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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Fur on chest chewed (or not?)

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    • Nivde
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        Hello everyone,

        It’s been a while since I posted here and I would like to start off by saying that if initially I didn’t know my bun’s sex, after a visit to the vet in last novemeber , its officially a boy

        Now to the issue at hand: some days/weeks ago i started to notice he was grooming more than the usual his under the chin area …chest area i guess? I didnt make much out of it since he likes to keep himself clean and I do check from time to time – when he lets me – his mouth/nose area for humid areas. Anyway, then at one point i saw some fur sticking out from that area …so i tried pulling and a little bunch (sorry I dont know the right word for that) of fur came out easily. So I thought he might be molting and said I will see how things go since there was no other abnormal behaviour (food ok poop ok no sudden change in regular behaviour).

        Some days ago though, while I was hand feeding him some stuff and he had to stretch to reach it i notice a bold spot under his chin / on his chest . So last night I decided to trick him with food, ofc, so he will stretch and I can get some pics. 

        Since I am no more sure if its molting or something else, because the spot seems to me quite big , I decided to ask you guys if you have any ideea what it could be. Also, 2 things to note: 1) since he is 11mths old I only had 1 molting in autumn, and that was not something big…I mean no bold spots just some hair falling down easily when pulling gently – so I am not really ‘experienced’ with how molting should go. 2) What worried me a bit more is that some part of his fur in that area is…how to explain…like it was wet then dried and stick together. Which , I figure, if it was molting, should not be happening. Also he wont let me touch the skin area. I can barely trick him into touching the fur around it.

        So I will try to attach some pics I took last night, maybe you could share your thoughts on this? I am planning to take him to the vet next week (or as soon as i can get a ‘date’ with the vet) just to be sure in any ways.

        Thanks in advance!!

        P.S. The pics are kinda blurry since its hard to keep him steady


      • vanessa
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          The pic has such a bright shiny image, I can’t quite see it. But from yoru description – wet, then dried, then no fur, sounds like he has been drooling, the fur gets wet, dries, the skin gets irritated from the wet fur, and the fur falls out. I would take him to the vet and have his teeth looked at. If he is having dental pain, he’ll have trouble eating, he’ll drool his water, and be drooling generally.


        • Nivde
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            Well I had to use the flash since i took the pics at night , but there’s 3 pics by the way.

            Should I be able then to feel some wet fur if he drools generally? Regarding the food, he has no problems yet with eating: he eats his veggies, his pellets, and has quite an appetite. I was hoping is not something related to teeth but…anyway thanks for your input, as i said I will also take him to the vet as soon as i get an appointment with the rabbit vet.

            If he is having dental pain shouldnt he also have a bad mood and grind his teeth a lot?


          • vanessa
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              I have had wet/missing fur with Lancelot before, involving eyes and chin. The fur dries prety quickly, so you might find soem wet, or some dried. Check the insides of his paws too. If he is trying to clean it off, you’ll find dried peviousely wet fur on his paws. My first thought would be dental. The degree of the dental pain is anybody’s guess. He might be grinding his teeth, might not. If it isn’t feeling that bad, he might not have a different mood. If the teeth are worn so that he can’t keep his drool inside his mouth, he may have no pain at all. When Lancelot had wet fur around his mouth, I had recently adopted him, so I was still trying to get on top of his dental issues. On other ocasions, he just wasn’t feeling well (dizzy), so he didn’t exhibit much muscular control, and drooled. He typically gets a wet chin from drinking water, but that isn’t enough to wet the skin and caus fur loss. This sort of thing is unfortunately mostly asociated with dental problems, whether they show other signs of pain or not. As an example – if you had sharp points on your teeth and the only way you knew to alleviate the pain was not closing your mouth properly, you would drool, but not be in pain.


            • Nivde
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                Thanks for the detailed explanation vanessa I’ll try checking for what you said (he is not always happy when i go around his mouth/chin) until the vet appointment.

                At least, as long as he’s eating normally guess it’s still a good thing. Hope to get that appointment ASAP tomorrow morning and will post back once I find out whats what


              • Rookie
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                  Rookie showed no sign of any kind that he was having dental problems….until the abscess just came out of nowhere…I couldn’t believe that I missed it….but the vet said it hit him quick and hard which is why I couldn’t have known cause even after he was given medication and vet monitored he was deteriorating and fast…
                  Again…he ate, didn’t drool, didn’t lose personality and didn’t even really grind his teeth.
                  So get him checked out. Better be safe than sorry. I wish he had given me a sign so I could have caught this earlier.


                • Nivde
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                    Thanks for your input Rookie.
                    In one hour I am going to the vet . I really hope is nothing bad nothing dental but based on how you describe your experience with Rookie seems similar.

                    Did they do surgery on Rookie or just medication ? And I dontt wanna sound cruel but I didnt understand from your last sentence about Rookie if he got ok or not ?


                  • Nivde
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                      Got back from the vet teeth are ok , they suspect a skin parasite – i dont know the name in english – so they took some samples for analysis and will find out in about 2 weeks.


                    • Jessica
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                        My girl went to the vet yesterday for bald spots on her sides and the back of her neck. I suspected fur mites, the vet did a skin scraping but didn’t see anything under the microscope, but decided it was best to treat her anyways. He put her on Revolution (Selamectin) which is a monthly treatment that will also take care of fleas, ticks, and mites. She will need that as a preventative since her best bud is my dog who will start spending time outside again as the weather is starting to get nice


                      • vanessa
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                          Wow. Well that should at least be easier and less expensive to treat than a dental problem 🙂 Waiting anxiously for the test results 🙂


                        • Nivde
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                            @Jessica: my vet said he could put him on treatment (I dont know what kind though he didn’t specify) but , for the thing he thinks it might be, the treatment is kinda strong so he would rather have the results before and only do it if it’s the case.

                            @vanessa : yeah, I am a  relieved that it’s not dental !!! , and also looking forward to the results hoping that its something to be cured quickly

                            For now I have to ‘clean’ the area with Betadine, 2 times a day if i can (I am having a very hard time holding my rabbit, so I am hopin at least 1/day i will be able to ). Speaking of Betadine (I hope the name is universal), does anyone know if it’s licking-safe? Because I’m sure Jasper will lick that area …

                            For those who fancy reading some French, here’s a link to what the vet suspected – I tried to find a proper English translation but failed

                            http://www.margueritecie.com/teignes.php


                          • vanessa
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                              The translation is Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Interesting. Its a fungus that causes ringworm which can present itself in various forms – hair loss, scabs, lesions, not neccesarily all of them. The picture of the ears look like Lancelot’s ears. He doens’t lose fur, but his ears have those dry scabs like the photo, and I haven’t had a diagnoses from two different vets. They both tell me that he has bigger problems to worry about than that (EC, incontinence, posible arthritis).


                            • Nivde
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                                Luckily (I think) the fur-hole in Jasper’s chest doesnt look as bad as the pics – but who knows maybe it will evolve. Anyway, until the analysis come back it’s not sure.

                                Also, vanessa, if you think Lancelot has this, there’s another way you could find it – which the vet said that is a very sure way and doesnt even require analysis – since it’s transmisible to humans, if you or someone in your family who had contact with Lancelot develops some red spots on the skin, then it might very well because of this.

                                Even if he has bigger problems to worry about, I am not sure if this is kind of a disconfort for them or not – but if it can be fixed without much stress to the rabbit – why not fix it at least he will have ONE less problem also since humans can get it, it will also avoid you or someone in your family getting something


                              • vanessa
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                                  Yeah I agree. I read that skin scrapings can be tested with UV light – they glow if they are positive. I have a UV light that I use to check for animal pee…


                                • Nivde
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                                    Ok so, results are back from the clinic: it was not what they suspected, which , they said, it’s really good news . Also, meanwhile, after cleaning daily with a mixture of Betadine and “special water” , the white area has gradually become black (fur growing as far as i can tell). So allseems fine for now !

                                    Thanks everyone for your input !

                                    EDIT: And , the clinic also said, I should monitor Jasper for a while and if anything like that appears again, to go see a dermatologist at the clinic.


                                  • vanessa
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                                      Great news 🙂


                                    • Nivde
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                                        Thanks, vanessa

                                        So the fur grew back on his chest, everything looking normal, but lately i noticed he is starting to lick himself (I am not sure if it’s licking or …plucking? i dont know if it’s the right term for rabbits ) again in that area…so far the fur seems intact but I tried touching today the area, and he is very jumpy about it…hopped away immediately. Also there is something that I just can’t understand and unfortunatelly is hard to capture in a photo: there are these , lets call them lumps, in his fur, in the area around his head. I tried to look close at one of them , and to me it seems like fur stuck together somehow. It is positioned at the base of the fur – close to skin. As far as I can see , its not a lump on the skin, more like fur stuck together, as I said. But I don’t understand where they could come from? And today while touching his chest to check, I MIGHT have noticed – not sure since I couldn’t be thorough because he hops away – a new one forming.

                                        I will probably get him again to the vet, probably to the dermatologist. I am not yet worried because everything else is fine, he seems happy, active, eating, pooping but I was wodnering if any of you guys have had similar stuff with your buns – I am referring to the fur-lump-thingie.

                                        Thanks


                                      • vanessa
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                                          Yeesh… not sure. Anxiously waiting for him to sit still and allow you to take a picture…


                                        • Nivde
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                                            Well, the good news is … the ‘thing’ is gone… The bad news…there’s no bad news. I dont know if he chewed it overnight or what happened, I didnt seem to locate it on the floor or maybe i cleaned it away wihtout noticing.

                                            Here are some pics though (second one is with flash on thats why is so whiteish):

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                                        Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Fur on chest chewed (or not?)