Lop Eared Rabbit

Question
I have a female lop eared bunny who is just a year old.  I noticed three days ago that she appeared to have a fairly substantial collar of skin around her neck but thought no more of it other than maybe I was over feeding her.  She has the run of the garden and isn't really a hands on pet, however, today I have gone into her hutch to change her bedding and found her head lop-sided, and what appears to be the collar hanging to the right side under her chin to her breatbone causing her to tilt her head to the left to support it.  This looks as if it is some kind of growth about the size of an egg under the skin, although the covering skin is all intact and fur covered.  What do you think it could be? Any vision would be a help.

Answer
Dear Helen,

The flap of skin you describes sounds like a normal dewlap, which is more common in females than males. But an egg-sized mass in the dewlap is *not* normal, and it sounds as if it's causing her pain if she's leaning over towards it.  It could be a lipoma (fat body), or a tumor, but the most likely culprit is an abscess.  

This should be surgically removed, capsule and all, as if it were a tumor, and NOT lanced and drained, which will not effect a permanent (or fast!) cure.  Rabbit pus is as thick as cheese, and does not drain.  For this reason, experienced rabbit vets will *remove* an abscess, rather than drain it.  You can find an experienced rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

If her head is really tilting over to one side, then this could be an unrelated (or partly related) problem, which you should read about here:

www.rabbit.org/health/tilt.html

and

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/tilt.html

so you'll be prepared with questions to ask the vet.

But there is no question that she needs to be seen and treated ASAP.  I hope this helps.

Dana