For more than a year now I've often seen my rabbit licking a certain spot on his inner thigh. He's been to the vets' plenty since I started noticing this, and I've talked with them specifically about it a couple times. Once a vet and I even did some very thorough double, triple, quadruple-checking while the technician held him prone to make sure there wasn't anything there. No fur loss, redness, sores, bumps, irritation, puss - nothing.
I see the rabbit licking himself there almost every day, even many times a day, so I check the area now and again to make sure nothing has changed. Now, a handful of times I have felt something: it felt like a very, very small bump - like a tight tangle of fur close to the skin, or something just under the skin. The vet and I could not find it when we looked, and I can never find it either - only a few times my finger has felt it, and then my finger slips off and I try to find it again but it's gone.
Yesterday, seeing him licking, I push his nose aside and touch the area. I feel the bump, so I keep my finger on it and gently adjust his body and pull the area up where I can see it. I remove my finger, and what I see in the millisecond before my rabbit pulls away looks like a plain old nipple: a small bump of naked skin protruding from the fur around it. The skin is white, the bump is regular (I mean, it's shape is regular - uniform), and there's no sign of irritation of any kind. When I try to find it again, I can't, it's gone under the fur.
Does this sound like a problem? My rabbit is showing no signs of ill-health. I hate to bring him to the vets' unnecessarily - he is an old rabbit and this year especially has been back and forth back and forth, and no one likes that. For sure I'll ask about it next time I bring him in, but do you think he needs to go in right now?
I see the rabbit licking himself there almost every day, even many times a day, so I check the area now and again to make sure nothing has changed. Now, a handful of times I have felt something: it felt like a very, very small bump - like a tight tangle of fur close to the skin, or something just under the skin. The vet and I could not find it when we looked, and I can never find it either - only a few times my finger has felt it, and then my finger slips off and I try to find it again but it's gone.
Yesterday, seeing him licking, I push his nose aside and touch the area. I feel the bump, so I keep my finger on it and gently adjust his body and pull the area up where I can see it. I remove my finger, and what I see in the millisecond before my rabbit pulls away looks like a plain old nipple: a small bump of naked skin protruding from the fur around it. The skin is white, the bump is regular (I mean, it's shape is regular - uniform), and there's no sign of irritation of any kind. When I try to find it again, I can't, it's gone under the fur.
Does this sound like a problem? My rabbit is showing no signs of ill-health. I hate to bring him to the vets' unnecessarily - he is an old rabbit and this year especially has been back and forth back and forth, and no one likes that. For sure I'll ask about it next time I bring him in, but do you think he needs to go in right now?