i had a question.  i recently took rowdy to the vet for the first time, the visit went well but i noticed that she shed alot during the visit.  i thought that maybe this was because she was going through a heavy shed due to the weather change or the time of year...

anyways the vet prescribed her some eardrops, tresaderm,  due to some crust buildup in her ear that he couldn't remove due to the small nature of a rabbits ear canal.  he decided to be safe than sorry and asked us to put eardrops in twice a day for two weeks. 

once we got her home she wasn't shedding that much anymore and i was starting to think that maybe she was coming out of the heavy shedding period.  she wasn't that stressed for long once she got home. 

so now it was time to put the drops in her ears again.  we chased her around the house and once we caught her, we put her on a glass table to try to minimize her movement and we put the drops in her ears.   we noticed that when we did this she started to shed heavily again. lots of hair almost falling off of her.

my question is this, does stress cause a bunny to shed hair at an accelerated pace?  or only during a heavy shed does stress cause a bunny to shed faster?  anyone ever notice this?  also could this ever be a one person job to put eardrops in?  i mean it took my girl to hold rowdy down and me to put the drops in and rub her ear...how could one person ever do this? 

oh and a final observation.  why did the decide that these drops needed to be refrigerated?  i mean it's hard enough to catch rowdy.  then hold her down.  then put a alien object into her ears...then above all else, the drops are cold as ice?  what more could happen to poor rowdy?  please let me know if any of you know whats going on.  thanks in advance for your sympathy and help.

 

dave(rowdy)

Stress does cause my bunnies to shed more than normally. Its a defense thing, if a predator has em, they can shed the fur the predator is grabbing onto, and slip away.

Monkey needed eye drops a few months ago.. at first it was a 2 person job, my hubby had to put the drop in while I held her. As I got more used to it, I was able to hold her against my chest with my knees, and put int he drops alone. You may want to try that. Sit on the floor, and put Rowdy on your lap. Bend your knees up towards you, and hold her between your torso and legs. Might be easier for your girl to do, if you're anything like my hubby. He's not flexible at all

Another thing to try is putting her in a towel, a bunny burrito. SOme people find that helpful, Monkey doesn't tolerate that one bit.

thanks for your response. haha, yeah it just bites that rabbits hate everything that we do to try to take care of them...except for the petting/feeding...

heck, my Monkey even dislikes the petting part lol. She's just too cute though

The first month I had Pepper I had to give ear drops and rinses for a nasty infection, and later she developed chronic pasteurella so I have to dose her with all sorts of nasties.  She hates to be handled (no surprise there) so I just nab her, get it over with as quickly as possible, and then follow with a treat.  She'll wrassle an fight and growl the whole time and then as soon as I let her go she bolts for the kitchen and I find her standing on her hind legs next to the shelves where she knows the raisins are kept.

Stress can add to or even stop a shed - when Pepper was very ill she spent about 6 months halfway through a major shed and she got dry skin and we had to add a palm oil supplement to her diet for a while.  So it is possible that stress kicked the shed into high gear.  But it's also possible that the loose hair was always there and with all the fuss it's just being knocked loose.

Just keep an eye for bald and/or irritated patches that are out of the ordinary and let your vet know if they turn up.

My mini-rex sheds every time he goes to the vet, and only in a long patch down his spine. It's very frustrating for me because when I first got him he seemed to ride so well in the car and I thought we were going to have a good travel bunny. But it was not to be.
It seems to take forever for his fur to grow back in properly after a vet visit too. Not quite sure why this is.

I also had to give him eardrops at one time for fourteen straight days, twice a day, it was pure hell because he is NOT an easily handled bunny at all and I'd have to swoop down on him just to get a hold. He was abused at his former home, so he's more skittish than normal for a rabbit. Lots of soft words, extra pets and maybe a nice small piece of a treat afterwards does wonders.