HELP! My bunny’s nose/nostril is turning black!

[Poorvi]

Ollie’s nostril which was completely pink in colour at first is slowly changing to a blackish colour. I talked to the vet who told me not to worry and that it is only pigmentation but I think there is something wrong. Her Nose is always wet and this blackish colour is spreading. It started out as a small patch and is now covering both the nostrils. Please help me identify this disease. I cant seem to find anything online as well.

[MoxieMeadows]

How old is your bun? does she have dark markings on her fur? If she’s still pretty young is could very well just be pigmentation.

[LBJ10]

Hmm, this is interesting. Reminds me a little bit of lentigo in cats. I think I’m going to lean toward pigmentation. If your bunny is young, then it could be a late expression of pigmentation there. Perhaps she even has the “Himalayan gene” mixed into her genetics somehow. Is she a mixed breed bunny? She appears to be all white from what I can see in the pictures.

[Cottontail]

I’ve never seen this in bunnies, but it’s pretty common in cats. Kind of like age or liver spots… where they had pale or pink lips and noses when they’re young and develop freckle type pigmentation change on the lips, gums, and/or nose. Most cases it’s just that, pigmentation; where eventually as they age the color will cover all or most of the lips and skin on the nose with no issues… but we were always warned to keep an eye out if it started to swell, change TEXTURE (not so much color), or if the animal started to worry at it. If any of that were to happen we were to let the vet know so they could do a skin biopsy to check for melanoma. As I said though.. this is my experience with cats with this kind of thing, and I have not experienced it with bunnies as of yet…

Actually, the only pigment changes for skin I’ve seen with bunnies was when Tilly got spayed and we discovered her skin was spotted under her coat. It took a little while for her fur to grow back in and over that time the markings on her skin did seem to change a bit in pattern (she was about 1 year old at spay).

[LBJ10]

LOL CT! We had the same thought. I have heard of it in cats, but not rabbits.

[Bam]

Dogs’ noses can darken too. My dog’s nose wasn’t completely black when she was a puppy, (and that’s a flaw in a German Shepherd), but the pigmentation got better (as it should) as she grew.

If there’s no crustiness, thickening of the skin, tendency to bleed, swollenness or preoccupation with it (as CT says, weird texture and/or scratching) it doesn’t seem very worrisome, and you have had a vet look at it. You will of course need to keep an eye, but when do us bun parents not keep an eye on or bunnies? (Rethorical question!)

It is very interesting though and we’d be happy to hear more about it.

[Sr. Melangell]

Olly has one of those, its a tan colour, I noticed it one day when he needed his nose cleaning because of his sneezes, but you cannot really see it as he has a bit of Tan fur on his nose on the same side since he got his winter coat.

[Poorvi]

Thank you so much for the response <3
Uhm my bunny is 2 years old and her fur is black and white but I have also seen a change in her fur colour to slightly brown in some places :/
The thing that worries me is that her nose is always wet
And she makes this weird sound when she runs sometimes but my mother (she’s an M.D. Med) is not able to catch any sounds in her breathing. So it’s all just so confusing :/

[Bam]

Bunny noses are often wet, they only breathe through their noses. There should never be any white and thick snot though, or drooling.
If your mum is an MD, I honestly think she’d have picked up on any unhealthy souns from her lungs.
Bunnies sometimes make sounds, some buns are more vocal than others. One of mine sort of sobs or almost twitter when he gets sth delicious to eat. The other one never does that.

[LBJ10]

She has some black spots on her? Okay, then I could see an extra “spot” showing up as she ages. Some bunnies just change colors as they get older. This seems especially true for some mixed breed bunnies because there can be very “unusual” combinations of genes. I think as long as it doesn’t look raised, irritated, scabby, oozy, etc. (i.e. it looks like normal skin) then it probably isn’t anything worry about.

There is normally a little “dampness” to their nostrils. As Bam said, they breathe through their noses all the time. Moist air exists their lungs and some of it settles in their nasal passages. This is completely normal. What isn’t normal is an obvious discharge that is white or yellow. It will cause the fur around their nose to become matted and stuck together. Sometimes you see matting on the insides of their paws/legs from wiping their nose too. When a bunny is congested, the sound in unmistakable. So I’m sure your mother would know what to listen for.

Some bunnies are more vocal than others. They can honk, grunt, and make soft little noises when they are eating. Not all bunnies go this, but some do.

[Poorvi]

YES the grunting is quite there. She grunts all the time! even when I stop petting ^_^
She’s such a sweetheart I wouldnt want to be ignorant and let anything happen to her, so tough with bunnies and in India, there aren’t really what we call exotic vets. But thank you this really has helped a lot!!

[Author]

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