Worming your rabbit

There are three types of mites.

- Fur mites appear as dandruff or little white specks on a rabbit's coat. 
You may notice a bald spot at the back of the rabbits neck around it's shoulder blades. This can be a mite problem or in young rabbits it may simply be molting.

- There is a variety of burrowing mite that leaves pimple like scabs and bumps under a bald patch of skin.

- Lastly Ear mites.
You should check your rabbits ears regularly for ear mites. 
You won't be able to see them unless under a microscope. 
However there are plenty of signs to detect ear mites. 
The rabbit's ears will appear dirty (dirty colored wax can be seen). 
The rabbit maybe be seen scratching at it's ears. 
In really bad cases of ear mites you'll see scabs inside the ears.

Most breeders give a drop of Ivomec in the rabbit's mouth to prevent and kill all forms of Mites.
You can buy a tube of Ivomec paste wormer for horses at a feed-mill.
It costs around $10.00 to $17.00 depending on the brand. 
I feed my fuzzy lops a pea size portion. 
If you only have one rabbit the tube of past wormer is like a lifetime supply if it were not for the expiry date.

Other worms and parasites

Some experts don't believe rabbits get worms and as a result some vets don't recommend worming at all. 

However it is general practice among the breeders and rabbit show people to worm their rabbits. Especially as a preventative and cure for Fur mites and ears mites. 

There is very little research that has been done on rabbits. 
Most medications used on rabbits today will not have rabbits or rabbit dosages listed on the labels. This is due to lack of research, and the need to have the medication approved for rabbit use by the proper authorities such as the USFDA. Rabbits are consider food so all kinds of testing would be needed to make a medication rabbit and human approved. 

Ivomec and other wormers can cause a rabbit to molt. 
Worming is a form of low dose poisoning. 
Just enough to kill fur mites, ear mites, pin worm (debatable) and possibly other unknown parasites (also debated) but not enough to do any lasting harm to the animal. 
The philosophy behind worming is that Ignoring a worm problem would do more damage than the worming medication. 

Worming is recommended only twice a year because it's hard on any animals kidneys (including large animals like Horses).
However if your rabbit is showing signs of hair loss and fur mites shortly after a show, you'll have to do an extra worming before it spreads to the rest of your herd.

I plan my worming at a time when my rabbit is molting naturally. 
Hair lose can be a reaction to worming and is a sign of stress on the body. 
This doesn't mean all rabbits will react to worming medication by molting. Some rabbits don't. 
But if you're new to showing and have only a few bunnies, I wouldn't risk putting them into a molt by worming them unless I had to. If they molt during the show season then your show season is pretty much over.


Ivomec does not kill the Coccidia parasite. 
I give my bunnies sulfamethazine as a preventative against the Coccidia parasite, either in their water or I buy medicated Purina rabbit pellets from the feed mill. The feed has sulfamethazine added to it. It cost $2.00 more per bag and I feed it for 5 days. I do this twice a year (Spring and Fall) when the weather is damp and rainy. 

If I'm getting mysterious deaths, poor weight gain in my kits, or weight loss in my rabbits, I treat for coccidia using sulfamethazine in the water for 5 days and then another 5 day treatment 7-10 days later.
Sulfamethazine cures a number of rabbit ailments so even if it isn't coccidia that is causing the trouble the sulfamethazine is a great answer to urinary infections, bacteria infections and a wide range of ailments.