One ear drooping in 5-week old Creme D' Argent

[savingdogs]

I have a five week old bunny, Creme D' Argent, whose one ear started drooping today. Everything looks normal, rabbit is eating, drinking, hopping and going potty like normal. Doesn't seem to have any pain when I touch it. No parasites I can see although I can't see all the way down the ear.

Suggestions as to what this might be? I don't really have the funds to go to the veterinarian this week. The rabbit does not appear to be in any pain. My intentions were to keep this female as a breeder, this is not a pet.

 

[terri9630]

If she isn't showing any pain or signs of mites or infection then............. When you pet the rabbit do you push the ears down? I got a couple of young Florida white does that had ears start to flop over and was told by a judge to lift the ears into the correct position every time we touched them and to never push them down. That some rabbits will start holding them down because they think that is what you expect, your basically training them to do it. We followed his advice and both does now have nice upright ears like they should.

 

[dbunni]

What is the temp where you are located? sounds like summer ear to me. Term for babies ears that drop during extreme heat times and growth. You can gently, gently tie the ear to the other with vetwrap, soft hair bands, or the like. Just at the base. Only for a couple of days and best done when first noticed (the day). Much past that the ear has "broken" or become comfortable in the style. Not a problem if you are just using for meat. A big DQ for any show animal that does not normally have a drop ear.

 

[savingdogs]

Yes, I believe that is what it is, we had extreme heat. I tried to keep them cool and they looked okay, but not the ears. One has one ear up, one ear down, permanently it seems. It is a female that I planned to breed so no big loss. I also have two others that have "tipped" ears now. I had hoped to sell one of them because it is a male, but I may just have to cull him now, I don't think he will sell. Does giving it a little time help? Unfortunately the weather is still really hot, in fact, hotter than it was when it happened. I wish I knew to vet wrap the ear up.
Do you think it is too late to try it?

 

[dbunni]

you can try. Don't wrap the tape too tight ... the bun will tighten it or the brothers/sister will! So leave a little give room. We put a finger between the ears and then loosly wrap. Check it a couple times a day. If you can, aim a fan about ear height to get air flow around them. Only do this for 3-4 days. If the ear is still weak after that, it may not come up. As for tipping... that doesn't bother me as much...unless it is half the ear! I have seen cremes on the show table with weak ears. many of the breeders in this area just ignore it unless it goes lop!

Have fun ...

 

[savingdogs]

Thanks so much! You've been so helpful. We are moving all the rabbits tomorrow to a much more sheltered spot. They have been under a little roof but we realized they would be much more sheltered with the rabbitry under the shade of some giant pines we have, It always feels about 10 degrees cooler there. We have pretty cold temps most of the time so it probably felt pretty extreme to my Cremes who are acclimated to the cold. The one is "lop" but it will just make it easier to tell her apart from her sisters. Maybe I should give her a name like Eileen (you know, I-lean). Or Half-lop. :/

 

[dbunni]

LOL! Good luck ... if you have any questions or concerns, please ask ... Cremes were my daughters first meat pen breed for 4-h. Loved the color and temperments, but they could not compete with the Cale/NZ animals here. It is a big meat area and the competition is insane at the fair for pens. She didn't want whites like everybody else ... so when broken NZ were invented here by a top NZ breeder she jumped ship! But her heart is still with the Cremes. C.

 

[savingdogs]

Mine are a combo of meat producers and when I can sell them as pets, that too. I got 30 dollars for a nice little doe last spring, so at that rate I can't eat them! But I really like the color of these rabbits and also hope to utilize the hides since they are so beautiful and I want to raise meat humanely and use the whole animal as our overall goal. I'm glad to know this is not a genetic trait. It did not seem logical that the first set of kits by this doe would be 100 percent perfect and the second set have these weird ears. This makes much more sense.

 

[dbunni]

Actually ... it is genetic to a point. A bunny that has a little too large of an ear will be more proned to the problem. We see it in angoras also. We breed for a smaller ear (not dwarf small, just small). If the ear expands too far, with the coat added on ... and the natural expansion of an ear in the heat ... well ... OOPS! So ... if you breed for a tighter, stronger, smaller ear you are less likely to see it when the heat happens.

 

[savingdogs]

Good to know, Dbunni. So my rabbits will inherit the TENDENCY to have this problem if it is too hot, correct?

The breeder I bought these rabbits from, who is much more familiar with Cremes than myself, suggested the heat was the problem as well.

I wonder if all Cremes have weak ears in their line however, there are so few of them, when I bought mine last year there were reputed to be only 1,000 registered in the world, and some of my rabbits were included in that count. I do belong to a Creme group, I think I'll ask the question there.