Charlie's right ear is bothering him.

juicyjuicee · Feb 5, 2006

It seems like his right ear is bothering him. He shakes his head and scratches at it a lot. I checked his ear and its crystal clear so i'm not sure what the problem is.

Here's a picture.

****EDIT:****** i was about to clip his nails when i noticed one of his nails was bleeding. It looks like a rotten nail, its all black. I don't know how this could of happened and i'm not sure what to do. My mom said to put peroxide on it but i would like to make sure.

naturestee · Feb 5, 2006

Sounds like a vet visit is in order! His ear looks clean, but he could have the beginnings of a mite infestation or he could have an ear infection. You could put antibiotic ointment like Neosporin (not the Plus type, it has an added ingredient) on it. It's possible that it is also infected if it's not normally black, or it might be from sore hocks. Or he might have torn it before, but it didn't fall all the way off. A vet would be able to figure all this out.

urplepansy:I hope he feels better soon!

bunnydude · Feb 5, 2006

Oh no! I hope he gets better soon!

ray:

TinysMom · Feb 5, 2006

I really believe the best thing for your bunny is a vet visit. We can't really see what is wrong and that concerns me - your vet will have the tools to look into the ear better and judge what is wrong.

As far as the nail - the vet could look at that too in the same visit. I've never seen anything like that so I don't know what to tell you. Sorry!

Peg

HoneyPot · Feb 5, 2006

Hi there,

My bunny Cookie was doing the same thing - itching his ear, but I couldn't see anything. I took him to the vet - she couldn't see anything either, she told me to just watch him and if I saw the scabbing, bring him back in. Well, I just kept watching the poor little guy itching away and still nothing.

I bought some Mineral Oil from the pharmacy, and put a couple drops (with a medicine dropper) in either of his ears, and rubbed a little on the oudside ear fur as well. It's messy - and he was oily for days, but he stopped itching.

My vet mentioned it was good for just minor skin irritations - dry skin etc. And there have been recommendations on the forum to use it for mites.

I'd still take him to the vet for the nail and to check out the ear, but this worked for me in the past.

___________
Nadia

Maureen Las · Feb 5, 2006

juicejuicee..don't put the Neosporin in his ear. Mineral oil seems like a good option.I have seen the blackened stubs ofnails before on other rabbits..sometimes I think that its from a really long nail breaking off incompletely resulting inthe remainder of the nail dying. There is an antiseptic liquid specifically put out by "Peter". It is just for bunnies. I did try it and it seemed really good ..no alcohol or anything that stings. It is sold at Petco here.