- Parasite of rabbits
- Common among conventional rabbits
- Transmitted via contact
- Adapted to living in an aural environment
Pathogenesis
- The ears are painful and intensely pruritic
- Affected rabbits shake their heads and scratch their ears
- The inner surfaces of the pinnae are covered with brown, scaly, fetid material, and the skin beneath is raw
- Mites are grossly visible
- Histologically, there is chronic erosive and proliferative eosinophilic dermatitis
- The mites are non-burrowing and thus are found only in the exudate, not in the tissue
Diagnosis
- Microscopic examination for mites (low magnification)
- Appearance
Control
- Infestations are difficult to eliminate from a colony
- Ivermectin is usually effective