Howdy Guys!

Well, its definitely moulting season again! I just spent a good half an hour outside plucking and grooming Peppy, lol. He really likes it, he leaned right against me and put his dead down and was such a good boy.

Anyway I noticed his skin is flakey. Not just one spot though, like all over. Could it be the dead fur and skin coming off? Can rabbits somehow get dry skin?

Looks just like dandruff.

Also, I think I took enough fur off him to make a trench coat.... :blink:

I think he needs to go to the vet. From what I have heard, flakey skin is usually mites. :???:

Hmmm, you think so? I mean he's always had it, I just happened to notice that its worse right now that hes moulting. His ears look normal, its just on his back.

I guess theres more than just earmites then? :unsure:

I'm flying out to see my mom for two weeks, I'll see if John will take him.

He might just have dry skin. I don't know tho - I've never seen that.

I'll look around and see if there's any info about flakey skin.

Okay , thanks!

Yeah, I remember him always having what looks like dandruff, theres no like scabs or anything or big chunks of flakes on the skin. Its just tiny little specs of white flakes through his fur.

I dont know if rabbits can get dry skin either... I really hope it wouldn't be mites, I'm not even sure how a rabbit gets those... :unsure:

He was very comfortable when I was plucking away at him earlier.

This skin problem definately sounds like walking dandruff. It is a form of mites (there are many different kinds of mites) and he needs to be seen by a vet to get ivermectin injections. Any other rabbits you have should also be treated.

I just went thru this with my boy petey, he has 1 more shot and he's good. I started treating the rest of the herd about a week after him, so the others still have 2 shots left.

Thanks for the info! That's what I was thinking of.

ew really? walking dandruff? Is it life threatening? Hes had flakey skin for years now and hes fine and dandy. Sounds gross though. I will try and convince John to take him to the vet while I'm gone, but knowing John he wont want to waste the money... <_<

And I dont have any other rabbits. But I might be getting a dog, can it be passed on to other animals?

Its not life threatening, but it does cause a lot of discomfort. In all my reading and research I did about walking dandruff they can live with the mites for a long time and never have any flare ups (you can't see dandruff flakes).

It can be very expensive, but imagine if you were constantly itchy, you wouldn't feel too good.
Also, if exposed to it a lot we can get rashes and itchy spots from these mites (more incentive to get them better if you a hypochondriac like me, lol)

I'm not positive about passing it to other species, I believe it can be passed around, I haven't seen them on my cat yet, but it took 3 weeks for peteys to show up and another 2 for it to show up on Rew.

I'll try to find some links for you :)


*edit*


Cheyletiella parasitovorax (Rabbit Fur Mite)

Photo of human arm bitten by Cheyletiella mites

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I don't like mites. :fluffy: :eek:

Lol, so do I. But I have to work around things like that almost daily... I get really paranoid about scabies (or any mite) cases, I'll wash my hands a million times. I'm not gonna risk getting something from someones animals <_<
I'll start feeling all itchy if I know an animal has scabies, ick.

When petey first showed signs of a skin problem my first thought was "oh no! My boy has scabies and I probably gave it to him :( ". Luckily it wasn't that and it wasn't me.

Clover and Bo both had those bald spots but they are getting hair now. Clover still has a bald patch on his head..... I sort of wonder if it's just slow coming back in. The skin is nice and he's not itchy - and there are a few little hairs showing now. It's weird. He's a strange little guy LOL!

He's molting heavy and I brushed him tonight ..... he's got circles of thicker hair on his back - it's so funny! :lol: