Medical treatment-mites

Hello,

First of all long time no see and sorry for my poor English, if I make mistakes with some terms.
I posted one year ago here:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=188807
I have the same problem with the female(doe).
I've changed her diet many times and I give them now only simple good pellets, hay and water. I even bought from outside some Fibreplex and for 2-3 days she was fine but after the same thing happen again. This happen without Fibreplex too so it may have been a coincidence. She sometimes has a couple of days when she is fine.
They live in the same cage and the male(buck) doesn't have anything. She almost has no hair on her tail.
She also has some crusts for some time on her back(above the tail) and at her tail base. I supposed that these may have formed because of all the poop.
Like I said before I have taken twice some poop to be examined, but I don't think the vets did them as I didn't received anything and both said that she has nothing.
I have now find another vet that knows about rabbits and made some exams(this time they were made and I received files for each of them). We made an ultrasound, a blood test, poop test and one for the crusts on her skin. The ultrasound and the blood test came good, but in the poop and crust they were shocked as they said she is full of mites.
How could she have gotten them? Could she have had them from little and they multiplied and that's why the poop problem became more serious?
Why didn't the male got them too and has the same problem? I saw sometimes some small crusts on him but nothing to be concerned about.

Now the vet gave us treatment for both of them. The vet said that we need to do an internal and external worming(if I said it well).
She gave us this to put on the back of their neck:
http://www.petnet.hu/bayer/advantage_40_cat_spoton_1x0_4ml/termek/4669/
And this to give them on mouth:
http://lekaren.sme.sk/odcervenie/2232-pratel-10-tbl.html

Is the treatment ok or would there have been something better?
Thanks a lot again.

Ps: I forgot to say. She kind of forces herself to pee. She rises herself on her feet and bends her back a bit to the top. Is this because of the mites problem too?

Whilst it is obviously important to treat the mites it is of equal importance to find out why she has them. Mites often occur when a Rabbit is under-the-weather with some other problem/illness

My first thoughts are that your Doe is not able to clean herself and this is often the case for a Rabbit with Dental problems. Dental problems can also cause the poo problems you describe.

Has your Doe had a thorough Dental examination ?

Is she receiving any pain relief and antibiotics if her tail is bald and sore ?

The two treatments you are using appear to be appropriate for Mites and Intestinal Worms.

Mites can be picked up from hay and it is often not a problem for fully healthy Rabbits. But as I mentioned just now, a Rabbit with a concurrent problem may develop a mite infestation. This could explain why your Buck is unaffected.

Thanks for the answer.

She can reach her bum and she washes herself almost all day and eats a lot of poop, but I guess is too much. I also see some runny poop mixed with the bedding in her cage.

She didn't give any other treatment beside the ones from above.
What would be good for her sore skin?

About the teeth the vet checked the front ones and asked if she had any problems with the back ones, if she had them trimmed or not, but I think that she hadn't the necessary tool to check them. I think she needed an endoscope, right?

It is necessary to use a scope to view the molars. Even then it is not always possible to be certain that there are no problems. Sometimes spurs are not evident until the Rabbit is examined under GA.

How much hay does your Doe actually EAT ? A Rabbit's diet should be 80-90% hay with minimal pellets. Veg/herbs etc can also be fed in moderation.

All the symptoms you describe fit with a Rabbit who is not eating nearly enough long fibre (hay) leadng to gut dysbiosis and (possible) dental problems.


If her tail is sore then she really does need systemic anti-inflammatory pain relief. It looks as though Meloxicam is available where you are

http://www.hungarovet.com/?p=918

Our Vets use a dose rate of 0.3-0.6mg/kg/day Meloxicam for a Rabbit

It would probably be necessary for her to have antibiotic cover too (Enrofloxacin AKA 'Baytril')

Keeping her tail and rear end as clean and dry as possible is essential. It's hard to advise as to what would be best to use to bathe the effected areas without actually seeing the condition of the skin.

I hope the Vet is able to help with a bit more intensive treatment. I dont think her gut problems will resolve until a primary cause has been identified and treated.

Good luck

Thanks a lot again for your answer.

As they both live in the same cage and eat from the same recipients I give them about a cup(300ml) of pellets in the evening and they have from them in the morning as well. The hay recipient I fill it every day and I see her many times a day eating hay. Now I don't know how much she should eat.

v.valy said:

Thanks a lot again for your answer.

As they both live in the same cage and eat from the same recipients I give them about a cup(300ml) of pellets in the evening and they have from them in the morning as well. The hay recipient I fill it every day and I see her many times a day eating hay. Now I don't know how much she should eat.

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No more than an eggcup full/tablespoon full ONCE per day, unless bunny is sick, elderly or unable to maintain weight for any other reason. However, diet should never be drastically changed so it's a question of limiting the pellets slowly and upping the hay intake to compensate, however, some dental buns will struggle to eat hay, even though this is the best thing to sort their teeth out, so it's all about careful adjustment of the diet at bunny's own pace. Significantly reducing the weight will allow bun's caecal bacteria to stabilise and should reduce the amount and frequency of sticky poop (and hence messy bums) gradually over time, it does not happen overnight. Limited pellets also allows bun to maintain a good healthy weight. If that is your bun in your avatar she does look a little on the large side with quite a large dewlap - is she spayed?

prettylupin said:

No more than an eggcup full/tablespoon full ONCE per day, unless bunny is sick, elderly or unable to maintain weight for any other reason. However, diet should never be drastically changed so it's a question of limiting the pellets slowly and upping the hay intake to compensate, however, some dental buns will struggle to eat hay, even though this is the best thing to sort their teeth out, so it's all about careful adjustment of the diet at bunny's own pace. Significantly reducing the weight will allow bun's caecal bacteria to stabilise and should reduce the amount and frequency of sticky poop (and hence messy bums) gradually over time, it does not happen overnight. Limited pellets also allows bun to maintain a good healthy weight. If that is your bun in your avatar she does look a little on the large side with quite a large dewlap - is she spayed?

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Thanks for your answer. That means that now she is eating about double.:?
I'll start to limit the pellets slowly and the hay recipient is full all day so she can eat whenever she wants.
Yes, that's her from the avatar and yes she was spayed 2 years ago.
Here are more images with her. Some are older, but she's almost the same.

Wow she's almost identical to my Blossom!

Blossom struggles with weight gain and also has a large dewlap. We've slowly reduced her pellets to 7g per day.

We just kept reducing it little by little over a month and she has started to be a little more trim although the vet says she still needs to loose a bit more but we're going to try encouraging more exercise for that.

What type of hay is your bunny having?

Is she still living with pine shavings for bedding? That can cause respiratory problems.

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CarelessSquid07 said:

Wow she's almost identical to my Blossom!

Blossom struggles with weight gain and also has a large dewlap. We've slowly reduced her pellets to 7g per day.

We just kept reducing it little by little over a month and she has started to be a little more trim although the vet says she still needs to loose a bit more but we're going to try encouraging more exercise for that.

What type of hay is your bunny having?

Is she still living with pine shavings for bedding? That can cause respiratory problems.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

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Psst, the thread is 11 years old !!

InspectorMorse said:

Psst, the thread is 11 years old !!

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I'm gonna blame installing tapatalk on my new phone for that one [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787] no idea why it came up on my recents.

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CarelessSquid07 said:

I'm gonna blame installing tapatalk on my new phone for that one [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787] no idea why it came up on my recents.

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There was a spammer on the thread which bumped it up. The Spammer has been zapped :lol: