Rabbit with dry ears?

[RahRahRasputin]

Hello,

My rabbit has dry, flaking skin on her ears. It doesn't appear to be bothering her at all.

We took her to the vets a while ago. The vet took scrapings and tape samples from her ears and other fur, and also inspected her all over. She didn't think it was mites/fleas etc. but took the samples to confirm, and suggested that we try cooking oil or baby oil to moisturise the skin. And to come back if we were still worried. The samples didn't show anything.

We tried sunflower oil and then, when that didn't work, baby oil. Neither seemed to have any effect on the dry skin but they really upset the rabbit. She is very particular about cleaning herself so as soon as we put anything on her skin she likes to clean it off. With the baby oil she managed to make such a mess trying to clean the oil off that we had to cut out some matted fur from the back of her head, and I wiped her with a bit of warm water and baby shampoo to remove the rest, much to her annoyance. I've been leaving her ears alone for a little bit to see if they get better, but there are now flakes just inside her ears too.

She occasionally gets little flakes of dry skin in her fur but on closer inspection these are attached to clumps of fur that are on their way out. As she has got older she has moulted more frequently and now seems to be moulting almost permanently. I wonder if this could be causing the dry skin. Also she is quite fussy about cleaning herself, including her face and her ears, so I wonder if that might be drying them out too.

Is this something I should worry about? I'd really prefer not to take her to the vets unless absolutely necessary as she finds it so stressful, which I don't suppose is good for her at her age (she will be ten years old in November).

[RahRahRasputin]

Sorry I posted too soon, and that is rather long. Thank you to anyone who reads it!