One ear drooping

[Katie94]

Hello,

I noticed yesterday that one of my bunnies ears is drooping down more than normal. Everything else with him at the moment is fine eating, pooping Etc and the ear itself does not have anything obviously wrong with it.The only thing that happened out of the ordinary was he had his nails clipped yesterday and did struggle a bit so I’m worried that he may have hurt it while trying to get away. I have checked up on other causes and a drooping ear can also mean infections so I’m wondering how long I should wait to see if it improves before contacting a vet?

 

[Hermelin]

Better to contact a vet already, a dropping ear can be an ear inflammation and it can be really painful.

You can look into the ear and see if you can wax. You can also feel around the ear and see if your bunny react because of pain. Often untreated ear inflammation will only get worse without treatment. So better get the ear checked early.

 

[JBun]

It can sometimes happen when they are hot(increased blood flow to the ear makes them heavier). This would be temporary and would stop once the bunnies body temp cools.

If it continues and your bunny isn't hot, then it can indicate a problem like an ear infection. I would watch for signs of head shaking, excessive ear scratching, head tilt. If you see these things then I would book a vet appt. right away. If none of these things are happening then I would wait a day at least, to see if it goes away and may have been just one of those quirky things rabbits do for no explained reason.

 

[Katie94]

Thank you for your responses from yesterday afternoon he started holding his ear up normally again so it seemed to sort itself out within 24 hours. Hopefully there wasn’t anything wrong and he just did it randomly or maybe he got too hot. Will keep an eye on it for now and fingers crossed he won’t need the vet.