hair loss/bald patches in domestic rabbit

Question
Hi Lee

I need some advises from you regarding hair loss in my 5 year old male rabbit.

Usually during molting, there are hair loss and bald patches but the hair will start growing back in 1 week. It will start with the short small baby fur and gradually the hair will grow back.

But I notice now my rabbit has hair loss that does not have fur growing back.  It started with both sides where the end of the ears are, near the forehead. Since both sides are identical, it would very much be the regular shedding, but that 2 areas seem to be bald until now (more than 3 months) and there are no signs of new fur.

Now, the fur under the eye area, chin are also losing hair. When I pull the surrounding hair, loose fur will fall out, just like when you pull the loose fur off when they are going through a molt. As I pull the fur out, the area becomes bald and till now is more than a week and I still don't see new hair growing.

My groomer ask me not to pull out anymore loose fur let it "shed" naturally as pulling the fur will make it less possible to grow back, is this true?  But those fur are loose anyway, and it irritates me to see patches of loose fur. And due to my pulling, the fur on the face area now is now uneven and looks pretty ugly. (I still adore him though).

His other parts of the body are also shedding and those areas which I comb off the loose fur, has already got new fur growing back. So which means it isn't a hormonal imbalance problem.

One thing I need to highlight is, the bald area are not crusty, itchy, inflammed nor with dandruff. It looks plain, smooth and pinkish looking, like baby skin. So it don't seem like any mites problem either isn't it?

Usually any bald patches will start to show signs of baby fur growing in a week's time but this time it doesn't and it starts to worry me. I gave primrose evening oil and it doesn't help too. My groomer says the climiate here (I am from Singapore) is rather humid and the weather is unpredictable, sometimes very warm and sometimes raining, so it could be due to that. Morever, my rabbit is to the plump side and such rabbit is more prome to bald patches. Is this true?  But the bald patches are on the face area...so has this got anything to do with being plump?

Could this be due to old age?  Like human, when we age, we tend to loose hair and some of us even turn bald. Is the same theroy apply to rabbit as well?  Is 5 consider elderly?

I am also emphasize that he is eating PLENTY of timothy hay, orchard grass, mountain grass, oat hay etc. He lives indoor and I clean his surrounding once a week. He is also on high fiber timothy pellets. Vegetables and fruits like strips of green apples and 1 fresh cherry a day. 1-2 Dried cranberries for treats.  

I also give dried herbs from Marukan (A herb brand for small animals) such as horsetail, marigold, camoille, rose petals, dandelion, plantin, mullberry leaves, parsley, peppermint, riwort. A pinch of each a day, not too much. But he eats more of the dried dandelion though.  Do any of those sound like it will cause fur loss?

pls advise soonest possible. Thanks  

Answer
hello

I dont think that pulling its hair out would make it harder to grow back because as you said it is going to full out any way.

Your rabbits hair loss could have been caused by a mixture of things. His age could be a factor but he is really not that old. a healthy bunnies life span is usually between 8-12 years.

to me it dont sound like mites and as it is not inflammed then i dont think it is anything too serious.

because your rabbit is big doesn't Necessarily mean it has to do with him being over weight, however it may be part of the problem.

I have noticed that you are giving your rabbit far too much food each day. All a rabbit needs daily is some healthy pellet food,small amount of veg , water and lots of fresh hay. Occasionally some rabbit treats. Some of these foods may have something to do with the hair loss so i could cut down on most of these and see how it goes

I would go to your vet so they will be able to diagnose the problem which is causing the hair loss.

hope this helps

sarah