Missing fur on neck

[Austin]

Hi!

I’m quite a new rabbit owner. I’ve only had my bunny for less than a year. My parents own an outdoor rabbit named Snoopy and despite me trying to have him indoors, nothing as become of it. They’ve had rabbits for a couple of years and come out with “he’s fine outside”. I started pestering them for my own rabbit to care and pay for by myself, and I’ve ended up with little Nibbles. Snoopy is really their rabbit and I wanted an indoor one for me.

I’ve had a search on the forums but I haven’t found quite the answer.

I got given her by the breeders son who Snoopy was brought from. She was kept in a tiny 80cm cage, hardly let out and had no hay. The moment I got her I took her down to the vet for a health check. Nibs is fine apart from a few spurs which aren’t bothering her. They’ll be sorted in January when I spay her. Poor girl had sore hocks but those are sorted now thankfully. She seems to be quite a nervous rabbit, almost like she was abused. So I’m working on it.

However I’m pretty puzzled by her neck. She suddenly has a bald patch which appears to be very sensitive to touch. She rarely lets me look but the short chance I did get there wasn’t any cuts or anything. Nibbles also seems to shake her head a lot, scratch her ears/face. I spend an awful lot of time with her and do not have any bites myself, and have managed to groom her with a brush — also resulting in finding nothing.

She has timothy hay (which she has always had) and Science Selective nuggets, she’s been on them since I got her.

Around one of her eyes also looks pinker than usual, from where she is scratching I presume. This isn’t your average moulting as Snoopy is moulting and it comes out all over the place. This is just on her neck and when I stroke or groom her hardly anything comes off.  

Right now she’s around 8 months old, and is unspayed at the moment. One of the hamsters I own became very sick and needed treatment. However after Christmas I will be fixing her for sure.

Nibs gets full run of the house for around 2+ hours every day, going 100% scatty. Here there an everywhere, binkies, bunny 500’s, and then she sits still for 2 minutes and shes off again LOL. If I can’t let her run throughout the house she is allowed out into my bedroom. While it isn’t that large she can jump and binky around, but also run.

Everything about her is normal. Poos, weeing, eating, drinking. However it just seems to be getting worse. 

Should I get a vet appointment? Does anybody have a clue what is going on with the scatty girl? Haha.

Really for what she’s been through, she’s amazing tempered and will let you check her over for a few moments.

[tobyluv]

Hi and welcome to Binky Bunny! I think that a vet visit would be a good idea. It sounds like Nibbles could have fur mites/ear mites. Mites would be microscopic and you wouldn’t see them on her brush. You don’t want to let this go on any longer as infection could set in, plus she is probably uncomfortable with all the itching. . Whatever the problem is, hopefully the vet will prescribe something or give her an injection that clears up the problem quickly.

[LBJ10]

Sounds like mites to me too. A vet will be able to diagnose and prescribe an appropriate treatment for you. I also wanted to add that you never ever want to use Frontline on bunnies. It has been known to cause seizures and death. I’m just putting that out there for anyone reading this thread.

[Austin]

No no, I’ve never ever used frontline. I did a lot of research and instead purchase a special flea prevention for small animals. I tried using it on her when I brought her home but poor girl flipped out and I didn’t wish to stress her out.

As soon as the vet opens I’ll call them.

Does anybody have any idea what causes mites? Is it preventable? I’d like to keep her as stress free as I can and taking her down to the vet isn’t very stress free haha. She’s quite a nervous bun and flips out going to the vet I’m sure no bun likes the vet, but she’s a totally different story! Grunts, weeing, lots of poops, and tries to escape. I think something traumatic has happened to her in her old home.

[Bam]

Fur mites can come from the bunny’s mother. The baby bun gets a few of them, and that’s ok, the bunny’s immune-defense keeps them in check. Then suddenly, at some later point in time, maybe years later, the small number of mites get the opportunity to start multiplying. They only need a small dip in the bunny’s immune-defense to do that. This temporary weakening of the bunny’s immune-defense can be cause by stress or a heavy molt or a change of diet or by something you might never figure out.

Luckily mites, both furmites and ear mites, are easily treated with Revolution (selamectin), an ivermectin derivate that is very effective and bunny safe. You need a vet to prescribe it. Some vets use ivermectin instead, that’s alos bunny safe.

It’s important to clean the environment, clean out the cage and litter-box, wash all fabric, put toys etc in the freezer for 48 hours and preferably treat carpets with diatomaceous earth (non-toxic to buns as long as they don’t breathe it in directly or eat it).

Both my buns had fur mites when I got them, they went away with treatment and have never recurred.

[StachesMommy]

Yes, I think Nibbles may need to get checked by a vet as well. I’m actually taking my 9 week old to the vet today at 6pm because she too has a tiny little bald spot on the right side of her neck. She had a matted fur spot right there when I first got her about week and a half ago but I noticed it ripped off/fell out (?) one day due to her scratching that spot. I too checked all over her neck,ears, body to see if I can see dandruff because I thought maybe she may have mites or something but couldn’t find anything really… But perhaps you cannot see much with the human eye. Last 2 days she has been shaking her head but also jumping too so it was very confusing to me lol. I cannot tell if she is just super excited because she does these crazy binky marathons all over her play room but I do noticed her shake her ears and scratch behind, around, and that spot so… I’m taking her in. Would you like me to let you know how it goes?

[Bam]

Stache’s mummy, we’d be very happy if you let us know how your vet visit goes.
Sometimes you don’t see mites even in a sample, so some vets choose to treat empirically with Revolution (selamectin). It’s bunny safe and very effective. But I don’t know if 9 weeks perhaps is too young for that treatment.

[LBJ10]

Austin – oh no, I wasn’t meaning to say that you would do that. I just felt the need to add that for other people who might be reading the thread. I feel like it needs to be repeated as many times as possible since there seemed to be misinformation just out there on the internet in general.

[StachesMommy]

Bam, you are totally right! I took Cash to the vet and explained to her about the whole behind ear/neck area scratching and tiny bald spot on her neck. She did a full check and thought the little bit of flakes she found on the back of her neck was due to just dry skin but didn’t like the fact that she had scratched her ears (behind ear area) to the point that her skin turned pinkish/red so… although the swap came back negative and her ears are pretty clean the vet told me it would be best to give her a shot of Ivermectin 1% 0.1cc and gave me some drops Tesaderm to put in her ears for 10 days 2x a day. She told me sometimes they are so far down the ear canal swabs don’t always show them. (Just as Bam had mentioned) I asked her if it was okay for a bunny so young she said it was fine. So, hopefully everything will be alright now. We have to go back for a follow up shot in 10 days because of the whole mite life cycle issue. Cash’s eyes were about to pop out!! They were so very bulgy!! She was so scared… She did not like all the ear swabbing and shot. But it is necessary for her to get better. I hope everything works out for your baby Austin. Oh, one more thing. The ear drops she put into Cash’s ears came out a little around the surrounding fur around her ears and along the inside of her ears. With bunnies grooming themselves so much… would it be okay if it was ingested?! I tried calling the vet back but the office is closed. Maybe I should use a wet nap on the fur and along her ears to wipe the medicine away?

[Bam]

Thank you for reporting back, StachesMommy!

I can’t find anything about whether it’s unsafe for buns to ingest Tresaderm, but from what I can see it’s used in cats and cats clean themselves even more than bunnies. I think your vet should’ve said so if it were hazardous to ingest in the small amounts we’re talking about. But it’s of course best to give your vet a call and ask.

If there’s a lot on the fur I’d wipe it off for now. But I’d not wipe it off from inside the ears, maybe the entire ear should be treated to get rid of any nasties lingering there.

[StachesMommy]

Thanks so much Bam. I did contact the vet just now, she said it should be fine but if she obsessively starts grooming her ears to wipe the surrounding fur down but I don’t see her doing it so much so I just let it be for now. Thanks again!

[Austin]

Hopefully is not to late to post on this. I’m sorry if it is. I’ve had an extremely busy Christmas.

We took Nibbles to the vet, and she thought it might be fur mites. But not quite sure as it wasn’t all the signs. Took her home with some medication to squirt on the back of her neck (she loved that) and its still not getting any better Her skin is pink and smooth, no flaky bits or cuts. But its clearly bothering her. I was wondering if I could maybe put a tiny about of sudacrem on her neck where it is to see if that would help.

[Bam]

Sudacreme is it the diaper rash cream? Diaper rash cream can be used in sore skin in bunnies. Another alternative is bag balm.
I’m guessing you got Revolution (selamectin) against the mites. It should help within a week, if it doesn’t, sth else is wrong, selamectin is super-effective against mites (and very bunny safe).
Bunnies can get ring worm, a fungal infection (not at all caused by a worm). I think that could be the next possibility to check out if the selamectin doesn’t take care of the problem.

[Austin]

We saw the vet a week ago and its gotten worse. Yesterday I had to take one of my hamsters down for some treatment and saw the same vet that has been looking after Nibbles. She said because its not infected or bleeding, its not a massive worry. However we do need to get to the bottom of it so we’ll be going on the 6th I believe. She’ll take some samples and so on.

Yeah Sudacreme is the one used for rashes on babies. My dad uses it because he gets bad rashes on his legs and he find it helps. So we’ve got a lot in the house I used it on her sore hocks and it seemed to help. Nibs also doesn’t seem to like me touching it as if its sore. So maybe a tiny bit would help her feel a tiny bit better.

[StachesMommy]

Hey Austin, my bunny’s vet also told me she doesn’t have mites. She took a sample from her neck area where the fur was gone (I think I saw her do that lol I don’t remember 100% though) but she was given Ivermectin injection anyways. She’s going in for another shot of it today. Although she has told me she doesn’t have mites I don’t see her itching anymore at all other than her ears every now and then. I do see flakes along her back though. Not a lot but a few and they won’t come out. If I do try to remove them her fur comes out with them a little. She is shedding though so I don’t know. I’m all new to this. The one area where I see the most hard flakes is actually the injection site, the middle of her shoulder blades. I hope Nibbles gets better and the cream helps. Happy new year.

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