Inner ear infection

Recently I noticed that a junior doe (about 3 months old) had one ear straight up in the air. Not that this is unusual in my barn, but she also seemed to have a slight tilt to her head. It was a "maybe...maybe not...." situation.

In treating wry neck, which I am thankful I rarely deal with, I've had great success dripping some Pen-G into the ear and massaging the antibiotic until it's absorbed. So that's what I did with this doe. Four day later, she was worse. So I switched to dripping LA-200 into the ear. That didn't work either, so I switched back to Pen-G. After two weeks of this, the doe looked miserable (her fur was pretty oily looking from the antibiotics) and maybe getting worse.

In a moment of crazy inspiration, I pulled a little bottle of tea tree oil out of my cupboard. That stuff is a natural antibiotic made from the Australian tea tree. When I Googled its use for inner ear infections, I found that it is mixed with olive oil and dropped into the ear of a child with an ear infection.

If it's safe for a child, it's safe for my bunny. Or so I reasoned.

It worked. Within a day, her head was more upright. I kept up the treatments for five days and she's fine. Her appetite is better and her head is fully straight. Even the ear has now come down.

I wasn't very exact on the proportions. I used about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 5-8 drops of tea tree oil. Using a syringe to draw the oils, I then dribbled about .3 cc into each ear and massaged. Keep it in mind.