Bunny shaking it’s ears and scratching them?

[luna1243]

This is not a new behavior for luna I usually see it from time to time. However, over the past couple of days she has been doing it more often. She was spayed a month ago and had a skin scraping done for scavies and was given two doses of revolution for fleas (one dose, and then a second dose two weeks later). My aunt has moved in with me and has brought her dog and two cats with her, neither of them were treated for fleas so it’s safe to assume that all three of them have fleas. When i knew for a fact that luna did have fleas i never saw her shaking her head. Luna is also shedding, I read online that sometimes rabbits will shake their heads and scratch their ears if there is a piece of hair in them. Unfortunately, money is tight and I’ve just spent almost $400 on the spay and medications so I’d like to avoid another vet visit if possible.
So my question is, could her head shaking be from fleas? Is it possible that she could even have fleas again, even though she was just given her last treatment two weeks ago? Has anyone else seen their bunnies shake their heads more often when they’re shedding? Or could it be something else such as mites? Like I said money is tight and I’d like to get a few opinions before I go to the vet sense there are quite a few factors that come into play.

[Bam]

I looked this up, and it seems selamectin (the active substance in Revolution) is rapidly eliminated in rabbits. So it could be a new infestation of fleas from the dog and cats. I found a study on rabbits that indicates that selamectin should be administered every 7 days to fight fleas efficiently.

You of course have to treat the dog and cats as well or the problem will not be solved.

Here’s a link to the study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22452505

[LBJ10]

Get some more revolution. Treat everybody and make sure to clean the house thoroughly to get rid of any eggs. I agree with Bam, it could just be a reinfestation. If that doesn’t solve the problem, then you should have your bunny’s ears reexamined.

[Cottontail]

My Tilly will shake her head and scratch more when she has dry skin or is in full shed… but it’s still a good idea if you see extra shaking or scratching to run a flea comb over her a few times to check for fleas.

I am a bit confused on Revolution being used. I know that there is debate on what is safe and what isn’t, but I’ve had 2 different vets tell me that Advantage 2 for small cats (or for kittens depending on size of the bunny) was fine but to stay away from Revolution because they’ve had rabbits come through with problems from the toxicity of the Revolution. We had to give Tilly some flea-stuff because we’ve been staying with family that has an indoor/outdoor kitty that brought in fleas…. it seemed to work wonderfully on her with no ill effects; although we did do the best we could with a flea comb right before and after application to help it along a bit.

Repeated vacuuming helps to eliminate fleas because not all the fleas are hatched at the time of treatment. New fleas hatch when the eggs are disturbed (walking, vacuuuming, etc), but those eggs can sit dormant for weeks or months. The young fleas actually first feed off the droppings of the adult fleas leave on pets and carpet/furniture, as it is basically partially digested blood… it’s along the same concept of cecals for young buns. Make sure to use extra fabric softener in your bedding, too. I’ve found over the years that the fleas really don’t like fabric softener, so it makes them more likely to stay off the bed, and where they can be treated and/or vacuumed up more efficiently.

[luna1243]

Thank you for your answers I geuss I’m gonna have to bite the bullet and get everyone treated. Besides my aunts pets I also have a cat, dog, and two rats lol. That’s interesting bam, thanks for looking that up. And cottontail I will look into that. Maybe if I use advantage it will stay in her system longer?

[LBJ10]

CT – I have never heard of problems with Revolution. Experts seem to think it is the best thing to use, but Advantage can be used as well. Frontline, on the other hand, should never be used. It causes seizures and death in rabbits. They have even started labeling the packaging with a warning not to use it on rabbits.

 

luna – Diatomaceous earth is safe to use of carpeting to kill fleas. Remove your bunny from the area first before sprinkling it on the carpet, wait awhile and then vacuum it up. It isn’t toxic, but you don’t want your bunny to be in a position where they can inhale the powder since it can cause respiratory issues. Once it has been vacuumed up, it’s safe for your bunny to reenter the area.

[Cottontail]

LBJ – I’ll have to check with my vet… there is a chance that I was mistaken and they said Frontline… I just know that they recommended the Advantage. I’ll check with my vet again on Monday just to clarify. I’ll let everyone know what I find out.

[lorree]

I’ve always used advantage for small cats on my rabbit, seems to work great

Though I must say Boonie seems to do this same ear scratching and shaking head thing from time to time even when there’s no fleas around. She actually seems to do it most often when I’ve been playing with her or stroking her for a while and I figured I had just got some of her hair in her ears and she’s just getting it out. I don’t know for sure but that seems to be what she’s doing

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