of mites would be more noticeable. When an infestation starts, you usually can’t see much of anything. As time goes by though, you will start to see other signs like redness, flakes, and crust.

Bunnies are like people. Some people have sticky earwax and some have dry earwax. I’ve found rabbits with drier earwax tend to get a little piece every now and then stuck in their ear. They scratch at it and it typically comes out. Sometimes it doesn’t though. I’ve had my vet look in my bunny’s ear probably a dozen times and she says it’s just dry earwax causing a little tickle.

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