Young buck shaking head all the time

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Links56

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I have a California buck and he's always moving his head side to side maybe 1/2 inch constantly. He's 10 or 11 months old. Just wondering what it was. Thanks.
 
Yes both of my bucks have had ear mites off and on, for some reason the does don't seem to get them. I have been treating his ears with mineral oil mixed with apple cider vinegar.
 
I had one doe that I never could fully cure - and only ever got one litter out of her. Not sure what was going on with her immune system, or body in general. I would guess the shaking is from ear mites...
 
My guess would be that it's because of the ear mites as well. I did have one rabbit whose ear mites didn't fully clear until I treated her with ivermectin.
 
Rabbits (especially those with red eyes) sometimes do what is known as "scanning," where they drift their heads back and forth slightly.


The rew v-lop (from journey home) was the only rabbit I've ever had that did it. He moved a lot more slowly then the one in the video, but it's the same basic motion.
 
It's pretty slow just slow weaving back and forth. Seems like he might be scanning. I think he does it wheneed the ear mites are gone but I dont know if I have ever completely killed all the mites. I'll keep treating the mites, he seems to perform well. Thanks for the info.
 
It's just like the video but slower. I will see if I can video it also. I'm pretty sure he's always done it even before he had ear mites and I started putting the oil/vinegar in his ears.

Should I be using something else? It's what I've used on all my animals when they get ear mites. Seems like if his ear drum was perforated no matter what I treat with would cause him to go off balance?
 
Scanning has something to do with the red eyes, and has nothing to do with mites. It can occur in rabbits with other eye colors...
And not every red eyed rabbit will do it, but it occurs most commonly in red eyed ones.

If he's doing that, he probably always will. It doesn't seem to be something particularly harmful, but it may indicate that he has a little more trouble seeing things clearly.
 
All of my red-eyed rabbits did the scanning.. but it was only noticeable when they were sitting still, trying to focus on me. The scanning isn't obvious when they are walking around. I thought I'd read something suggesting they had poorer depth perception and moving the head slightly to and fro helped them calculate distance better than staying still.
 
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