Rabbit Ear Infection and botsa

Question
Hi, my name is Justin and my rabbit Pumpkin (its more used name is in Chinese)lives with his 4 brothers and sisters in the same cage and lives next door to his mom and dad (they fight if they get the chance.  Well anway i actrualyl have several questions.  They live outside and when i let Pumpkin out one day, a few hours later i found it lying on its side on the ground.  When i tried to pick it up it was all flippy.  I brought it inside and then to the vet.  I actually had to go to 2 different vets.  But the recent one said it has in inner ear infection and also has bots.  It got rid of some of the bots.  How can i get rid of them myself?  And about the ear infection, is there anything i should do, they gave me baytril.  It was getting better and was able to stand for a while until the 3rd day.  What else should i do to make it comfortable.  Part of its neck is shaved from the bots removal procedure.  Is there anything i should give it in particular.  It like to eat string beans and baby food right now.  we're keeping it in a small box with some towels so it wont move as much when it turns.  When it turns it rolls until it hits something that will stop it.  What should i do?  The vet told me that the infection could possible get worst.  Is there a chance of death?

What should i do to prevent my other rabbits from getting bots?  I bought a bug zapper.  

Also, the parent rabbits and the kids always fight if i let them out at teh same time.  What should i do about that?

I just want to know ANYTHING that i can do to prevent this from happening again, make PUmpkin as comfortable as can be and just make all their lives as long and as happy as can be.  Im just really panicky with this topic because im scared my rabbits might die from this.  Thank you

Answer
Dear Justin,

The only way to protect the bunnies from botflies is to screen the cages so that the adult flies cannot get to the rabbits.  This will be difficult, but there's no other way to prevent this problem.  Bug zappers will not likely do much good.

I would also make sure the rabbits are all treated with Revolution (selamectin) which seems to help weaken botfly larvae and make them easier to remove.  This is also effective against fleas and mites.

For information on how to treat head tilt/ear infection, please read:

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

If the Baytril does not work, then there may be another antibiotic that will, but to find out, you will have to ask the vet to do a culture and sensitivity test:

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

The only hope you have of getting the bunnies to stop fighting is to have all of them spayed/neutered, which is better for their health and longevity:

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

You can find articles on how to bond rabbits who are fighting here:

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-a=00062824-sp00000000&sp-q=bonding

But it's not easy.  :(

I hope this helps.  Please write back if you have more questions after you've read all the articles above.

Dana