Help - Scabs on rabbit's face?

Hi, everyone.

It's been a stressful few weeks, but we've hit another issue. A few weeks ago, Hamish developed what looked like a dry scratch on his cheek right beside his lip. I thought maybe he'd just scratched it while eating a thistle etc and didn't worry about it, but a few days later, it had 'opened up' into an wound about the size of a 5p. I had assumed that he'd just scratched at the cut that was already there and made it worse, but I realize now that I must have been wrong. That cut wasn't infected and healed by itself within a couple of days - no issue at all.

Today I noticed a little break in his fur on the side of his nose. Nothing worrying, just a little interruption in his hair. When I pulled the fur aside to see if there was anything underneath, the fur actually came away. It's attached to a scab, again, about the size of a 5p, that's hiding an identical open wound underneath. Looking a little further, I found a tiny little healing cut beneath his eat and a dry scab on his nose, both the size of a pea, or less. I left it there, not wanting to hurt him by trying to pull it off, but it's obvious that it's eventually going to come off by itself and leave another open wound.

Does anybody have any idea what this is? Both injuries have been totally clean, no pus or infection or even any irritation. There's nothing that's changed recently that could be causing them and I haven't seen him doing anything (scratching/chewing) in a way that could cause these scabs to appear. I'm totally stumped. My theories are that it's either something to do with Barbara dying, somehow: some sort of stress or anxiety behavior that I haven't noticed. My neighbor suggested it could be some mild strain of myxo, since that's what Barbara died of, but Hamish is up-to-date on his injections and this doesn't seem like any myxo I've heard of.

Thanks,
Becka.

To be honest that sounds very very much like nodular myxi. I would try to get him to a vet ASAP although being vaccinated will help him a lot!

I was worried it might be - I did mention it to the vet when we took him in after Barbara passed away, but she kind of dismissed it and told us that he wasn't showing any symptoms...I've been thinking about looking for a new vet, but this might have to be the tipping point.

Thanks~

I'll second getting him to a vet :wave: if he's vaccinated then that's fab and will help him. When was he vaccinated?? There's lots of things they can get even when vaccinated, try not to panic tonight, although I know it's hard

I would recommend trying to find an exotic vet if you can, the RWAF can give you information of ones close to you :wave:

It sounds as if it could be syphilis, which is reasonably common and often manifests as scabs around the mouth/nose and sometimes genitals. I would pop your little one along to the vets for a check - a good bunny savvy vet should be able to tell you whether it looks likely or not. It can be confirmed through a scraping but many vets will just start the course of treatment and if it gets better quickly, then that's what it is. If it is syphilis, it sounds awful but it isn't really anything to panic about, it's a reasonably simple course of antibiotic injections and it usually clears up - but ALL in-contact bunnies will need to be treated as they are probably incubating it too, and they will end up passing it backwards and forwards between each other. How old is Hamish, how long have you had him?

Good luck x

He'll be going to a vet either tomorrow or Monday , and I'm seriously considering changing vets as there are no rabbit specialists at ours. He was vaccinated on the 17th of May and a little later last year (we vaccinated him early this year since Barbara had myxi and we didn't want to take any chances with Hamish.) Fortunately he's isolated right now since he lost Barbara so if it is syphilis then he can't pass it to anybody.

Hamish is about a year and a half old - we got him at 6 months so have had him around a year. (from the Rabbit Rehome adoption site, coincidentally!)

Thanks, all~

Myxi nodules tend to be round lumps - they can have lots or just one. It can be very mild if they've been vaccinated. Syphilis is a bit more general scabbiness. The tend to effect the same areas though so it can be tough to tell. Syphilis treatment is three penicillin injections a week apart (must be injections and not oral).

Forgot to update here!

Vet didn't know what it was; he said it definitely wasn't myxi or Syphilis, but that he couldn't tell us what it was, either.

Hamish is completely healed now, either way. Just going to keep an eye on him for a little while to make sure they don't come back.

Good news, but I wish we'd known what was wrong with him :?