Red ears

[Moshimoud112]

Hi there I recently asked about ear mites on another thread and long story short I have been using baby oil on my rabbit to try and kill the mites it doesn’t seem to be working so I’ve called my vet and booked a appointment , the baby oil got on her skin and has seemed to irritate it as this redness outside of the ear wasn’t here before the oil , they look very red and she keeps itching them which is just making the redness worse is there anything I can do or put on her ears until her appointment to help the redness and to stop her from constantly itching it?

 

[JBun]

You can try wiping it off with unscented baby wipes. Or cornstarch might absorb the oils, but then you're left with the powder you have to get completely out of the fur. If that doesn't work, a rabbit safe shampoo would be needed to break down the oil and get it out of the fur. And that would have to be done very carefully, as you don't want water to get in the ears, plus any bathing of a rabbit poses potential serious risks.

It's best to only do the spot where the oil is in the fur, as bathing isn't recommended for rabbits, except when absolutely necessary, due to the potential stress response of rabbits and its dangers (injury from struggling, flystrike from improperly dried fur, shock, hypothermia, cardiac arrest). So it would really be better to wait for the vet to do this, if you can wipe enough off now, that it stops the skin irritation. But if not, maybe see if you can get your bun seen sooner, or call and consult with the vet.

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Bathing_rabbits

 

[Moshimoud112]

Hi J Bun, thank you for the advice I bought Un Scented baby wipes and wiped the excess oil of and it seems to be better now it’s definitely not as red which is good! She’s still scratching a lot though and her appointment isn’t until next week so In the mean time I decided to email my vet and ask about it and I’ll attach the reply below, I just wanted someone’s opinion on what my vet said as I don’t really know anyone else with Buns @JBun thank you

 

[Moshimoud112]

These are the pictures I took of inside her ear just so that you have a idea of what it looks like

 

[Moshimoud112]

If anyone could get back to me it would be a great help thank you

 

[JBun]

It's not possible to determine anything definitively from those photos. It would take the vet looking into the ear canal. It could just be ear wax build up, or it could be the start of ear mites or ear infection. All three can present with some type of discharge from the ears, though each will usually look a little different.

If you want to try the ear cleaner first based on your vets suggestion, that's up to you.