What's going with Toby's ears? (Resolved)

[kirbyultra]

For as long as I've had Toby (2 weeks he looks like he had a thing for scratching his ears with his hind legs. I thought they were a little red at first because he had super sharp nails and he's only about 2 months old so these were brand new nails. Last week he went to the vet for a checkup (when we found out he had coccidia) and the vet clipped his nails down so they're not as sharp anymore. But he's still scratching his ears quite a bit. Not all the time, but certainly more often than my other bun Kirby does on a daily basis.

Toby also does a lot of "head binkies"... He runs around and just throws his head around, causing cute "flopping" of his ears. I always thought it was cute but now I am wondering, is he shaking off an itch? I have a youtube of it. I gotta find it.

His ears (on the inside, but not very far down) have this rough line that looks red and feels a little bumpy. The texture feels like a scab, but doesn't really look like a scab. It's dry, not an open wound. Here are 2 pics, one of each ear. The purple circles are were it's red rather than pink like the rest of the ear. It's kind of hard to see but where the red arrows are pointing are little bubbles... I'm not sure what they are! What do you think all this means?? Is it mites? It doesn't quite look like it.. (I've seen a lot of scary pictures) Wouldn't the vet have seen mites last week if it was? She definitely checked deep into both his ears. But I suppose she could have missed it if it wasn't red at the time.

What should I do? Should I bring him in for another check??

 

[kirbyultra]

Here's a video of the head binkies he does. Not sure if the are real binkies or if he's shaking off an itch.

[flash=425,344]http://www.youtube.com/v/of4tyIxRF_E&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]

 

[kirbyultra]

Here is his right ear at a different angle. You see the little bit of dried blood there. I think, but no way to be sure, that he scratched himself a bleeder. :nerves1

 

[Maureen Las]

I think that the red scratches in his ears are from his nails but if you do notice scratching then it's possible that he does have mites which did not show up. I think excessive scratching indicates some problem andisn't normal


http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=11954&forum_id=10


Iknow that some people on the forum treat ear mites them selves butI would go back to the vet and explain the situation; the vet may treat as a precaution,

Ido not think that his very cute binkies and ear flicks are related tomites but that he is very happy (and just absolutely darling )
How do you keep your floors so perfectly clean? :expressionless

 

[kirbyultra]

angieluv wrote:

How do you keep your floors so perfectly clean? :expressionless

lol - the lighter colored yellow floor is a straw mat that I laid out for Kirby. He was chewing his mats and eating them so I had to throw those outta his pen.

Underneath Toby's cage is actually vinyl floor covering that looks like hardwood floor. I bought a large roll of the stuff when I got Kirby because I wasn't sure if he would urinate on the floor or not (he never has, but I kept the vinyl underneat anyway because it's a little plushy) Alllll the way on the left is the real hardwood floor of my house. I am a hand-vac fanatic. I handvac the areas daily, especially after replenishing their hay, there are bits everywhere. Once every 1-2 weeks I come in with the big floor vac and do a thorough cleaning in all the crevices and inside their cages.

Hubby thinks he is allergic to hay (despite his allergy test saying otherwise) so I keep the room as dustfree as possible.

 

[kirbyultra]

angieluv wrote:

I think that the red scratches in his ears are from his nails but if you do notice scratching then it's possible that he does have mites which did not show up. I think excessive scratching indicates some problem andisn't normal

Yes, I wasn't really convinced it was mites because I thought after 2 weeks it would look a lot worse if it was mites. The state of his ears are about the same as when I first noticed it 2 weeks ago. I'll take more note of his scratching habits and check his ears more often. I definitely will take him to the vet if anything further develops.

I also took a closer look at the "bubbles" I mentioned in the first post, where the red arrows are pointing. Looks like dried skin, actually. Looks like he scratched it up and some skin was coming off with some healed, pinker skin beneath. It only occurs in that one straight line down each ear. I think that is pretty much where his back feet can reach easily.

I think I'll go get some mineral oil... if nothing else, it might help moisturize and soothe the redness, you think?

 

[kirbyultra]

Couldn't find straight mineral oil, had to use baby oil which has frangrance. Sorry Toby.

I put it on, he didn't really fight it. Will have to see after a few days if redness subsides...

Thanks everyone!

 

[Maureen Las]

I think Pamnock has used mineral oil in the ears for mites as a home treatment but not baby oil

Ithink that you meant that you placed some on the scratch marks right?

 

[kirbyultra]

I put it on the scratch marks. I'm not sure if pamnock meant that she was putting mineral oil *into* the ears or just where a bun would have those scabby stuff the terrible mites leave behind, but in any case, I wouldn't put baby oil anywhere that far down because of the fragrance. I just put a thin coat on his scratches, not enough for it to drip down at all. As you can see in the pictures, the scratches are not far in. I am hoping it helps with the irritation.

 

[Saudade]

Make sure you give those claws a trim buster! That could sove a lot of your problems!

 

[BethM]

kirbyultra wrote:

angieluv wrote:

How do you keep your floors so perfectly clean? :expressionless

lol - the lighter colored yellow floor is a straw mat that I laid out for Kirby. He was chewing his mats and eating them so I had to throw those outta his pen.

Off-topic, but where did you get that straw mat? That is awesome!! I am looking for something a lot like that for my new bunny room.

On-topic....Did the vet check Toby's ears for an infection? My Tobi had to go in when she suddenly developed a watery eye. Turned out, she had a mild ear infection.
She has a tendency to shake her head a lot, so it's hard for me to tell when she's doing it more than usual.

 

[tonyshuman]

The 1st pic looks a little like mites to me, but I would think the vet would have noticed it. The binkies just look like adorable baby bunny binkies. It could very well be long nails--I know babies have sharper claws than adults bunnies. It might be better to bring him in to the vet for adouble check, since most vets look deep in the ear and not at the edges.

 

[kirbyultra]

tonyshuman wrote:

The 1st pic looks a little like mites to me, but I would think the vet would have noticed it. The binkies just look like adorable baby bunny binkies. It could very well be long nails--I know babies have sharper claws than adults bunnies. It might be better to bring him in to the vet for adouble check, since most vets look deep in the ear and not at the edges.

Again! I've been on the forum a lot these past few days and I don't know how I missed the update on this thread!!

I've been applying baby oil on his ears (affected area only) once a day and to be honest, the redness has gone down and I haven't seen him scratch so *passionately* like he used to in a couple days. My boss is having me work from home this week so I have been keeping a good eye on the buns. Luckilu my computer room = the rabbit room (don't worry, the buns are fenced away from the cables and things). Yesterday when I was applying oil, I saw that the back of one of his ears also had a tiny spot of dried blood. I put some oil there too. Now he looks silly because the oil got on his fur behind the neck. The fur is spiked up and he looks like a tiny rocker bunny now lol :biggrin2:

I want to trim his nails, I really really do. He's just so tiny that I'm nervous about it. I think I'll wait till my husband is home from a business trip to get an extra set of hands to help steady him. He returns Saturday

I'll give the baby oil another day, I'll take pix again of Toby and see if you guys think the redness has gotten better. I look at him all the time so it's sometimes hard for me to tell if there's been any dramatic change. I personally am leaning towards sharp claws being at fault here, not mites but stay tuned for pix.

 

[kirbyultra]

BethM wrote:

Off-topic, but where did you get that straw mat? That is awesome!! I am looking for something a lot like that for my new bunny room.

On-topic....Did the vet check Toby's ears for an infection? My Tobi had to go in when she suddenly developed a watery eye. Turned out, she had a mild ear infection.
She has a tendency to shake her head a lot, so it's hard for me to tell when she's doing it more than usual.

Mat: I bought that mat in Hong Kong! Yeah, I lugged that thing all the way from the other side of the earth back home to NY. I am pretty sure you CAN get that type of mat in a Chinatown area because I've seen my Asian relatives use those on in the summer to cover a couch or a mattressto make it more enjoyably cool in hot weather, so I assume they got it in the states somewhere. However, I don't know exactly whereso when I saw it in HK, I bought it on the spot. It's flexible, it flattens out, no snags, no smells. You can fold it up and put it away if you like. If you have a spill, you just wipe it clean with a wet cloth on both sides. I love it. It solved a big problem I had with Kirby eating his nylon mats. Kirby likes it too. He licks it all the time. No idea why though :?

Ears: The vet looked deep into Toby's ear with a scope thing with a light on it. Looked clean, no issues. Toby has a tiny bit of gunk in the corner of his eye after a nap but no more than a regular bunny.

 

[BethM]

kirbyultra wrote

Mat: I bought that mat in Hong Kong! Yeah, I lugged that thing all the way from the other side of the earth back home to NY. I am pretty sure you CAN get that type of mat in a Chinatown area because I've seen my Asian relatives use those on in the summer to cover a couch or a mattressto make it more enjoyably cool in hot weather, so I assume they got it in the states somewhere. However, I don't know exactly whereso when I saw it in HK, I bought it on the spot. It's flexible, it flattens out, no snags, no smells. You can fold it up and put it away if you like. If you have a spill, you just wipe it clean with a wet cloth on both sides. I love it. It solved a big problem I had with Kirby eating his nylon mats. Kirby likes it too. He licks it all the time. No idea why though :?

Darn! We don't even have a Chinatown sort of area where I live.

 

[kirbyultra]

Well, you're a ways away from me, but if I ever run into these in New York, I'll keep you in mind!

 

[BethM]

kirbyultra wrote:

Well, you're a ways away from me, but if I ever run into these in New York, I'll keep you in mind!

Thanks for the thought!

I may call up my friend in San Francisco. She's walking distance to Chinatown and Japantown.

In the meantime, I may go for a heavy cotton mat rug.

 

[Sweetie]

My Prince had the beginning stages of ear mites, the vet was going to give him something to fight them but he wanted to be sure that they were ear mites. Well Prince's immune system is fighting them so there was no need to start treatment. Which actually saved me money. Yeah some rabbits can fight off ear mites if their immune system is real good and apparently Prince's immune system is really good. I was amazed, but I still watch him for any signs of more ear mites. So far so good!

 

[kirbyultra]

Sweetie wrote:

My Prince had the beginning stages of ear mites, the vet was going to give him something to fight them but he wanted to be sure that they were ear mites. Well Prince's immune system is fighting them so there was no need to start treatment. Which actually saved me money. Yeah some rabbits can fight off ear mites if their immune system is real good and apparently Prince's immune system is really good. I was amazed, but I still watch him for any signs of more ear mites. So far so good!

Did his ears look like the pix I have posted above?:cry1:

 

[kirbyultra]

Here are pix of Toby's ears after almost a week with baby oil application.

The left ear looks a lot better. Not so red! Can't really see it anymore. Color is quite uniform.

Right ear is a different story. The "line" of redness on the right ear has reduced to just a couple of red spots. He h as scratched himself 2 small bleeders. They are dry now.

This is new, as of a couple of days ago. He scratched the back of his right ear and it bled a little too (near the edge).

Looks more like a scratching problem than a mites problem, right? Do the mods agree? ray:

I checked out his right hind foot. Those nails are long and pointy! I trimmed down two toes but he was fighting me prettybadly. I'll try again tomorrow with an extra pair of hands to help. Hopefully once we trim his nails down he won't scratch himself so hard.

Oh, the back of the left ear is perfectly fine. Only the right ear has dried blood on it.