Nose discharge?

[HoneyBunny]

Hi, I’ve found there is a small patch of dry hair above my bunny’s nose. The hair is dry and hard. Is it snot or something else? He is 6 months old and live with another male rabbit(both neutered). All eating drinking poop wee is normal. Very active.  Please see the picture. Thank you.

[LBJ10]

Hmm… interesting that it is on top of the nose. You would expect it to be under the nose… and then maybe some on top of the nose simply from wiping.

Could he have sniffed something sticky? Perhaps you could clean it off and then wait to see if it reappears.

[HoneyBunny]

Just use warm water to clean? I’m not sure… it looks like the hair are glued together, I feel it is very hard to clean no matter what it is. And I’ve never seen him sneezing. Some people also mentioned pasturella but I don’t understand how he can get this. They are just stay at home and no other animals in my house.

[Bam]

Try and wipe it with a compress with lukewarm water. Do the best you can, gently pat dry the nose and observe to see if the stickiness goes away over these next few days. Obviously if you see snot or crustiness around the nostrils or observe frequent sneezing etc, it’s time to see a vet. A bunny cold is highly treatable with antibiotics.

As LBJ says, it’s a bit unusual for a bun to get snot only on top of the nose and none around the nostrils.

Regarding pasteurella, it’s very common for rabbits to carry pasteurella bacteria in their noses. The rabbit’s immune defense keeps the numbers of bacteria low, but if something happens that challenges the immune defense, the pasteurella bacteria can start to multiply and cause what is known as as a bunny cold or snuffles.

[HoneyBunny]

Thank you Bam. I cleaned his nose tonight with towel and it seemed like could be wiped off. The towel was all yellowish and poop color just like wiped someone’s bottom😅 So could it just be cecotropes? He has had ton of cecotropes left before and he just has started to eat his cecotropes lately after adjusting the diet.
I’ll see if this thing come back. At least I feel like he is not sick which is such a relief.

[LBJ10]

It could be. You just never know with bunnies sometimes! Now just watch him closely to see if it happens again. If it keeps appearing, then you should have a vet check it out. But yes, a nasal discharge would generally be around the nostrils. So it seems reasonable to assume this may be something else.

[HoneyBunny]

Thank you so much LBJ and Bam. He looks perfect today. I’ve never thought about try to clean it by myself before I posted here😂 I asked in FB group, many people said it was snot and let me see the vet ASAP which made me so panic😰

[LBJ10]

Well, I would have been more concerned if it was around the nostrils. It never hurts to ask! And it doesn’t hurt to have a vet take a look if you’re unsure about something. I’m glad it seems to have resolved. 🙂

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