4084. A rabbit has has severe crusted body - chronic scabies.

Chronic scabies are rarely seen in Singapore's rabbits and guinea pigs in the years 2000 - 2020 as the pet owners would have applied spot-on insecticides to the young ones to prevent the disease reducing considerably the number of scabies seen in Singapore. Younger vets or pet shop operators seldom see a long-standing infestation, known as chronic scabies.

This is illustrated in a  case in 2018. The buyer returned the rabbit to the pet shop owner. Her first rabbit was treated by the vet for similar skin crustiness, but it did not get cured and had passed away. The pet shop owner phoned Dr Sing Kong Yuen that she had a "new" disease seen in the rabbit.

"The rabbit has a rhinoceros horn", she told me. "You will be the first vet in Singapore to encounter such a rare disease!"  I went to her shop. From the distribution of the skin crusts to the distal parts of the body (ears, paws, nose), I diagnose this rabbit as having chronic scabies. It is "rare" in Singapore in the sense that it had developed such thick crusts/ Treatment with 2 injections of ivomectin cured this rabbit who is now well cared for by my Veterinary Assistant Ms Hsu.

July 2018

LATERAL VIEWS LEFT AND RIGHT FROM HSU TO UPDATE THIS CASE.

Conclusion
Singapore vets rarely see chronic scabies in the rabbit as it is an untreated pet for some months.

Nowadays, the pet shop owner is well educated and will usually treats them with spot-on insecticide early. The vet does a skin scraping of the crust. It may show no mites, but the diagnosis cannot be ruled out.

So I was surprised to see on case of chronic scabies in 2020. The owner said that Vet 1 had taken skin scrapings and confirmed that there were no scabies. He prescribed some washes, but the skin disease got much worse. The guinea pig lose a lot of weight.

Chronic Scabies in a rabbit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI4j_30il9I

Blog:
https://2010vets.blogspot.com/2018/07/3205-rabbit-has-pointed-nose-rabbit.html

Scabies mites burrow under the skin and infests the cooler areas of the body. These are the ears, nose and paws. The whole body has crusts when the disease lasts for many months as seen in this rabbit. It responds well to treatment  but must be correctly diagnosed to achieve success.

VIDEOS - Edit the footage, narrate as follows: About the life cycle of the scabies mites, diagnosis and treatment.

Advise at least 6 skin scrapings to eliminate the presence of mites. Some owners dislike so many scrapings as they feel that the pet suffers. One negative scraping does not rule out scabies infestations. SHOW FOOTAGE OF MICROSCOPE AND THE SLIDE