Ear Control and helicopter-like ears: Concern or Cute?

[Cottontail]

For those not familiar with Tilly: She has been with us for about 3 and a half months now, and she’s a little under a year and a half old now;  She’s been spayed for 3 months. She appears to be a blue “mutt-bunny” with perky ears and a very plush short coat.

 Where we are is a bit warmer than when we were up north, but we’ve been keeping a close eye on her to make sure she has fans, ice water, cold veggies, etc… plus she likes to take up the floor vent.  The room can get to about 74 on blistering days but she has extra ice and cool packs… and she’s got a cool spot she can use on warmer days.

My concern at the moment is that she has been drooping one ear at a time while relaxing and/or eating… don’t get me wrong, it’s adorable; but it’s not something that I saw her do much before our move.  She has excellent ear control and can raise or lower them at just about any angle short of looking like a lop, but I wasn’t sure if this is something to be worried about.  She breaths quickly, but has done that from the start (before we got her).  We had her checked out before her spay and the vet said she was in perfect health and that may just be how she is because nothing showed in bloodwork or health inspection. 

She’s not acting poorly, but I don’t know whether to just be amused by her very moody ears, or to be concerned.  If anything, she seems more confident in herself; as she doesn’t put up with Pete being a little butt around her as much, and she’s still trying to make friends with Zoey.  Poops, peeing, and belly are good; appetite is voracious as ever, she still covers everyone in kisses and demands head rubs… and her ears are still up and perked most of the time.  She still tries to pee on all of Peter’s stuff when no on is looking.

 

I guess summarizing; should I be concerned that maybe she’s still too warm, despite our efforts, and that the developing ear behavior may be signs of heat stroke or discomfort?  Or maybe an ear infection (even though it switches which ear she droops)?  Or just her being odd and relaxed?

 

We’ll have her to the vet if we get concerned over her behavior or health, but this is just Mommy jumping the gun a bit and getting opinions from more experienced bunny-parents.

[JackRabbit]

Since she switches ears and not scratching her ears or any other behavior changes, I’d say its just cute. However, my motto is when in doubt, off to the vet (which is why I probably should own stock in our vet practice by now!).

[Cottontail]

So far she seems fine, and I know she gets stressed out at the vet so I try not to rush them out if I don’t think there’s anything really wrong with them. I think it’s just a combination of relaxing and moping. She seems to mope a bit during the day when her daddy is at work, but once he’s home she’s happy mischievous Tilly. She did it occasionally while we were up north, but I notice it more now that her hormones have settled and we’re in a smaller space.

I’ll probably be setting up a visit with the vet in a month or two just so that Pete’s old vet can meet Tilly and see how big Pete has gotten since his neuter.

And I think stock in the vet would probably be a good idea… we’re already up into the 4-digit numbers with expenses this year between the three of them! Spay, new prescriptions, x-rays, multiple casts, on top of normal visits and nail trims! I just hope they were getting that all out of the way so that we don’t have anything for the rest of the year! lol

[JackRabbit]

You and me both! I still think the vets should have coupons or punch cards (every 7th visit is free!) or something like that!

[kirstyol]

Bramble has great control over his ears, he can do one up one down, helicopter ears, both up or both back or a combination of part way up part way down. He can also turn them round to face noise. The vet said to me that its because his mum was a lop and his dad wasn’t and it was nothing to be concerned about, although he was surprised by just how much control Bramble seems to have of his ears. I am currently trying to get a better picture for another thread asking about half lop ears (bramble is camera shy and curious so when I go near him with the camera he puts the ears up and runs away) but this is the best one I have at the moment, he is only a baby in this photo I actually think its from the day I got him at six weeks. The right ear can come almost all the way down now, or he can put the right one up and bring the left one down a little

[Cottontail]

Here’s an example of her ear droop; Like I said, I didn’t notice it too often before the move, but it did happen once or twice.

Kir- The part lop theory is interesting. I know very little about Tilly’s bloodline; just that she was brought home from the store one day without consulting anybody or doing any research on bunnies, when she was about 2 months old. We just kind of accepted that she’s our little mutt-bun.

At the moment I’m going with it’s just a cute thing; but I will keep an eye out for head shaking or scratches, or ears drooping excessively.

[kirstyol]

Ok this is terrible quality because I had to zoom in and take it from across the room so he didn’t move, but here is Bramble doing his one half lop thing , he can actually lop it a bit more than that.

Bramble is the product of a pet shop selling two male rabbits to someone, one turned out to be female and pregnant at their first vet visit so although I seen his parents, I don’t obviously know much about their history. All I do know is that his mum was quite a big bunny and had lop ears, his dad was slightly smaller and had stick up ears. They are likely both mixed breeds.

When he was young I thought his ears were going to lop at first because he kept bringing that one down, I thought it was just a matter of time until they both lopped. I asked the vet about it out of curiosity and he said it didn’t look to him like they would lop because they face backwards (he can turn them round now though) and he could stick them up straight. The vet felt that he wouldn’t be able to straighten them completely if they were in the process of lopping.

Bramble has amazing control over his ears and he has never had any major problems with them, he did groom the right one a lot when it first started coming down but I think that was just because it was new to him and he found it a bit odd. He stopped grooming it a lot after a while and he is just sort of normal about them now. if the room is quiet and someone speaks he will turn his ears around to face the noise, which I suppose a lot of rabbits do, but because he can turn them right round and move them so much I think he is like a listening device training himself right in on the sound.

[Author]

Messages