English Lop - Ear Issue

[ranmaryoko]

Hi,
I'm directing this mainly at people who have experience with English Lops, but anyone who might have useful input would be welcome. Ripley is an almost 9 month female english lop. Three days ago I discovered a pea sized hematoma on her right ear. When I took her into the vet yesterday they drained it. The vet also noticed that the rest of the small capillaries in her right ear, and some of the ones in the left ear, were rather irritated looking. She is now on metacam once a day along with Avix Sooth ointment applied topically. I am also applying warm compresses. As you can imagine, Ripley is just "thrilled". The vet hopes that this will take care of it in a week. If not, she will be placed on an antibiotic and a vascular drug in case of vasculitis.

The vet (who is an exotics exclusive practitioner) said that the irritation and hematoma was most likely a product of her normal stepping on her ears and doing binkies into the wall. I do trim her nails twice a month to minimize ear injuries. My question is whether anybody knows how common this is in english lops. Have any other english lop owners/breeders encountered this? I know they are prone to ear injuries, but I really hope this isn't something Ripley has to live with for the rest of her life. Also, is there anything else I can do to minimize this issue?

 

[ranmaryoko]

I wanted to add that I posted this before I checked on her after getting home from school. They are WAY worse now. Super red on both of her ears, you can even see the redness on the outside of her ear now. She is going back into the vets as soon as they open tomorrow. I would take her to emergency, but she's not critical and I know they wouldn't know what to do.

 

[JBun]

I found this info on aural hematomas in rabbits, that you might find helpful. I would have the vet look into ear mites or an ear infection as possible causes of the problems she's having right now.

http://www.examiner.com/article/aural-hematomas-blood-blisters-the-ears-of-a-small-pet

 

[ranmaryoko]

Ripley update: Ok, so you know your not overreacting when even the vet is shocked. She has as the vet put it "a roaring case of vasculitis, compounded by an overload of histamine release". She also confirmed that some of the tissue on the inside of her left ear is sloughing off. The vet gave her two IM injections: Metacam and Benadryl. She had me wait with Ripley for a half hour to see if that would start bringing down the inflammation. When we rechecked the ears, they were a little better. I told her I was almost out of the oral Metacam I had for her at home. So she sent me home with a refil of the Metacam which she will get once a day. She will also be getting Baytril twice a day and children's Benadryl 3 times a day. She told me to discontinue her ointment in case it was causing any irritation to the skin, and because the skin is so delicate right now. I am proud to say that Ripley behaved better for her injections than many dogs and cats do. And I am also seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. There was no evidence of ear mites, her ear canals are completely normal.

 

[tonyshuman]

Wow. Your intuition was right. Glad you got it checked and hope things are better now.