Advise please on female rabbit and strange looking bottom

A relative of mine has a rabbit she took on from another member of the family, she has been through a lot lately in that her only son died last week of cancer and the last weeks of his life have been very stressful for everyone concerned.

Now 3 weeks ago her son and his wife renewed their wedding vows and had a little gathering at her house. I went to have a chat to her rabbit and was shocked at the state of its nails, not wanting to upset her anymore i decided not to say anything then.

Today armed with my nail clippers in my handbag went to the house for chats about the funeral etc etc. Took my chance with her when she was feeding her rabbit and talked about the state of its nails, she was shocked about the length and was really upset so i cut its nails for it and also mentioned about the skin mites it had, am taking some mites lotion on thursday to put on it.

The main thing that really concerned me was when i checked its bottom their was a lot of poo stuck in like a skin sack, i gently got rid of it but the skin was very swollen around the bum area, and I`m not sure what is causing it?? now before you start shouting I have told her to take snowy to the vets to get that checked out, she really hasn`t gone out of her way to cause distress to the rabbit, she doesn`t know and was very upset about the situation with snowy.

Any ideas on what the bottom area problem is??

I have been worried about snowy but we live in oxfordshire and she lives in portsmouth and with the loss of her son she`s been a bit of the planet.

I do feel better tonight about cutting the nails, and have decided that everyone should carry nail clippers in their handbags for just such emergencies.

well done and my heart goes out to this lady. i think everything you did was right.

i wonder if the bun is male and has been castrated, my big bun has a problem down there also , some loose skin pockets i think from the nutering do need looking at periodicly because they seem to gather a build up of body swet and yuk. i usualy clean them with cottem buds and cleanser and he is ok.

snowy is a female unspayed me think, not sure on age. I do feel that i have done it the correct way, and she did say that she would now ring me if she needed any advise about snowy.

I said that i`d have the nail clippers at the ready, did also talk about food and in this case the lack of hay, am taking also a selection of hay on thursday before the funeral.

What am I like :roll: :roll: my hubby was great in holding snowy whilst the clipping took place, what a team we are :wink:

Rabbits can get rabbit syphilis also called vent disease, if it is that a course of antibiotics is needed before it gets any worse. Usually the rabbit will have facial lesions as well.

It may just be that the bun is getting urine scald from not cleaning around there but even so I am afraid a vet trip is the best option to be sure.

Also the vet would be able to give some Ivermectin for the mites - the only thing that really seems to clear them.

Caz