Too long? Quick question at the bottom.
My bunny was dropped off to me around 9 PM on Dec 16. I immediately informed the person who dropped him off that he scratches his ears & shakes his head very frequently. The breeder (Roadie Roo Rabbits of Oroville, CA) said that she had never seen him shake his head or scratch his ears, which is possible because it seems she only paid attention to him on the day she took his pics when he was 4 weeks old (and then she had his mother impregnated again, so he has a 4/5 weeks younger brother in the next litter who resembles him). So, even if she knew what the problem is, she isn't admitting it, and I can't provide that information to a vet.
The next day, on Dec 17, I took him to a highly rated exotic vet clinic 40 miles away from me one-way because they have raving reviews.
It's my personal opinion that the vet didn't look carefully at the video evidence, and said he was healthy, as his ears looked clean. I don't recall her using an otoscope to check his ears but she must have. She didn't do a swab test, though.
Then, on Dec 23, I sent her a link to a Google Drive folder with tens of videos of my bunny scratching his ears & shaking his head frequently, and she texted that it could be an early case of mite infestation & asked me to pick up a medication (Fluralaner), which doesn't have any side-effects. The receptionist actually took the pet carrier to the back and after a few seconds, another vet came out & said she had also examined my bunny's ears, and agrees with the other vet that there were no visible lesions of mite infestation, but it could be an early onset. The problem is – she came out so quickly that there's no way she could have taken out my bunny from his pet carrier to examine his ears with an otoscope. She had not even seen videos of him scratching his ears.
My bunny refuses to open his mouth as he doesn't like the medicine's smell, so I have been unable to make him drink it. The vet's office didn't even tell me that bunnies may not like its smell because many pet medications are made to smell/taste well. Now his itches' frequently has increased a lot, and he sometimes scratches his ears for minutes at a stretch. The vet's office had Christmas & New Year holidays. Since the day before yesterday, one of his ears has started staying up for a long time, something that never happened before. This may be another symptom of an ear infection getting worse. I'll be taking him to see another exotic vet on Monday because if the issue is not mites, then an infection may remain undiagnosed until we wait for a month to see the effect of the anti-mites medicine.
TLDR – the issue I want to discuss is – how can we make sure that even expensive experienced exotic vets with good reviews are really thorough while diagnosing potential ear infections in Lop-eared bunnies? What questions to ask to ensure they don't overlook something?
by just_a_curious_fella