Ear mites

[VickieB]

One of my buns had ear mites when I bought them. I treated her with mineral oil and thought that it was taken care of, but recently I've noticed not only does she have them again, but so do several of my other breeders. I want to try the ivomectin, but I'm concerned about how to do it with babies still in the cages. I have buns at 3 weeks, 5 weeks, and 10 weeks. I don't want to treat the babies (none seem to show signs, and I plan on just using mineral oil in their ears until dispatch date.) But am I wasting my time using it on the breeders if I don't treat the babies with it? I would hate for the babies to just re-infest the adults with it.

 

[animalmom]

Since you don't see evidence of ear mites in your kits, I'd go ahead and treat your doe. I'm not a fan of treating every rabbit for ear mites if one rabbit has it. Yes, I know it is communicable. Others may have a different opinion, and if someone can give a good reason for blanket treatment of all rabbits if only one has ear mites then I might reconsider.

I treated one buck with ivomectin and it work well. I think it works better than mineral oil, but then again this guy had a bad case of the mites. I've not seen ear mites in the other rabbits.

I do think, if you catch ear mites quickly, that mineral oil will work... let the problem go and you may have to bring out the tougher stuff.

Another product that works well is Vet RX. You can get it at Tractor Supply, and probably any other store along that line. Don't worry if the box refers to chickens, from what I can tell, the formula is the same for rabbits or anything else. Couple drops in each ear, gently clean out any gunk that you can reach, repeat in a week.

I'm sure the others have their own preferred way of treating. Love this site! So many rabbit folks who want to share their information... it is all good!

 

[nawma]

I agree with animalmom and I only treat the rabbit that has mites. One of my does showed signs in her ears this last week and I thought I could give her a little shot real quick. No need for hubby to help with such a small needle and a caged rabbit. Learned my lesson though as she used my nose for a step ladder. Hubby had to help me get it done. Next time I will just pop her down in a five gallon bucket long enough for the second shot. Bucket works great as they are a bit disoriented when everything turns white or black depending on color of the bucket. I use this method to carry thee does to bucks cage and it saves a lot of potential scratches or the chance of dropping her when she squirms. Follow up treatment is essential in my opinion. I dont treat all rabbits because of one with mites and this has worked for me.

 

[couchhound274]

I had a doe that had mites, and I used just regular horse dewormer (just a pea sized amount on a popcicle stick) and with in 2 days the ear mites where gone. This worked much better than the oil. Unfortunately because I didn't know she had mites and let it go, she developed an inner ear infection :-( I'd use the ivermectin paste, its apple flavored. And them seem to like it.

 

[VickieB]

Has anyone else used the paste? I had wondered about it and would have used it if I had known it was as effective as the pour on kind just because it cost so much less.