Treatment of an ear tick in rabbits

For rabbits, ears are not only necessary for hearing, but also a means for thermoregulation and communication with the environment. Therefore, any disease of such an important organ leads to a decrease in the quality of life of a furry pet. The ear tick in rabbits causes psoroptosis, which can progress quickly and lead to the death of the animal. Therefore, immediately after the detection of the parasite, urgent treatment is necessary.

Causative agent of the disease

Scabies or psoroptosis in rabbits is caused by the ear subcutaneous tick Psoroptes cuniculi, which parasitizes on the surface of the hearing organs, causing unpleasant itching and inflammation. These parasites have a rounded elongated shape and a yellow color. Very small, measuring 0.2-0.8 mm.

On a note!

Ear mites feed on blood, lymph, and the remnants of the skin, which they pierce to make moves in it.

After the mite bit the rabbit, there is a violation of the integrity of the tissues of the epidermis of the hearing organs. With the active reproduction of parasites in a sick pet, the inflammatory process and other health complications begin:

• weakened immunity;
• hormonal imbalance, which affects the appearance of offspring: females refuse to feed babies, and males are not able to mate;
• weight loss pet;
• tumors in the brain may develop with the further spread of infection into the ear canal and eardrum;
• the risk of secondary infection and damage to the nervous system increases, which threatens the death of the animal.

Infection pathways

An outbreak of ear scabies occurs in the fall and winter.

Mites in a rabbit in the ear can appear in several ways:

• from a sick animal in the house (dogs, cats, etc.);
• through the clothes of the owner, where the tick falls on the street;
• through infected objects or toys.

The rabbit's hearing organs have many blood vessels that are poorly protected by thin hair, which serves as a bait for parasites. Getting on the surface of the ears, ticks find a favorable breeding environment by laying eggs directly in the passages built in the tissues of the epidermis.

On a note!

Rabbits at the age of 4 months, which can be infected by their mother, are at maximum risk. Adults most often “receive” ear mites by contact with other animals or from humans.

Symptoms of Psoroptosis

The first signs of ear scabies do not appear immediately in pets, the incubation period is 5 days. Then the following symptoms become noticeable:

• restless behavior, loss of appetite, refusal of games;
• the rabbit shakes and shakes its head, tries to scratch its ears from the inside with its back paw;
• on the inner side of the hearing organs you can see red blisters and ulcers, which can burst, forming wounds and crusts;
• they are hot and painful to the touch, the walls swell and thicken;
• due to the accumulation of sulfur, blocking of the ear canal may occur;
• if the rabbit has unshorn claws, then due to active combing, wounds and crusts form, with a large area, the pathogenic bacteria multiply and tend to penetrate deeper into the brain.

Important!

Ignoring such symptoms of the disease by the host can lead to a strong reproduction of fur mites in rabbits and their death within a few months. In the presence of complications, it is necessary to carry out long-term treatment.

Diagnostic Methods

You can see and examine the ear tick at home with a magnifier and some optional accessories.

For the procedure for diagnosing an ear tick, you will need:

• piece of glass for analysis;
• heated petrolatum up to + 40 ° С;
• durable, thin and non-sharp tool that makes scraping;
• a magnifying glass or a magnifying glass, but a microscope is better.

After taking the scraping, it is placed on glass and dripped on top with hot petroleum jelly. When examining the material under a magnifying glass, swarming yellow parasites, their eggs and larvae are noticeable, which indicates the disease of the pet with psoroptosis.

On a note!

You can do the analysis in the laboratory, where the ears of the pet will also be examined using an otoscope or x-ray.

Medical treatments

With the help of pharmaceutical preparations, the treatment of the ear tick in rabbits is carried out with high efficiency in a few days.

On a note!

Before you start using any folk or medicinal products, you should definitely consult with your veterinarian.

The most common medicines:

• Spray (Tsiodrin, Psorotop, Dikrazil, Acrozil, Dermatosol, etc.) is the most convenient form that can quickly and easily cope with the disease: it is recommended to spray the aerosol over the skin surface at a distance of 10-15 cm for 2 seconds. The number of treatments is 2-3 with an interval of 7-10 days, after the first procedure, 80% of ticks die.
• Ivermectin, Selamectin, etc. - are used as a subcutaneous injection into the base of the ear.
• Stronghold - antiparasitic agent for ticks for rabbits and other domestic animals in the form of drops in a pipette of 0.25 ml.
• Emulsions and drops: Valekson, Butoks-50 - are sold in the form of ampoules with a solution for irrigation of the organs of hearing, diluted in 1 liter of water before the procedure.
• Decta - instilled in the ears of a sick animal.
• Ointment Yam - a bactericidal-acaricidal agent that has an antiseptic and fungicidal effect against ear mites and other parasites, is applied a thin layer on the inner surfaces of the ears twice a day until the scabs are separated, for 7-10 days, the affected areas are cleared of crusts.

Important!

All antiparasitic treatments of cells and diseased animals should be carried out only with gloves to prevent the passage of ear mites to the hands. Collect removed crusts and scabs in a special container, because there are many parasites. After the procedure, they must be filled with chlorine or burned.

Folk methods

Treatment of ear scabies with folk remedies is a longer and more laborious process and is intended to soften scabies and further cleanse the ear canal from the mites themselves. Processing should be carried out at intervals of 2-3 days several times.

To treat the ear tick in rabbits, you can cook mixtures:

• a mixture of glycerol and iodine in a 4: 1 ratio will help to clean the ear canal first; cleaning is best done daily;
• to soften the skin and crusts, they are smeared with a medical mixture of turpentine, creolin, vegetable oil and kerosene;
• put camphor oil into a syringe (without a needle) and irrigate the inner surfaces of the ears: the film from this tool blocks the parasites' airways, as a result of which they tend to get to the surface of the skin, where they are easy to destroy;
• gel from vegetable oil and turpentine in a ratio of 1: 2 - is applied similarly.

On a note!

These home remedies require a more time-consuming and lengthy treatment process compared to medications, but are more harmless to the body of rabbits.

Prevention of psoroptosis

To prevent the disease of domestic rabbits with ear scabies, it is necessary to regularly examine animals and carry out a series of measures to destroy parasites in their places of life:

• observe hygienic rules for keeping pets, do not allow their crowding;
• regularly clean and process rabbit cells with Creolin 5% solution or Hexochloran-creolin emulsion, which will destroy eggs and larvae of ear mites;
• purchased "newbies" quarantined for 10-14 days;
• 2 weeks before birth, treat pregnant female rabbits to avoid infecting babies.

For a successful and effective recovery of the rabbit, it is necessary to respond in time to the non-standard behavior of the pet in order to quickly detect the disease at the initial stage, begin treatment of psoroptosis and prevent the further spread of the inflammatory process into the brain and into the body of the animal.