Spayed Female Rabbit pulling & eating fur

[A.cowan182]

Hey,

So this is a bit of a weird one last weekend I noticed when I was giving Mittens treated and she was on her back legs I could see a bald spot had formed under her chin. Suitably alarmed I took her to the vets a couple of days later, the vet said she could see no medical reason for the fur pulling i.e. no mites & no dental issues. I know for sure that she’s eating the fur as she’ll have a couple of poops strung together with fur. She’s been eating & pooping as normal but she hasn’t been herself, no binkys, reluctant to come out for treats.

She was spayed last May before I adopted her and I have never seen her do anything like this. All Ive been able to find online is about pregnancy / false pregnancies which definitely isn’t the case (unless shes fostering some kind of rabbit messiah?!).

The bald patch has now progressed down her chest & is visible at all times (unless you’re up close and trying to get a look at the skin!!). This is fairly distressing to watch & I really don’t know what to do. Nothing has changed in the house or her habitat, her sister died about 3 months back after battling mega colon but would it not be weird for her to suddenly be lonely after being so happy all this time?

The vet suggested getting some form of tshirt to put a barrier between her & the fur so Im gonna give that a go? I got her a digging box at the weekend, she also has loads of blankets & chewing things. Im also trying to get in touch with the santucary I got her from to see if they think she needs a new pal?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Azerane]

It could be that she is lonely or missing her bond-mate, but my concern is that there may also be an underlying medical issue. It’s tough to say for sure which it may be unless you try bonding and it stops the behaviour, or you run a series of tests at the vet, blood work and x-rays etc.

Fur pulling for false pregnancies usually results in the fur being piled into a nest, if you’re not seeing that, I don’t think it would be that. I might be hesitant to give her a shirt to wear, not only because it may quite scare her, but also she may be inclined to keep chewing on it and eating the fabric, and lengths of fibre are quite dangerous for rabbits to ingest.

[jerseygirl]

She has a lovely area set up !!

Is the fur coming away easily in these areas?

Im wondering if false pregnancy could still be a consideration even though she is spayed. Do you know if she had a full ovario-hysterectomy? Some places do not always do this. False pregnancy would still be unusual though if there aren’t the usual triggers. Some changes in uterine tissue can bring them on however.

Suitably alarmed I took her to the vets a couple of days later, the vet said she could see no medical reason for the fur pulling i.e. no mites & no dental issues.

Did the vet do a skin scraping to check for mites? They don’t always show up. What about bacterial or fungal skin infection? 

[Author]

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