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Wanted - Picture of Rabbit Lice

Vanessa.B

Mama Doe
Does anybody have, or know where I can find a picture of a rabbit louse. I haven't been able to find one through Google.

I need to check that the unwanted creatures on some of the buns are rabbit lice and not red mites that I have been told they may be.

Red mites are the blight of chicken owners and if I have these in the rabbit sheds this is catastrophic news.

I am trying to keep calm about this in the knowledge that red mites do not lay eggs on chickens and hopefully therefore not on rabbits too. Therefore the egg seen on Nia cannot be from a red mite.

There is no evidence of red mites in the sheds so I am praying that we are only dealing with lice - unwelcome as that is.

If anyone can help put my mind at rest I would be eternally grateful.

Thank you,

A stressed bunny owner!
 
Rabbit lice are so tiny you can barely see them with the naked eye. On a dark rabbit they look like specks of moving pale dirt, and on a white rabbit they look like moving specks of dark dirt. I don't think you can see the eggs (I've never seen one anyway).

Treatment of lice is best with spot-on ivermectin

Have you looked into the possibility of harvest mites or even fleas?
 
Rabbit lice are so tiny you can barely see them with the naked eye. On a dark rabbit they look like specks of moving pale dirt, and on a white rabbit they look like moving specks of dark dirt. I don't think you can see the eggs (I've never seen one anyway).

Treatment of lice is best with spot-on ivermectin

Have you looked into the possibility of harvest mites or even fleas?

Yes I agree with this. Smudge had lice the first year we had him, I suspect he had them before we got him. They were like very slow moving dark specks, you had to really concentrate to see them move as they were so slow.

We treated him with Ivermectin spray around the time the lops had mites (due to a low immune system) and have never seen them again.
 
Found myself in the middle of a discussion about rabbit lice between two vets yesterday. They concluded that for lice you need a spray or powder and that the regular ivermectin which you drop on the skin will not work because the lice live in the fur not the skin - they would need to be sprayed on directly. They shouldn't do any harm to your rabbit as they live off dead skin - if they rabbit is scratching then it is something else.
 
Found myself in the middle of a discussion about rabbit lice between two vets yesterday. They concluded that for lice you need a spray or powder and that the regular ivermectin which you drop on the skin will not work because the lice live in the fur not the skin - they would need to be sprayed on directly. They shouldn't do any harm to your rabbit as they live off dead skin - if they rabbit is scratching then it is something else.

Spot-on does work...it's the ivermectin injectins that don't work so well for lice. Spray is also good, but as far as I know powder is a no-no. Hope this helps :)
 
Thank you for the replies.

They are deffo not fleas (have had the pleasure of buying a house infested with fleas so know exactly what they look like.)

We caught a 'louse' on Nia two weekends ago - it lived quite happily in a pot for a couple of days before I took it to be identified.

It resembled a red mite more than a harvest mite on the images I have googled (am at work on a dozy PC so cannot add a link). I think this is why the vet has picked up on this too. Reading between the lines he couldn't find a picture of a rabbit louse either so I am hoping he has mis-identified it.

So, hence my question in case anybody does have a picture in a text book etc.

The bunnies are due a third Xeno450 dose this weekend. They all had a thorough check at the weekend and I couldn't see anything moving so am hoping the Ivermectin is doing it's job.

PS I also took some of Nia's fur to the vets - he spotted an egg in it hence me trying to convince myself they are not red mites!
 
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