Treating Ear Mites

[Leaf]

Hi guys,

Have you ever heard of using vegetable oil in a rabbits ears to kill/treat ear mites? A lady at work last night was telling me about her new rabbit and she mentioned thathe had earmites and the treatment she was using.

I really didn't have a response because I don't even know about treating them in rabbits but now I'm pretty curious about her practice.

Is this acceptable, safe, beneficial or just an old wives tale?

 

[Haley]

Ive heard of breeders using mineral oil with success. Although from what Ive heardmineral oil will kill the live mites but not the eggs.

A one time dose of revolution will do the trick much better, and its very safe for bunnies.

 

[Marietta]

Yes, I've heard of it, too, as breeders here in Greece droppure olive oil into the ear canal of the rabbit, in order to kill -to be more exact, drown- the ear mites. They say it'safe and effective, too. However,this is not a personal experience, as I've never tried it, in order to form an educated opinion.

Marietta

 

[JimD]

We used mineral oil for our cats that developed ear mites.
And I've read that vetable oil can also be used.

However, as Haley stated, it only kills the live mites and not the eggs.

 

[ra7751]

Just saw this....that has been used, along with mineral oil, by many. It's another one of the tricks breeders came up with due to lack of support by the vet community. It works by basically drowning the mites. But then there are the eggs which it doesn't address. So it's basically an ongoing type treatment. I prefer Acarexx (a one time treatment based on Ivermectin) or as Haley mentioned....Revolution one time. The down side of Revolution is that it does require a RX (in the US anyway) and it is expensive. On the up side....it works great, has been proven extremely safe and also takes care of some intestinal parasites as a bonus.

Randy