Clumped fur, what is it and why?

I've noticed for a few weeks that obi my house bun has got patches of clumped fur on his back legs, under his chin and on his front paws.

The first patch appeared under his chin, after looking i noticed that the skin wasnt broken, just slightly pink and the fur around clumped together. I gentle combed it through and now the fur is growing back.
But now there are more areas like this appearing and i don't understand why. After being castrated the fur aronud his bottom was shaved but it's grown back and has become exactly the same as the area under his chin. I'm quite sure he doesn't dripple. He has had his front teeth removed and rasped recently so they should be fine. when i stroke him this area doesn't seem damp at all. Plus now his front paws have got this. I don't what him going bald.

Is it a house hold cleaner i use irritating his skin or something else i dont know. He does find it difficult to groom himself without front teeth, does that have any bearing?

I did notice little black spots in his fur and i combed him through but found nothing. When i asked my vet they said they didn't know of any treatment for lice or whatever available. Plus i dont know if it is. he could have had them before and been treated. The eggs if thats what they are could be dead.

Sorry if your confused i am too!

Help

Sounds possible that it could be lice or mites or some parasite. I'm not familiar with these but I know ther ARE treatments so I would be concerned about how rabbit savvy your vet is :?
So, is the fur DRY in all the areas you describe?

Sounds to me like you need another vet, there are definitely treatments for mites & lice!

My vet that i always liked to see left the practice after christmas as a result i think i've seen nearly every vet there, what with nibbs been diagnosed with heart disease and then passing away. and getting obi castrated.
He didn't have this problem when i had him. I've only had him since boxing day and he hasn't been anywhere other than the vets to be castrated. which made me think that it wasn't lice. but from doing research i think that it's the only answer. I admit that i think some of the vets don't seem to know what they're talking about. There's only one that's seems to know his stuff but he's only there on a friday which makes it difficult.

I'll have to do something, find another vet if poss. Any info on lice or mite treatments available for rabbits. maybe i can teach my vet a thing or two

Spacegirl wrote
'So, is the fur DRY in all the areas you describe?'

Click to expand...

And yes the fur is slightly dry

I think you may have helped me with my query - or it could just be a weird coincidence.
My large house bunny, George, has had his front teeth removed and he has exactly the same clump issues, in the same places you mention. We took him to the vets & the vet said it might be urine burn, I didn't think so, but we changed his bedding & encouraged him not to sleep in his litter tray. He still has the clumps & I had come to the conclusion it was because he couildn't groom himself. I don't know if you have ever had the pleasure of being groomed by a rabbit, but when they clean your hair & eyebrows, they use a sort of combing action with their front teeth. So I guess this is what our bunnies are missing.
In a way he is very lucky because he gets loads more attention than the other bunnies because he gets a minimum of two grooming sessions a day & this seems to help the situation.

Of course this could just be a coincidence, but I think it is at least partly to do with our 'Gummy bears'!

My gummy bun Spike also has clumpy fur. I took a clump from his belly to show Denny and it looked like it was attached to skin (it wasn't).... gave her OH a fright though :roll:
I've got rid of most of the clumps but there are still a few, notably under his chin where I just can't groom him.
I put it down to how he grooms himself without teeth.

It is probably that he cant groom himself very well due to his lack of incisors. So you will need to groom him every day. If he has mites you are likely to see a white 'dandruff' at the base of the fur and he may be itchy. Mites are usually treated with a course of IVERMECTIN.

Janex

Very helpful everyone, thankyou for the help. Obi doesn't mind being groomed so much now, its just his tummy he's funny about.

Been to the vets today and my obi has got lice, he's now been treated with xeno 450 spot on which contains ivermectin, the vet said that i should repeat the dose in six weeks but after reading the notes in the box it states that the treatment should be repeated after two and four weeks.

What do i do now, follow the vets guidelines or the instructions on the packet?