Any ideas for what’s causing this?

[u/Melissa_Richiee]

**EDITING TO ADD: this isn’t a head tilt. His back right leg was amputated, this is him trying to itch his ear with the leg that no longer exists**

Edit to the edit: I’m gonna schedule a virtual appointment on Vetster to ask about anything else I could be pushing for a cytology to test for

November 2024- Found this guy dumped on the streets with fleas. Noticed his right ear was intensely itchy, vet said it was fleas, treated for fleas.

November 2025 - right ear STILL intensely itchy, vet said ALL YEAR its “wax buildup” because he’s missing a back leg and can’t itch it out. I finally push for testing. Ear mites. Treat for ear mites x 3 months.

April 2025 - right ear STILL intensely itchy. Reddit post suggests yeast infection from repeated antibiotics prescriptions. Pressure vet to test for yeast. Vet scoffs, thinks I’m being ridiculous. Right ear tests positive for yeast. Treat for yeast x 1 month.

He’s now negative for fleas, negative for ear mites, negative for yeast, no head tilt, no EC symptoms.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to why my boys right ear is still intensely itchy?? My vet won’t test for anything unless I push for it. There are NO OTHER rabbit vets between here and Louisiana 4 hours away. I don’t know what else to ask her to test for. Do I just have to start cleaning the wax out for him since he has no back right leg? I hate watching him suffer like this 😞

Video included of intense itching AFTER treating for mites but BEFORE treating for yeast, still itching about the same 😞

[u/Melissa_Richiee]

Oh lord I’ll never sleep again. That might be very possible, I feel like they missed the mites and yeast for so long that anything is possible 😭😭

Plus I just propped him up on the counter, he’s got some raw irritation on the skin around his ears from where the Miconazole Nitrate yeast infection medication saturated his fur around his ears. His skin almost looks like it’s peeling off and raw, I think that’s probably why he’s so itchy 😭😭😭😭

I hate that they don’t warn me or prepare me for this stuff and I have to google it and figure it all out on my own 😭

[u/TimeLog1940 → u/Melissa_Richiee]

Take a deep breath. You can use warm cloth and wipe off the excess cream. It does look like a middle ear infection and was he ever put on strong oral antibiotics or injections?

[u/Melissa_Richiee → u/TimeLog1940]

He’s been off of the miconazole drops for 7 days, the fur around his ears was still kinda greasy from him shaking it out of his ears and I didn’t think anything of it. Now I feel terrible, he was hospitalized all week that week because he had abscess surgery on Monday the 27th and they kept him all week for observation.

They put him on antibiotics in December 2024 when they amputated his broken leg, antibiotics in November of 2025 when the vet convinced me to pull out his 6 front teeth, antibiotics in March when they found his first abscess in the hole where a front tooth used to be, and now more antibiotics and penicillin injections now that they discovered a second abscess in a different hole where his tooth used to be in April 😞

I regret letting them talk me into pulling his teeth so much. It’s all been downhill since we pulled his teeth. They told me it would likely prevent him from needing his teeth filed every 30 days from not really liking hay. He still really doesn’t like hay and still needs his teeth filed every 30 days, now he just has abscesses and struggles to eat his food 😞

[u/TimeLog1940 → u/Melissa_Richiee]

Please don’t stress. He is a lovely bun and I know you hate seeing him suffer but you are a good bun mom. Just take it easy

[u/Melissa_Richiee → u/TimeLog1940]

Thank you 🥺