just a nipple?

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?

:wave: I think if you have had him checked and the vets have given the all clear and he is alright in himself apart from this I would be inclined to wait until you are there next and mention it but, if it's not causing any problems ie, soreness or making him off colour in anyway and he has actually been examined I wouldn't worry. It's a tricky one but I am sure they must get things like cysts etc as we do, just keep an eye on it and if he shows any other symptoms or it grows etc you will need to get it checked but, if not just mention it next time you are there. Thats what I would do.

Thanks for your support, it was a relief to read. Unfortunately, the next day the nipple was a little more swollen and noticeably red, so I brought him in to see the vet after all. Turns out it is just a nipple - no bumps beneath it or discharge or anything to suggest it's anything other than a nipple slightly irritated due to minor damage (perhaps a sharp piece of hay poked him, or his own over-grooming did it) that should heal on its own.