Skin Disorder

Question
I have a five year old male rabbit who I notice is losing fur particularly around the top of rear legs but also on back.  The skin around the area of fur loss is slightly weepy with scabby areas,  there are also tiny little lumps beneath the skin surface.  He does not appear to be in distress and allows me to touch the areas without normal amount of struggling. We wondered what the cause of this could be and any treatments that you may recommend?

Answer
Dear Angela,

This sounds like a case of mange, which is easily and safely treated with Revolution (selamectin) from your vet.  There is really no other treatment (with the possible exception of ivermectin) that is effective against mange, so the sooner you get some Revolution, the sooner your bunny will feel better.  It's itchy, even though he's not complaining. You can read all about this here:

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

and see "before and after" pictures of bunnies with this condition.  DO NOT use Frontline, as this can be deadly to rabbits.

You can find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

to prescribe the medication and give your bunny a good overall checkup to be sure there are no other problems, or that this problem is something other than mange (since I can't see it in person, mine is just an educated guess).

I hope this helps.

Dana