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Calcified ear canal ....

Bunny Buddy

Wise Old Thumper
Lola had her right ear flushed today as a big lump was felt at the base of her ear when she went for vaccination. She has had an x-ray and sadly surgery seems the only option to solve it properly. But, the x-ray showed calcification which the vet hasn't seen before and has sent to a Specialist for opinion on whether it will affect the plans for surgery.

Anyone have any wisdom or experience in this regard?

I'm also being taught to inject when I collect her *gulp*
 
No experience re the 'calcification' but I hope that if surgery remains an option it will go well.

I find giving injection to be far less stressful for both me and the Bunny than giving meds orally. I am sure you'll be fine doing injections xx
 
Lola had her right ear flushed today as a big lump was felt at the base of her ear when she went for vaccination. She has had an x-ray and sadly surgery seems the only option to solve it properly. But, the x-ray showed calcification which the vet hasn't seen before and has sent to a Specialist for opinion on whether it will affect the plans for surgery.

Anyone have any wisdom or experience in this regard?

I'm also being taught to inject when I collect her *gulp*

Hello,

I don't personnally have experience with ear problems, but I know a rabbit who had an unidentified problem which litteraly 'ate' the inside of his ear (the tympanum, the tissues and bones around it). He had to have all of the inside of his ear removed. It went really well and he recovered fine from it. Also, as I know surgery on a rabbit is always scary even if we know it happens often nowadays : I just got two 5 years old doe spayed, one of whom had a huge cyst and had to be opened with an enormous incision, and I was super scared but they're both fine.
Good luck, I hope everything goes well for Lola!
 
I have no experience with a calcified ear canal but my bridge bun Finley had double ear surgery for ear base abcess and he did really well
Good luck
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Hi BB,

Might be what my Charlie bear had. His ear canal was completely closed so there was no where for the ear wax to get out and caused a big lump at the base of his ear. He had the surgery where he had a permanent hole in the base of his ear which I had to keep opening by cleaning and not let it scab over. He handled the surgery very well and was a lot happy after he had recovered. I may have some piccies somewhere. It looks worse than I expected it to look - it was quite horrific looking!

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Charlie after the op
4a395bf5ff64af67f8e04bd45cdb8d86.jpg
c8e5499cad49068c8e24e0fdd28800d2.jpg


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Thank you for the feedback everyone. The specialist has had a look at her x-ray and the calcification won't hinder surgery.
 
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Charlie after the op
4a395bf5ff64af67f8e04bd45cdb8d86.jpg
c8e5499cad49068c8e24e0fdd28800d2.jpg


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Thanks for this.

During FHB's lectures we saw some videos of her cutting the abscess out of the ear canal, which, I assume is the surgery Lolly is having. Seeing it in videos or photos though is different to seeing it on your own bunny. She's such a wonderful little flower but shakes when on the vet table so I'm really upset for her going through this.
 
Well, my beautiful Lolly is having her ear surgery tomorrow. I'm making extra big fusses of her today because I know she will hate the aftermath of this. But vets I trust very much have told me this is in her best interest so the surgery she will have.

Just as an extra hurdle to deal with - the main road between here and my vets in Harrogate is closed for the next week and the official diversion is going to be horrendously gridlocked at that time of day. So, we will be going on a very pretty drive through the Yorkshire Dales to get to the vets adding about 35% time to our journey ... 32 miles instead of 21! Thankfully it won't yet be hot at that time of day.
 
You must be so worried:cry: when will she be having the operation?

Thanks for asking. Cross posted! Tomorrow. We were waiting for someone very experienced to be available to do the surgery as the only other vet who has experience of doing it is on maternity leave.

I think abscess surgeries are usually later in the day as they have to do the "clean" surgeries first and as that is dealing with infection it's last. She will also be staying for quite a few days, possibly a week given the aftercare.
 
Thanks for asking. Cross posted! Tomorrow. We were waiting for someone very experienced to be available to do the surgery as the only other vet who has experience of doing it is on maternity leave.

I think abscess surgeries are usually later in the day as they have to do the "clean" surgeries first and as that is dealing with infection it's last. She will also be staying for quite a few days, possibly a week given the aftercare.
I’m sure it is best to have an experienced vet doing the op. Thinking of you and Lolly and sending lots of vibes for her for tomorrow. I hope the journey isn’t too bad xx
 
Thanks for the good wishes everyone.

Lolly is recovering from the GA. The calcified part of the abscess made it so hard and big that there was no way for other wax and debris to escape so the ear canal was full of a lot of nasty gunk. If this hadn't been operated on it would have got very nasty indeed. Ruth already questions whether the facial nerves were being affected by the pressure in that area. She needs a check up next week and then the week after sedation to have the stitches out. Lots more toing and froing for my poor girl but hopefully when the inflammation goes down her ear will feel much better. .. she never told me she was in pain in the first place, bless her, this was picked up on the health check that comes with vaccination.

And it's worth noting for anyone who doesn't know - this problem only happens with lops - selfish humans have bred them to look cute and this is the result because they can't clean their ears themselves as up-eared bunnies do.
 
you must be relieved she's come through ok & the decision to operate was a wise one. Will she stay in for a few nights? i hope she recovers well
 
you must be relieved she's come through ok & the decision to operate was a wise one. Will she stay in for a few nights? i hope she recovers well

Yes, she needs to stay a few nights to be given antibiotics and keep the wound clean etc .. and make sure she's eating. She's one of those rabbits that won't eat for a few days after this, when she had her ear washed out it took her a whole week to calm down, bless her. There is a vague possibility the road will have reopened by the time she is ready to come home. However, I need to collect Jesika, probably tomorrow so got it all to do again!
 
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