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Rabbit's ear no longer pointing up

Happy Hopping

Happy Hopping

Wise Old Thumper
Okay, I have this little girl for only 2 days. There is nothing in the house that can cause this. Last night, she is fine but this morning, one of her ear, which was pointing up all the time, is now pointing down.

There is something inside any rabbit to support that ear and holds it up, does anyone knows what and how?

As to her left ear, it seems there is no support from the joint and it is not a temporary flop down. It seems she can't get that ear back up and has no control of it. The other ear is pointing backwards (the correct direction).

I have seen rabbits let their ears down for a brief period of time, but I don't believe this is one of those situation.

If there were mites from the farm I got her, could that causes this?

She did arrive in this new house for 2 days, could stress cause this?
 
Mite's could effect it - have you checked whether the insides of her ears are clean. Temperature can as well... is it hotter at your house than where you got her from?

It could just be her ears growing and they've got to heavy to hold up.

Tam
 
I don't think there is mites because after using cotton swab to clean her ear, although there is a very small amt. of dirt inside, there is no brown color stuff, and overall, it is very clean.

I just notice that she punture a hole in a cardboard box. The box was somewhat punture from my prev. rabbit. And now she punch thru. I have a theory that last night as she slid in that little hole, she might have bang her ear at the corner because the hole is not that big. I know that because I found quite a bit of bunny poos inside that box.

As such, it might have bruise her ear. I'm going to massage her ear 5 times a day for the next few days and see if there'll be any difference.

I don't think this is something any vet can do or else I would have go to see a vet.
 
Was she pure bred flemish? It is possible she may have some lop in her and as she is young she may just be getting to the stage where her ears will start to lop. I think I am right in thinking that some lops are born with straight ears but they lop as they get older.

Heat is a big cause in giants. If it gets too hot the blood vessels in the ears open to allow the blood closer to the surface to cool, if they over heat the vessels may get damaged and cause the ears to lop but that doesn't sound like this in your case.

Caz
 
mini lop1 said:
is it the whole her lopping down or just abit seen thrainte breed with bit of ear hanging down
Click to expand...

what is "thrainte breed"?

caz said:
Was she pure bred flemish? It is possible she may have some lop in her and as she is young she may just be getting to the stage where her ears will start to lop
Click to expand...

She is a 100% pure bred Flemish. The thing is, her ear is in normal angle on day 1, it is the morning of day 2 that it points to the side.

So besides she may have injured herself in trying to enter that hole, I can't think of a reason. If it is mites, she'll try to scratch it, but she never did. And after the cotton swab cleaning, there is hardly any dirt at all.

I have seen her yesterday that she can move her ear back to the regular direction, so it seems she has some control of it at that moment. But most of the time, it is pointing sideways.

The only thing I can do is massage it a few times a day.
 
thrainte
Click to expand...

Perhaps Thrianta?

I have heard of Flemish being prone to floppy ears in heat. If an indoor bunny it will be hotter for her than for outdoor bunnies (affecting moult too though not in the flemish as they like never come out of it anyway :roll: typical eh!). If no blemishes on ears and no signs of illness/ailment I would see how she goes.
 
But why only 1 ear? Not both?

Because I posted this on Tues (it's Wed at your place), and that day it was cold. So was yesterday. (all those days were raining) It did get very hot today w/o any rain but it started w/ the weather

-) was hotter here on Mon. than her home.
-) colder here than Mon. from Tues to Thurs. due to rain
-) now warm again
 
I have a baby Continental Giant/French lop cross (12 weeks old) and he also had a floppy ear the other day... he looked so cute! I thought it was his lop genes shining through... (The ears are clean, it wasn't hot and they are fine again now), but maybe it is just normal Continental Giant "behaviour". Here is a piccie of Lancelot:

Lancelot_0805_28.jpg
 
It's now very hot -- 25 deg. C yesterday and today. But her ear was down on the day when it was cold, down to 16 C, which so happened to be the same temperature as the day I pick her up at her city.

I did see occasional control of her ear joint that she can point it backward, but 99% of the time, it is flopping all the way down. But her ear is very clean and she never scratch them. I'll keep massging her ear assuming she injured herself when she crawl into that tiny hole.
 
Antenna Update

As of yesterday, her antenna is sticking up more often than before. She clearly has control over it. It could be that the 1st theory is true, that she slightly injured her ear as she try to sleek in that little hole.

Or it could be the weather.

This is different than my last rabbit, in which he had that soft poo problem due to lack of fiber, stress him, and somehow during those few days, causes a bubble in his ear and unable to raise his ear since.
 
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