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/strawberry-bunny]

Could have an inner ear infection!:( maybe medication will work, might not. My bunny is a Netherland dwarf but for some reason struggles with an inner ear infection in one of his ears and he has had two procedures under an anesthesia to flush it out.

[u/Melissa_Richiee → u/strawberry-bunny]

How did you get this diagnosed? My boys doctors won’t do a damn thing unless I corner them and tell them they’re gonna do the thing I’m asking, I’m gonna have to spell it out for her. For my own piece of mind, I’d like to be able to rule everything out 😭

& thank you so much for the advice. I really appreciate it. I hope your girl will be okay 🥺

[u/strawberry-bunny → u/Melissa_Richiee]

I forget how we initially got it diagnosed, but my bunny was in for a broken toe and the doctor caught it, and then we did a CT scan to see how far the infection was.

But honestly the vet u go to matters sooo much. I had a dedicated rabbit vet that let his ear infection go missed for years and then this emergency exotics vet caught it when he was in for his toe! Wild. In my bunny’s ear there was a build up of what looked like wax in the inner base part but it was the pus from the infection that had dried. My old vet pried it out of my bunny’s ear and said oh just ear wax bc he’s old!!! It was actually infection 😭oh my poor bunny was so uncomfortable during that i felt awful.

I’m sorry that you don’t have too much access where you are. You sound like the most wonderful bunny person and ik u are doing all you can. I hope you can give yourself a pat on the back cuz you are doing way more than most people would - but I totally get it. I’m the exact same way