Satin with a floppy ear??

[Satin]

I raise Satin rabbits and we have one that is around 3 months old and one of its ears is flopping over...Satins a suppose to have up right ears and none of my other rabbits have this issue! Anyone have some insight??

 

[woahlookitsme]

Is there any sign of an infection or ear mite infestation?

 

[Satin]

No not at all ear are clean...I felt around the base and the tissue does seem less dense if that make sense or maybe the muscle is not a tense?

 

[RabbitGirl101]

Its probably caused by the heat. There could be ear mites or infection but usually a flopped ear is from the heat. Squeeze the base of the ear if the rabbit squeals or jumps away it mites. If the ear seems feverish it could be infection.

 

[woahlookitsme]

Some larger rabbits can have a weak ear base. I know in Flemish this can be a problem and have seen a Flemish faulted for it at a show when I was commenting. If you a breeding for show I probably wouldn't keep him

It could also be due to heat or just a genetic flaw. Multiple genes control ear carrage in rabbits so to be on the safe side I would not use him or you may end up with more rabbits that have ear carrage problems.

 

[RabbitGirl101]

Woahlookitsme thank you for saying the thing about the weak ear base, I honestly never thought about the ear base. It explain why the lionheads I was looking at had sideways looking ears, definitely not breeding those guys into my herd now.

 

[Satin]

Thank you all so very much for your help! She is just a sweet little pet rabbit I gave to my Nieces, I thought it might be something genetic but was not sure however I will look further into the mite thing to make sure its not that!

 

[woahlookitsme]

Woahlookitsme thank you for saying the thing about the weak ear base, I honestly never thought about the ear base. It explain why the lionheads I was looking at had sideways looking ears, definitely not breeding those guys into my herd now.

You're welcome

And if the lionheads you were looking at had odd ears I might worry that whoever bred them was using holland lops in their project. Lionlops are becoming more popular and hollands are being used to create the lop ears. Another example of why the pet industry ruins a breed.