Mysterious Balding Problem – Advice or Experience?

[milaspalace]

**Bolded important details to help with skimming**

Hi there!

This is my first time posting here, so I’m not exactly sure how this works, but I could really use advice from anyone that’s had longer experience owning rabbits than I have. I’ve been a rabbit owner to two buns for 4 years.

My youngest bun, Mila, is just 3.5yrs old, a holland lop, spayed, and perfectly healthy.

She sheds normally, eats plenty, poops normally, binkys, drinks plenty of water, and is free roam around my apartment (in safe, clean areas).

She is the poster of health. She has no change of attitude or behavior at all. She gets great sleep and rest as well.

Recently, however, there’s been an issue with her shedding heavily on top of one of her ears. There was a small scab, and I was so worried of mites or ringworm that I made a vet appointment immediately. After seeing the vet, her doctor concluded that there were absolutely no mites, and that her bald spot looked nothing like ringworm. She still prescribed Mila Otomax and MiconaHex + Triz, just in case, and gave Mila a revolution treatment for any pests that might be hiding.

I’ve been extremely diligent in providing her treatments and checking on her often, but the bald spot has gotten bigger. Not quickly or  rapidly, just gradually getting a little bit bigger week by week. I’ve never seen Mila over-groom or tug at her ears at all during this time. I keep looking up common causes of hair loss in rabbits online- and nothing really applies to her.

She has no bumps, red spots, inflammation, bruising, or noticible markings- just hairloss in one area.

She eats a well balanced diet of 80% Timothy Hay,  15% herbs I grow on my counter with no pesticides or treatments outside of occasional fertilizer applied to the roots- which she never consumes- and 5% daily science source adult rabbit pellets. She doesn’t appear stressed or skiddish in any abnormal way.

I am not, in any way, seeking professional advice for my rabbit online- it would just be really helpful to hear from anyone that may have experienced something similar. I’m really at a loss and I’m extremely worried that this condition will progress into something much worse.

Thank you for any advice offered.❤️

[Wick & Fable]

How does the skin look? I understand we’re having issues with posting images on the forum right now, but if you’re able to upload a photo to Google Drive or another website and post a sharing link, our active members can take a look.

I’m not familiar with the first two listed treatments, but I am quite experienced with ringworm and I don’t think there’s harm in trying antifungal treatments (again, unsure of the current meds and whether they cover that as well).

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.

[milaspalace]

The skin was looking healthy for the most part apart from dry flakes here and there, but over the past week has progressed so much and now there’s dry patches on 4 or 5 areas on top of her right ear and neck. The MiconaHex + Triz is anti-bacteria, anti-fungal, and anti-biofilm. Her vet prescribed it just in case it was ringworm, as she said “I’ve never seen ringworm look like this, but truthfully ringworm can look like anything”. It honestly seems like it hasn’t helped much, maybe only slowed down the fur loss.

Here is a photo- but it may be difficult to see just how dry/flaky the skin is because I applied vaseline temporarily while I wait for a mite treatment to come on Friday. (That’s why she may appear wet, her fur clumped).

I normally would not apply vaseline so liberally, but after I rinsed her ears yesterday the vaseline seemed to relieve Mila of the irritation on her ears. A few days ago the ears were not red, but now they are.

[Photos posted on imgur]

Photos: https://amnmila.imgur.com/all/?third_party=1

[Wick & Fable]

Unfortunately the link doesn’t send me to a photo. How are things now?

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.

[LBJ10]

Otomax contains an antibiotic and a steroid. The other one is an anti-fungal. Not sure what the Otomax is for. Sometimes vets will prescribe it for an ear infection when there is a lot of swelling. You want to use that with caution though. Topical steroids are not as bad as oral steroids, but they are still steroids.

How long has it been since the Revolution application? If it was mites (keep in mind, mites don’t always show up in scrapings) then it isn’t unusual for the remaining affected skin to shed the already damaged fur after the treatment is applied.

[milaspalace]

Mila was prescribed Otomax because of it’s anti-bacterial properties. The vet didn’t have an exact diagnosis for her at the time, so she prescribed it just in case! Mila didn’t and still doesn’t have any swelling, but her ears have recently looked a little more irritated.

Revolution was applied on February 9th by her vet. Her vet was going out of town after that day, so she told me to call her once she returned at the end of the month if Mila wasn’t healing. I’m due to call her tomorrow, but I’m anxious about getting prescribed a ton more medications and being billed a ton for it ($230+ in treatments so far) and Mila not getting better.

[Meg]

I’m sorry I don’t have any relevant experience or advice, but just wanted to say it really comes across that you’re very devoted, conscientious, and organized and giving your bunnies a great life.  Kudos on that, and good luck with the fur issue!  I hope it clears up for you guys.

[milaspalace]

Thank you! I appreciate the support.❤️

[Chippy]

My Holland lop has the same exact issue right now! He’s balding on his head he has about 3 bald patches now.

[Weezykins]

Hi all I realise I’m a bit late but thought it was worth adding a reply.

I’ve seen the twice now with my Dutch bun, who turns 10yrs next month.

The first time was when we collected him from a shelter they missed that he had mites and was highly stressed. A few ivermectin treatments later and his fur started coming back.

The second time was when he lost his first bunny wifey. We think it was stress related.

Whenever our buns have issues with fur we add In Alfalfa for extra protein and oat hay for extra vit a. It just gives them the boost they need during shedding and stress.

 

[milaspalace]

Update for anyone curious:

After 5 vet visits and a TON of different tests: No mites, no fungus (ringworm), no heartworm, no blood abnormalities, no signs of stress. The vet was stumped and told me to stop all treatment except for a once-a-day treatment of Benadryl based on her weight (4.4lbs – 1.6mL of Benadryl) for a week.

Happily- All signs cleared up. All of her fur is in the process of regrowing and the only issue she has was some itchiness with her dry skin that caused a couple tiny lesions from her scratching. No idea what it was, but its clearing up entirely. Her new coat is coming in thick and healthy- a relief!

I asked the vet some questions- could this be abnormal shedding due to bad breeding? Could it be a sign of cancer even though she’s spayed? Could she have hormonal problems causing this? And the vet said for each of these questions, the liklihood of it is so low that it would be one of the very last things she would consider.

So, I guess if you’re having a serious balding problem and all tests are coming back negative- maybe take some time off of medications/treatments with your vet’s approval to see if anything improves! Once I stopped the hair growth was almost immediate.

[Meg]

That’s awesome!!  So glad to hear it.  Thank you for sharing this follow-up! 🙂

[Author]

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