Broken ear?

[gentle giants]

Gabe, one of my most recent rescues, came in with two stick-up ears. Now one of them is laying to the side. There is no sign of swelling, the skin doesn't look irritated or anything, but when I feel of it the base kinda fells like it's rotating? He doesn't mind me touching it, but he occasionally shakes his head like it feels funny. I will have to see if I can get a pic of it. If I can ever get my other pics onto this computer, I will put up comparison pics. What doyou guys think? I have never seen anything like this. Can an ear be dislocated? I would think he would be in a lot of pain if it was, though, and like I said he doesn't seem to be hurting.

 

[naturestee]

I've never heard of a broken ear, but I have heard of uppy ears falling down when they hurt from problems like ear infections or mites. If you look in the ear, do you see anything? Does it smell funny at all? Does he scratch it?

 

[pamnock]

Hard to say. Doyou not any swelling in the ear canal? Injury as well as irritation can cause the ears to lop.

Steady warm temperatures can also cause erect ears to lop.

Pam

 

[gentle giants]

Well, there doesn't appear to be any swelling, I hadn't even thought to look inside. He's not scratchin it, just shaking his head every once in a while. He was barely even doing that this morning when I fed. We have had a couple of weeks of pretty severe heat here, that can cause ears to lop? I had not heard of that before. I will check inside his ear for any sign of mites or infection this afternoon. But I wiggled it all over the place today and yesterday both and he just was like, Hey, an ear rub, all right! LOL

BTW, if it is the heat that did it, is that permanent, or can that heal with time/cooler temps? Would it affect his hearing?

 

[lalena2148]

Drizzle has up ears and his one started to lop because it had a slight infection at the base of the ear caused by a build up of wax. I noticed his ear was lopped over, and it was hard and hot at the base and he was severly shaking and scratching at that particular ear.

The vet cleaned it out and gave me Baytril OTC to drop in his ear. The drops unfortunately also gave him a rash by his ears for a couple days but the swelling did go down.

Hope your bunny starts feeling better soon.

 

[gentle giants]

Gabe's lop ear is the same temp as the normal one, though, and has hasn't been picking/scratching at it. I will check inside it today and see if I can see anything.

 

[pamnock]

gentle giants wrote:

BTW, if it is the heat that did it, is that permanent, or can that heal with time/cooler temps? Would it affect his hearing?

If the ear base is wide, lopped ears due to warm temperatures can be permanent (but not always).

If the lopping is due to warm temperatures, it wouldn't effect his hearing any more than a lop rabbit's hearing would be effected.

Pam

 

[gentle giants]

Ok, I checked his ear out a little more yesterday evening. There isn't any smell to it. He wouldn't let me look inside very thouroughly, but I couldn't see any sign of mites or infection, etc. It all looks normal except for the fact it's falling over.

 

[Tiflis]

I've raised mini rex for many years and never saw this problem. But I recently came to the country of Georgia and bought a small rabbit from a market. He has been just fine and is growing very fast....

but now he has exactly the same symptoms you've described. I think that someone may have tried to pick him up or grab him by the ears while I was gone. My appartment is airconditioned so heat is not the problem. His ears look just fine, but the falling over is just on one side. No sign of fleas mites or anything else.

As you described he shakes his head once in a while but is eating and playing.

I hope someone knows the answer to this problem

Tiflis

 

[Tiflis]

Pam, if someone grabbed the rabbit by the ear and pulled, could the cartalege in the ear be broken? The ear does not look hurt and it is not hot or sore when I touch it.

Could there be some kind of parasite that is hard to see?

Tiflis

 

[fantaysah]

Sounds like an ear infection to me. Pepper held her ear down and shook her head a lot no other symptoms. vet gave her antibiotic 2 days later no shaking and ear was up again! Please have it checked if its the same as pepper's and its untreated it will cause tilt.

 

[pamnock]

Tiflis wrote:

Pam, if someone grabbed the rabbit by the ear and pulled, could the cartalege in the ear be broken? The ear does not look hurt and it is not hot or sore when I touch it.

Could there be some kind of parasite that is hard to see?

Tiflis

Any number of injuries could cause the ear to lop, as well as warm steady temperatures.

 

[Samara]

The OP posted back in 2007; I'm not sure what the current status of this bunner is?

 

[pamnock]

LOL Thanks Samara. I hadn't noticed the date when I replied the the email notice that I just got.

 

[fantaysah]

Ha ha my bad it was in the list so...

 

[fantaysah]

Oh the reason its back up is someone said they had the same issue so that person still needs help.