Help! my rabbit has fleas!

[golden rabbitry]

I was brushing my buck when a black dot appeared on his cheek. AT first I did not think much of it, but the diot started to crawl into his fur and that is when i realized it was a flea. We have had fleas before on our cats and dog, but never a rabbit! Any idea how to get rid of them or any good treatment?

 

[akane]

Usually fleas will not multiply on small mammals like rabbits so you nearly always have another source that will just keep reinfesting the rabbits every time you treat. If you have any other animals like cats and dogs around be sure to treat those first and if the fleas are multiplying on wildlife sometimes the surrounding yard will actually need treated to kill them. Eliminate any rodent pests that may be helping transport fleas into the rabbit area. Diatomaceous earth (DE) will physically kill the flea and other soft bodied pests without harming larger animals. Do not use pool DE but feed grade for livestock is sold at feed stores or there is even food grade DE for internal parasites. It can be applied directly to animals or the surrounding area to kill some of the fleas before they bite. Just make sure to apply it slowly and as close to the surface you want it on as possible because it is highly irritating to lung tissue. Fluffing it around in the air to breathe in is about the only way you can harm larger animals (or yourself) with it.


Several cat/dog flea meds can be used on small mammals. Frontline (fipronil) is not very safe but plain advantage (Imidacloprid) is as well as revolution(salemectin), which is related to ivermectin. Many flea meds have gone generic so the chemicals can be found under other brand names now. Avoid the combination ingredient formulas. We get ours from petshed.com but it can be slow shipping due to coming from australia or recently we bought from http://www.vetmedsforpets.com . The latter looks rather unprofessional but delivered to us just fine and no review actually states someone did not get a refund or did not receive the product. I think it's a single US vet clinic that is providing overseas meds and doesn't have the staff to maintain the site and take phone calls about orders. They will answer emails and whether they can deliver quickly or not depends if they already have it shipped to their location in the US. I think the US is the only country that restricts consumer purchase of anything that also kills heartworms such as revolution. The products from overseas are the same ingredients at the same quality but being manufactured in and labelled for other countries they get around the restrictions on needing to take your animal to a vet to get some of those common meds and cost less than US labelled versions often are.

 

[golden rabbitry]

thanks! I already had DE an d dust our cats weekly