Chewing his fur

[chrisl1976]

ok...one of our two rabbits have just startedstracthing alot and chewing all the fur off the area just above histail and he is getting pretty bare along the right/left sides of hisneck. this started hapening pretty soon after he went to vetfor a re-check of a ear infection. Called vet and she put himon Childrens Benydrl which has seemed to help.

He has also started urinating all over his cage......he used to use his litterbox. Still poops in his box.


Any thougths on reasons???

thanks
Chris

 

[naturestee]

How old is he? Is it possible thathe's just hit puberty and is marking his territory? Is heneutered? If it's not puberty, I'd have a vet check him as itmight be a sign of bladder infection or bladdersludge/stones. Sometimes the only visible symptom is a changein urinary habits.

As for the scratching and chewing, I'd have the vet check for fur mites. Have you checked for fleas?

 

[chrisl1976]

he's around 3-4 years old, neuterd. Icheck for fleas and didn't see any. Our other rabbit is not showing anysigns. I figured if it were fleas or mites they boh wouldhave them since they do get out and play together.

 

[naturestee]

Although parasites like mites do tend to beattracted to animals with poor immune systems, which might be the caseif your boy had an ear infection recently. It doesn'tnecessarily mean that he has a major immune problem, just that it was"busy" with a different problem and the parasites took advantage.

My parents' cats were like that. One never hadfleas. They've had him for 11 years and have found maybe twofleas on him. The other cat had fleas almost constantly, evenin winter. He also shed a lot more and could only eat onebrand of food without throwing up.

Although if he does end up having mites, it's best to treatboth. There might just not be enough on the other bun tocause visible symptoms.

 

[Haley]

Last year my bunnies had mites. Basil had furmissing in a stip down his spine. Max didnt really show any signs. Thevet couldnt actually see any mites in the skin she sampled, but shethought it was best to treat for mites just in case. It mustve beenmites bc they cleared up after that.

 

[chrisl1976]

Thanks everyone

They both go in for a recheck for their ears Monday....so I'm sure she'll check Wrigley over pretty good.

Maybe he possibly picked something up from the Vets office since it started right after thier last visit

 

[chrisl1976]

Just a little follow up....

Took both to the Vet yesturday. Wrigley has Mitesso both are being treated orally. Vet actualy let us see whatthey look like through the microscope....nasty looking little creatures

 

[Haley]

eww yuck! I remember how gross I felt when Basil and Max had them. I kept imagining them crawling all over me :shock:

Good Luck and keep us posted!

 

[chrisl1976]

yeah....it gives us thecreeps. The vet said if we start noticing any redblotches on us, we should go see our doctor.


little CREEPY..especially on Halloween

 

[Haley]

I also used a flea/tick powder to get thebedroom where the bunnies live. I dont know if it was necessary, but Idid it just in case. I just moved the bunnies out of the room for 24hours and put that powder down and vacuumed it up.

Just a thought...

 

[chrisl1976]

yeah....I plan on doing a entire clean sweep of the room. Although the vet just said to wash the cages down.

She said some animals have them a majority of thier life and untilsomething happens, (scratch, illness, ect) theynever have a outbeak. We might have had them for years andnever had a clue...but I'm still cleaning it.