swelling under jaw on my rabbit

Question
I just noticed a swelling on one side of my rabbits jaw.  There seems to be a round lump under the fur and her face looks swollen.  There is a smaller lump on theother side but not as pronounced.  What could this be?

Answer
Hi,

I can't tell you exactly what it is.  A rabbit vet needs to look at it and figure out what it is.  It's probably infections, but the vet needs to determine what the cause of the infections are.  At worst they could be cancer, but it's far more likely to be infections (abscesses).  

Please don't wait to get him in.  Infections don't go away on their own in rabbits.  Their pus is a lot thicker than ours, so their immune defenses can't get through to take it out on their own.  That's why you feel 'lumps'.  They are pockets of pus.

The reason not to wait is that doing nothing, they will get worse.  Further, they will drain his body's strength reserves and he may need that strength if the cure is hard on the body.  Third, you want to get him in before it affects his eating and drinking, because that will cause gut problems and complicate matters a lot more.

Get him in as soon as physically possible to a good rabbit vet to diagnose and treat him.  To find one start here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.

Lee