Molt or Mites?

[Perocore]

[align=center]Age: 1 year, 6 months
Gender: Neutered buck
Breed: Mini Lop/Mini Rex Mix
Size: 6.4 lbs.

His diet has been consistent, he constantly has fresh timothy hay available, and is eating a and drinking like normal. I would consider him a long haired breed, and he sheds a lot on a regular basis. There has been no change in his behavior, he is not itching, his grooming is consistent, our other three rabbits are 100% healthy. My buck was fine yesterday, but, when I went down to feed the rabbits this morning, I immediately noticed he'd lose several large portions of fur. The skin does not look irritated or dirty, but there are chunks missing in horizontal stripes down on either side of his spine. They start mid-way down the back and continue to just above the tail. There is no fur missing around his head, ears, neck, feet, underbelly, or shoulders. He has been shedding like crazy lately, and there is a lot of loose fur in his cage. No excessive dandruff, but I still need to have a closer look.

I have narrowed it down to most likely either be that he is molting for the first time, or that he has some how acquired fur mites. As I said, the other rabbits are healthy, as are all of our animals. He has not been near any strange animals or other rabbits within the past 6 months.

I will take pictures soon, for now, any advice from experienced rabbit owners would be much appreciated. If you've had a rabbit go through a molt or fur mites, please let me know if this sounds similar to either.

Thank you so much,
Pero and her buns
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[Watermelons]

Is he in with any other bunnys? Maybe somebody pulled some of his fur out?
Its hard to say if its mite or not without doing a skin scraping. You can easily give him a dose of Revolution to be on the safe side (54mg would be his dose, you can safely go a bit higher).
are the spots with the fur missing bare down to the skin? Like he looks like a balding rabbit?

 

[Perocore]

[align=center]His cage sits between that of my 2 1/2 year old female dutch doe, and an 8 month old mini lop doe. This is an awful lot of fur to lose over night, so I'm guessing that the chances of one of the girls pulling it all out is low.

I plan on bringing him to the vet next week, if the problem seems to persist.

Yes, it appears to be down to the skin, I must do a more thorough exam though, I will take pictures as I do. I know he lost a chunk of fur from his nose down to the skin, but it filled in within a week (one of the girls did pull that one out). I'm really hoping that this isn't mites, had to deal with grain mites once, that was bad enough!

This rabbit has more and more problems...-sigh- I'll see about the Revolution, anything to help my shy little sweetie...

Thank you for the help,
Pero[/align][align=center]
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[/align][align=center]EDIT:[/align][align=center]Here's one image that I just took a few seconds ago (he's not very photogenic), as you can see, the fur loss is down to the skin. It looks similar on the other side, but not quite so drastic:[/align][align=center]Mites or Molt?
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[woahlookitsme]

Id say mites. If buns are molting you usually cant see the skin underneath. Theres always new hair growth even before the hair becomes loose

 

[tonyshuman]

It looks more like an injury than a normal molt or mite infestation. Is there any chance a predator could have gotten a swipe at him?

 

[Perocore]

[align=center]woahlookitsme, it was lost within a night...is that normal with fur mites..? The night before he was fine, then -poof- bald! I'll have to take him to the vet...

tonyshuman, injury? Heavens no! Our dogs (the only thing that could have gone near him) are fenced away from our rabbits, and he hasn't been in any fights. It's just bald skin on either side of his spin, the skin, now that I look, may be rather dry, but not raw or anything.

I'm now afriad that he very well has some how contracted mites...I'll take him into the vet, let them see what they can do, then try to get my baby some meds <3 Should I treat my girls as well, just sense they're so close to him?
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[ZRabbits]

Dobby went through that. Had almost the same pattern as your bunny. It is called "blowing coat". Dobby had not mites and as I researched found a bunny can loose fur in patches. What you need to do is watch the skin. The pigment will change showing new hair growth. I cheered when I saw Dobby's skin do it. Once the pigment changes, new hair growth will occur. Some bunnies do molt like that.

Also when Kreacher did a little bit of barbering (chewing fur) on Dobby's face, it did take a bit for the skin to show pigment. Which it did and hair grew back.

BUT, if skin's pigment does not change, then I would be heading to the Vet to check for another disorder or mites.

I saw a change in pigment in about 3-4 days. FYI The barbering took a bit longer (about 7-10 days)

K

 

[Perocore]

I was hoping he'd just blown his coat, but, while I was carrying him to a different enclosure today, I found several small, brown mites. However, my mom will help me purchase the Revolution and I can start medicating all 4 of our rabbits (since they've all come into contact). I cleaned out their indoor cages and they have all been moved out doors for now, so they are more mentally happy at this rate.


Hopefully this will be over as quickly as my grain mite infestation was!

Thank you all so much for the help! It's really great to be able to ask experienced rabbit owners for help, since none live around here