Worried to death: Mites or dry skin?

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I've got two rabbits. Both are fixed. My male is a mini lop, and the female is a netherland dwarf. Both live in seperate cages but play together all the time, and are in very close contact with each other. My fiance and I got our male from a pet store. We got our female from our neighbor who had let her go into the wild. When we got her, she had fleas, ticks, hookworms, tapeworms, and ticks. She was treated for all those, and is doing awesome now.

My male, however, has developed dry, white, obviously itchy skin. He does lose fur but not in HUGE clumps. The majority of this "dry skin" is located near his tail and mid-back. Nowhere near his ears, neck, or head. It does NOT move, but when he gets mats, and we get them off of him, the skin attached is oily and flaky at the sametime. Our female doesn't have any dry skin, no fur loss, or anything our male is experiencing.

Going to an exotic vet is expensive, and we're scratched for money. We usually take them to Pender Eastern Exotics. But I'm not convinced its mites.

Do rabbits just get dry skin? Only my male has it. And it does NOT move. =/

maybe an allergy? stess? has he been under any stress?

things like woodshavings/sawdust can cause allergy type symptoms/dry skin etc so if you use those i would stop. they are bad for them anyway.

as both your rabbits get on well at play time... have you thought about maybe bonding them so they can be together all the time? maybe he is getting stressed if they want to be together and then keep getting taken apart???

other than that i think the best thing would be to see an exotics vet otherwise you will never know and this may be the start of something else which in turn could lead to something else... and then you will probably end up at the exotics vets anyway with an even bigger problem than now which will cost more.

if he seems happy and his usual self then try removing any bedding that is dusty etc.

i think there are more skin conditions it could be... although i don't know much about them really. i am sure someone else will be along soon with more ideas.

:wave:

meant to say aswell.... ringworm or mites will cause these problems aswell.