Rabbit ear mites?

[AnimalsComeFirst]

My 1 year old, lionhead rabbit Trixie has been showing some signs of ear mites lately like scratching her ears (particularly her left one) and since she is special needs (her left leg sticks out and she can't use it to scratch her ear.) she can't reach to scratch her ear totally so she does circles trying to scratch her ear.

We have treated her twice today with mineral oil.... but not sure if this will take care of it? Tomorrow I'm gonna swab her ear and look at it under a microscope to comfirm that they are ear mites.

Also... is ear mites (or mites of any kinds in rabbits) contagious to other animals like dogs?

 

[RHRanch]

I have heard that mineral oil makes things worse. I think she needs to be treated with an anti-parasitic medication, but I don't know which and what dose. Hopefully the veteran rabbit keepers will chime in here.

 

[mother o' chicks72]

When I first got my bunnies they had ear mites so I went to petco and found some ear mite drops. They were in a light blue bottle with a pointed dropper lid. It said it was for puppies, kittens, rabbits, dogs, cats. it worked very well and they haven't had any mite problems since. I'd go pick up some drops if I were you. I also heard olive oil can be used to smother the mites.

 

[eggcited4chicks]

Mineral oil generally helps keep their ears clean. You can get some ivermectin to treat the mites. Liquid form is best, but if not you can check your local feed store. We use the paste to treat our rats. They get a rice sizeed piece. A rabbit would be a bit more. Caution though, to much can harm them.

Also, if this is a bad case sometimes antibiotics are required. Ear mites can cause head tilt.

 

[linkedsilas]

If you get a kitten ...not cat but kitten REVOLUTION from your vet, it will kill those mites.
put it on the back of its neck just like a cat

 

[AinaWGSD]

Poor bunny. Getting confirmation that it is actually ear mites would be a good idea. Rabbits are not generally prone to ear infections, but I have seen ear mites and yeast infections in rabbits before. If she is unable to use one of her legs normally, she may also just have a lot of waxy build up. One rabbit someone brought in to the vet where I work had such a horrifically bad case of ear mites that we actually had to completely anesthetize her the first time to get the ears cleaned out. Typically, we treat ear mites with injectable ivermectin and topical revolution. The drops that you can get at the pet store are not very effective, both because they have been used for so long that there is some resistance and because ear mites can live on the skin anywhere on the body so when you treat with ear drops the mites frequently just crawl out of the ears and hang out elsewhere until you're done treating the ears. Then they crawl right back and set up shop again. Hence, systemic treatments like ivermectin and revolution are MUCH more effective.

As for them being contagious, yes! The ear mites that rabbits get are the exact same species as the ear mites that dogs and cats get and they can be passed back and forth between host species if there is close contact between your pets. Humans can technically get them too, but for some reason ear mites just don't seem to like humans as hosts so it almost never happens.