Unhealthy bunny

Question
Hello
I had a question about my indoor bunny. My rabbit has lost most of her hair on the back of the ears which are very dry. She has lots of white flakes there and her ears smell bad. She keeps scratching them and they get really red.She has also lost weight and doesn't drink much water. Finally, her breathing is very fast and shallow. The vet I took her to, gave me Metoclopramide and Ciproflaxin for her without explaining much She said that I needed to do blod work on the rabbit, but I could not afford it. I gave that to the rabbit for two weeks with no changes whatsoever. Do you think my rabbit is infested by mites? If yes, can mites cause the rest of the sumptoms?
The bunny is about 3yrs old and after the weight loss she is 4.3 lbs according to the vet.
Thank you very much for your help

Answer
Dear Ledia,

Your bunny needs to be seen by a vet who cares more and who knows more about rabbits!  You can find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

I can't see the bunny to know for sure, but it sounds as if she might have mange and/or ear canker.  Please see:

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

I would ask the new vet about giving her Revolution even if mites can't be seen:  they are sometimes very hard to find.  But Revolution really will solve the problem if it's partly due to mites.

The bad ear smell is consistent with ear canker, but she might also have an ear infection (bacterial or yeast, each of which is treated very differently) partly due to the clogged ears from mite debris.  Once the ears are cleaned and healed, the infection should be easier to treat, if it doesn't go away on its own when the mites are dead.

I hope this helps get you started on the road to her recovery!

Dana