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    Please keep in mind that posts on this forum are from members of the public sharing personal opinions. It is not a replacement for qualified medical advice from a veterinarian. Many illnesses share similar symptoms but require different treatments. A medical exam is necessary for an accurate diagnosis, without which appropriate treatment cannot be given.

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Please Help

I have two rabbits, they live together and one of them has started pulling his fur out, I'm so worried about him as it's cold outside. Does anyone know why he might be doing this? Please help, I'm really worried about him xx
 
How long have you had the rabbits? Are they neutered?

To keep them warm, fill the hutch with straw/hay, put an old duvet/blanket over the hutch and a taupaulin :) You can also get snugglesafes, which are heatpads especially for bunnies that stay warm for 8 hours.

I wouldnt think he was pulling his fur out because hes cold :? xXx
 
I've had them for a year, they're both neuted, ones a boy ones a girl. I have a hutch hugger on and they have loads of straw in but I'm just wondering if anyone knows why he's doing this?
 
Ive never heard of a male rabbit pulling fur out :? Is something irritating him? Hopefully somone will be along soon to help xXx
 
I'm not too sure either but I would suggest taking him to the vet for a check over before they close for xmas , is he eating, pooing ok? is he scratching more than usual? either way a quick consultation should ease your worries:D
 
He's eating and pooping ok. I've had him at the vets but they didn't seem to know, he's being treated for mites at the mo, but he's still doing it :(
 
Is it definately the male pulling out his own fur? Or could it be the girl? Definately neutered?

Otherwise mites?

Do they get on well - could it be stress?
 
Our male rabbit pulled his fur out one week when we were away and the neighbours were looking after him.
We had just recently rescued him on an emergency and it was too late to cancel our trip.
He was a single bun at the time and we feel it was totally down to stress/boredom. I'm not sure that he was attended to as fully as he might have been :?
Anyway.. you have bonded buns so it could be stress from something else?

Fluffy pulled all the fur out in an area 2" square on the side of his neck. :(

After we got back it grew back and I've never seen anything like it since (he is now husbun to Miffy)
 
He's deffo pulling it out himself, I've watched him do it and he does seem to be scratching a bit more than usual. They get out and run around every day but with the weather being awful the last week they haven't been out so I thought it might be stress related to that so I brought them in the house last night to run around but he was even doing it in the house.

I'm just so worried it, looks awful. I was at the vet yesterday with him and they gave me some stuff to put on the skin on the back of his neck, I did that and thought it would ease it over-night but he's still doing it, i feel so sorry for him. I'm going to clean them totally out tomorrow, but if its mites he's had it before so I've already changed his straw once, can anyone recommend a different straw for them please? I'm running out of different ones.

Thanks for your help xx
 
I am wondering if the medication the vet gave you to put on the affected area is ivermectin as a topical treatment for mites. If this is so I would expect to see flakes of skin in the region. Do you recall if the vet took a sample on sticky tape to look at under a microscope?

Also, is he eating the hair or just pulling it out and dropping it? I had a rabbit who would pull out hair and eat it which caused me great concern as he had previously had a severe blockage from hair in his stomach. I did not ever get a clear answer as to why he might do this except that he might have had an imbalance of magnesium. The condition was described as "self-barbering".

Straw and hay are one of the most common means of inadvertently introducing mites, but this usually occurs only in warmer weather so would be unlikely with the current weather in the UK.

I hope you get to the bottom of the problem soon.
 
No the vet didn't take the sticky tape and put it under a microscope, although last time when we knew he had mites they did. He is pulling the fur out and eating it.

Thanks everyone.
 
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