Flea allergies

Have you ever had a bun with a flea allergy? What were their symptoms and how did you deal with it? :wave:

I think Smoo might have an allergy to fleas. I have a pretty good idea where they got the fleas from, but everyone and the house have been treated. The reason I noticed that they had them was because I was ruffling up Smoo's fur and I noticed a bald patch with red flaky skin about a centimetre wide by two centimetres long. Her fur is really thick so it was just a chance spot and when I tried to find it again later I couldn't remember where it was. It took me about fifteen minutes to find it again. I put Vaseline on it as it looked quite dry and that really helped. Anyway I noticed the flea dirt after that and then went looking for fleas. Over the course of a week the patch of missing fur grew to about five centimetres long and three centimetres wide. It was really flaky and all over her fur was coming out with flakes of skin on.

Now Smoo moults quite badly and sometimes when she moults she looses hair and gets flaky skin so I don't know if it's related or something that needs further investigation. I also don't know how long flea stuff takes to work. I put it on tonight so I need to see if the skin issue clears up with the fleas. Obviously if it doesn't I need to go back to the vet but I just wondered if anyone else had come across this.

Sounds more like cheyletiella mites to me

Has she had any injections/ vaccinations in the last few weeks and is the bald patch in the area where the injection was given ?

Prudence always gets mites when she is moulting, she has done so for the past 6 years.

Also when bunnies get fleas they do tend to scratch in the same place so that spot can get pretty bald. The flea treatment works straight away so if it is fleas they should be gone now and the scratching stopped

I had a bun who had a flea allergy before I got her, and she would scratch and scratch until she bled and had great big cuts. She was regually deflead after that to avoid the problem.
It sounds like your bun may have something else, doesn't sound like a flea allergy but if it is its very mild.

It sounds like Smoo must get mites when she moults too. Do Prudence's go by themselves or do you treat them each time? I still have some mite stuff from last time so I'll have to find out when I can use it as I've just used the flea stuff. She definitely had fleas this time as I saw them and managed to squish a few between my nails (gross...).

She had her VHD a while back now, but the fur loss is near the bottom of her spine. She has some red flaky skin further up but that is more recent, in the last day or two. I'll go and have a look for 'walking dandruff' but I think it's just her skin. She's been biting it more than scratching I think, I've not seen her scratch at all really.

Prudence also has fur loss at the base of her spine. Normally i treat it myself, but this year has been particularly bad so it has needed repeated weekly injections from the vet. We also blood tested this time and it showed her immune system wasn't working as it should be but we have no idea why :?

Hugo's There said:

Prudence also has fur loss at the base of her spine. Normally i treat it myself, but this year has been particularly bad so it has needed repeated weekly injections from the vet. We also blood tested this time and it showed her immune system wasn't working as it should be but we have no idea why :?

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Hmm. That's a little worrying for you. Smoo has a recurring jaw abscess so I think that would lower her immune system. She is also on a diet, but it's a gradual one. When she first got the abscess she went into stasis and I thought it must be too painful for her to eat hay so she was allowed more soft pellets with Grim. It was so easy just to leave them out for both of them, rather than dragging Grim inside to eat every four hours I just left them both with loads, Smoo was still eating hay but Grim became really ill so I thought it would be okay, but she put on a lot of weight. So I've gradually been reducing them and she's pretending she's starving, even though on the days I have exams they're both getting a big plate to last until I'm back. :roll:

But she's always moulted really heavily so perhaps it's a combination of everything and then the fleas on top. None of the flakes of skin are moving so I think if she has mites as well they're just regular ones. I'll see how she gets on over the next week. Thanks for all the advice everyone.