Ear tick in rabbits is a fairly common disease. Rabbits are extremely popular breeding animals, so farmers need to know how to properly care for and treat them if necessary. Rabbits are bred for both commercial and well-selling fur. In addition, farmers are attracted to pets for their ease of maintenance.
Ear mites in rabbits
Despite this, pets often get sick, ear problems are not uncommon, which is not surprising, given the impressive size of the furry organ of hearing. The mite familiar to us all leads to such a disease: the ear parasite has a special oval shape and a yellowish color. The tick is about 0.7 mm long.
The most susceptible to ear scabies are small individuals that can successfully catch it from their mother.
In babies, this disease can occur with complications. In general, such a disease is quite contagious. As a rule, ear mites in rabbits are transferred from one to another. The mite willingly lives inside the pet’s ear and builds tunnels there, where it lays the eggs from which the offspring is born, therefore it is important to devote extra time to the purity of both the pet and the cell where it lives so that the ear scabies does not grow into a brain tumor, which happens quite often. You can find out what ear mites look like in a photo or video.
A simple way to treat an ear tick in a rabbit.
ear tick (how to deal with it)
Treatment for ear scabies in rabbits
Symptoms and manifestations of an ear mite
With ear scabies, when the tick wants to bite, the pet changes its behavior and scratches its ears. It may seem that the rabbit simply behaves too actively, frolicing behind the bars of the cage, but such behavior is a reaction to a difficult disease for him.
The next symptom follows from the previous one: wounds appear on the ears of rabbits, which are precisely the result of the fact that the rabbit is constantly itching. Already at these stages, you need to contact your veterinarian for appropriate treatment. It is important not to delay with this, because if you do not pay attention to it in time, this seemingly small problem will turn into a more serious one that undermines the rabbit's health.
With a more serious lesion, the crawl ceases to eat, loses its weight sharply and begins to gradually weaken. Further, the pet may develop purulent otitis media or meningitis, which can be fatal. Also, the disease is easy to identify simply by looking at the ears of the rabbit. In the ears of animals that have been attacked by parasites, noticeable changes occur, such as:
- bloody ulcers;
- an increase in the temperature of the ears;
- accumulation of sulfur.
In order to find out about the presence of the disease before the first symptoms appear, it is necessary to periodically do special tests in the laboratory or at home. For an independent analysis, you need to take a scraping from the ear of a rabbit and place it in petroleum jelly heated to 40 ° C. The resulting mass must be examined with a magnifying glass, and if a tick or larvae become noticeable during examination, then it is time to start treatment. The main thing is to start treatment early, then it will be quite simple to defeat this terrible ailment.
Traditional methods of treating ear mites
You can help the rabbit remove parasites at home using folk remedies, because not always and not everyone has the opportunity to consult a specialist, and you don’t feel like risking the health of a little rabbit, and there’s nowhere to delay time. You can do everything at home with improvised, so-called folk drugs, which will help just as well as special medications. There are several recipes that will help in treating sick rabbits at home.
The first method of treatment
Ear mites in rabbits and treatment should be carried out immediately upon diagnosis. At home, some farmers make such a solution: mix one to two turpentine and vegetable oil in a ratio. With the help of a syringe, you need to draw up the mixture and wash the pet, after which the animal's ears will immediately be left without ticks. This procedure must be carried out every few weeks.
Second way
At home, you can cure the ailment with the help of several elements. This method is also for washing the ears, only here you need to mix not only turpentine and oil, but also add kerosene and creolin to this. The procedure must also be performed once every 2 weeks. From such an aroma, a subcutaneous tick on the ear should pass. A similar method of treatment is also used on hares.
Third way
This time, you will need a glycerin-iodine mixture for treatment. It is necessary to mix 4 parts of glycerin and 1 part of iodine mixture. Such a remedy will help to remove the crust from the ear, due to the emollient effect in the mixture. You need to use the product daily, and then the result will soon appear.
Fourth way
The last remedy that will help with home treatment and the use of folk remedies is camphor oil. Thanks to him, you can pull the parasite to the surface of the ear skin, after which it makes sense to remove or destroy it.
Ear mite treatment with medication
In order to get rid of ear mites and prevent the terrible consequences of the disease, there is a whole list of special professional medicines. There are many such medicines for the disease, but the most effective are sprays and drops. Medicines presented in the form of injections and solutions also help well. But no matter what drug is chosen, you first need to consult a specialist in order to qualitatively remove the parasite.
Of course, a meeting with a veterinarian is not always possible, but you need to consult a knowledgeable person. So, in the pharmacy you can clarify all the details, the same applies to ordering the necessary medicinal products for rabbits by phone or the Internet. For each individual, the dose of the drug is selected individually, since the specialist takes into account the physical data of the pet, the stage of the disease, and other features. The same medicine can be prescribed to different individuals in different dosages.
Sprays
In order to overcome the ear mite in rabbits, aerosol preparations should be used: cyodrin, psoroptol, acrodex. They work well against various types of ticks and have an antiparasitic effect. They also help against scabies. In order to process the entire surface of the ear, the rabbit needs to be picked up. The spray must be sprayed 10-20 cm from the wound for 2-5 seconds.
The procedure should be carried out once a week. The entire treatment time takes only 2 weeks. Rabbits tolerate sprays well, but, as veterinarians advise, on the first day after using the medicine, you need to observe the pet.
These drugs are very effective and, as practice shows, the benefit from them is about 80% after the first use, and subsequent use allows you to completely get rid of the tick.
Ear scabies injections
The drugs Baymek and Ivomek have proven themselves well in the fight against ear mites not only in rabbits, but also in cattle and pigs. These drugs are produced by injection. Rabbits should be injected in the back of their heads, but only after consulting a veterinarian. This drug has contraindications: it should not be administered to lactating and pregnant rabbits.
Ear tick emulsion
Valexon is one of the most popular and effective emulsion against an ear tick. To treat ears at home with such a drug should be according to the instructions or on the recommendation of a veterinarian. This drug also has an antiparasitic effect. The method of application, period and frequency of use is the same as for aerosol preparations. Before any way to treat a pet from a tick or from another ailment, it is important to remember that a qualified consultation with a veterinarian is required.
Prevention of the disease
Prevention of an ear tick in decorative rabbits should be carried out regularly, only then the effect will be noticeable from it. To prevent the disease of rabbits from ear mites, it should be remembered that preventive actions are needed, even if the pet has not undergone this terrible ailment. Scabies has an incubation period of about 5 days, and this is very difficult to notice. If the nursing female is sick, immediately isolate her from the rest of the livestock and immediately seek the help of a veterinarian.
To avoid the disease of your pets with this or any other disease, you should follow the simple rules: clean the feeders and cages, change the water in the drinking bowls, and avoid moisture in the cages. Cells should always be treated with disinfectant solutions: if they are dirty, pathogenic bacteria are introduced into them first. Rabbit ears should be checked regularly. If you adhere to these simple rules, the risk of disease in animals is significantly reduced.