Hi everyone!
I’m all worried because tonight I noticed that my 5-year-old Lionhead/Dutch mix, Athena, has a weird patch on the front of her neck. It’s basically just an inch or less below the very top of her neck, under her jaw. There’s a small strip of stiff fur from some sort of dried liquid, and also a bit of a yellow tinge. And in the middle there’s a tiny patch (smaller than a pencil eraser) of bare pink skin (which otherwise looks healthy), next to a larger patch (about a square half-inch or so) of fur that is weirdly short, as if she’d gotten a haircut. So it could maybe be from rubbing or biting. (I’ve attached a photo, but it’s not a very good one.)
The dried-liquid strip does not lead to her mouth, and she’s eating all her food normally, and acting basically normal. I did bring her onto my lap tonight to check her out, and I didn’t feel any weird lumps or anything. She also didn’t seem to mind my cleaning the area with a wet paper towel. (Since I did that the yellow has not come back, though it’s only been 5 hours or so.)
I read around on the forums here, and it seems like it might be stress — we moved to a new apartment 7 weeks ago, and then I had to go out of town for over a week just lately. (We have a terrific bunnysitter, but still.) I feel so guilty: I saw something similar (just noticed the stiff fur) shortly after the move, but thought she’d just somehow gotten food or something there, so I didn’t fully investigate. I can’t say for sure if it got better and then came back, or what. I didn’t notice discoloration until today, but it is in an area that’s hard to see.
This spot is a place that she can reach when she grooms herself, so she might be over-grooming from stress. :/ Her BFF, Teddy, does groom her too but only gently, and almost certainly not in this spot.
Should I be worried about dental problems or other concerns? Both she and Teddy are sooo nervous traveling that I worry that a trip to the vet would totally stress them out. (And unfortunately we’re in a new city so there’s no one here who’s seen them before.)
What else might help this poor little bunny girl? They are never caged, but they don’t venture off their rugs (onto the hardwood floors ) so they don’t have nearly as much run space as they did in our last carpeted apartment, poor buns. I was thinking of getting the Maze Haven so they’d have another stress-reliever, but only worry if it could make any over-chinning worse? (Now they have a wooden bunny condo, a wooden playhouse, and a bunch of little cardboard hidey houses.) Also, would it make sense at all to give Athena a little dried chamomile sometimes, or is that just for emergencies? I don’t know what direction to go in to help this little sweet bun — any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you so much in advance. I love these bunnies so much.
p.s. Oh! There’s more rug-territory they could have in an adjacent room, but I can’t get them to go there. Even though it’s all connected 100% by grippy rugs, and I’ve placed cardboard hidey houses along the path for extra bunny security, they still won’t venture into the next room. Any tricks on encouraging them? That might help make them more relaxed and happy.