Caring for a Rabbit With A Sore Hock

[Brown Hare]

Hi everyone,

We just got Chocolate back from the vet.    We had been noticing some discomfort for the past month and weren’t able to pinpoint what exactly his problem was (he wasn’t as mobile, seemed to sit uncomfortably, and lost interest in clicker training).  We just assumed that he was getting old, or whatever it was might just be temporary and fix itself.  But he didn’t get better, and he began to show a pronounced limp in his right back foot.  He would walk tip-toe and wouldn’t put his entire right foot on the ground and mostly relied on his left back foot for propulsion.  Since he would keep his feet mostly underneath his body,  it was difficult to examine him, but eventually his right back foot peeked out.  The heel of his right back foot had developed a large white colored callous.

The vet removed the callous and some dead tissue and it revealed no infection underneath.  We even had an x ray done on the foot, and it was determined that the bone was not damaged in any way.  

However, we were still not sure why exactly Chocolate had this problem.  I thought that sore hocks only happened to rabbits constantly standing on wire.  But we decided that the condition was brought on by several different factors:

#1 He is a little overweight, (by about 1/4 of a pound, he weighs 4 and 1/4 pounds) and we will have to cut back on pellets.

#2 The carpet rug in his pen area is too hard on his feet.  The carpet is very short, which we initially thought was desirable because Chocolate would rip out long carpet and because its easy to clean.  But they suggested that we change to softer bedding for his pen area, such as fleece or straw.

#3 His nails were too long.  I am too meek with handling Chocolate and it is an ordeal to clip his claws and other  basic things such as picking him up, do to some scaring experiences for both of us (he jumped out of my arms once, and I once hit his quick while trimming his claws).

Chocolate’s right foot is now wrapped up in a handsome blue bandage.  They gave us some antibiotics and painkilling medication, which we will have to deliver by syringe.  I’m sort of uncomfortable about this, but they showed us how to pick him up and how to wrap him up as a “bunny burrito” to keep him secure, so I’ll give it a shot.  With the bandage on only for a few hours he is much more mobile.  

If anyone can give some advice on how to make his life a little easier and certainly some advice on bedding for his pen would be very much appreciated.

 

Brown Hare & Chocolate

[jerseygirl]

How large a callous was it on his hock? It’s not unusual for them to develop a bit of a callous on the “heel”.

For medicating using the burrito method, did they tell you to have him the right way round once he’s wrapped up? Avoid having him on his back for syringing meds as there’s a risk they’ll aspirate the liquid. Another method you might prefer is to have him up on a high surface so he won’t go anywhere but that you are able to lean over him. Sort of like the examination table at the vet. They can back into you but not go anywhere else and you can syringe the med in the side of the mouth while holding them secure to you. You can do this by wedging them between your legs on the floor also, but I find they can escape too readily like that.

Is Chocolate much of a chewer? I’m wondering if you could give some foam mats a try for his pen. The allow a bit of give but are still wipeable. Or seagrasss or hay mats might be a safer alternative.  I believe a member here had one of his rabbits develop a problem with a hock and the rug turned out to be the culprit. Things improved once using grass mats I believe.

[Laura]

Miss Meadow has sore hocks too, from her hard surface. But she doesn’t have it as bad as yours. Meadow is in an x-pen with a really thick piece of plywood for the bottom (she would just dig into the carpet, so I wanted it covered with something that could withstand my weight). I recently bought some thick blankets at the thrift shop, laid them out and tucked the ends into the plywood. Eventually she will dig and destroy it, but I can buy more.

I also just discovered a great way to cut bunny’s nails. I saw it on youtube and gave it a try on all my rabbits. It worked great, better than what I was doing before. Even worked well on my rabbits that squirm and kick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyxQRoAhcw

[frances]

Heavy breeds are most likely to come down with sore hocks especially if kept on wire. Check your rabbits regularly, providing boards and genetics keep sore hocks from being a problem as well as doing regular cage maintenance.Keeping wire cages in good condition is the single most important thing you can do. Cages that are worn and rusty can increase the chances of sore hocks as well as cages with “floppy” floors. Offering the rabbit a board or mat to have a place to rest off the wire is good prevention as well. Be sure to keep this board or mat clean. If manure or urine collects on it then it becomes a fly magnet and, in warm weather, opens your rabbit up to the possibility of fly strike, which is much worse than sore hocks.

http://www.lbah.com/feline/hypertension.htm
http://www.vetinfo.com/cateye.html
http://pets.tandurust.com/cat-health/dilated-pupils-in-cats.html

[Brown Hare]

Chocolate has always had a small pink color callous on each rear foot, even before I got him but they never bothered him before. I’m not sure if they are signs of a previous episode of sore hocks–I have no idea what his “bunnyhood” was like or where he came from or if he had ever been on wire. The callous that was just removed was about as big as a fingernail and he has been on the short carpet rug since June 2010.

All lot of the signs I was noticing before make sense for his sore hock problem: His loss of interest in clicker training happened when I was trying to get him to stand up on his back legs, but of course I didn’t realize at the time his foot was bad. His sort of caved in side I was noticing is actually due to a slight decrease of muscling on his right side from not using that foot as much, which I mistook for the feeling of a sick bunny tummy.

We’ve been able to give him his medicine (although we’ve had to chase him around and hes busted out of the burrito hold a few times). We’ve been trying to hold him flat on the ground with the blanket over him, but he kept escaping. We’ve had better luck holding him up (like hes sitting up). We haven’t tried to put him on his back.

I’ve never thought of using a foam mat, that sounds like a good idea. I don’t think Chocolate will try to chew it as long as it lays down flat and he can’t pick at any pieces poking up. Since we are also trying to sell our house right now it is important to us to find something that will look decent and be easy to clean.

I’ll try some of those holding techniques and the nail clipping video was very helpful!

Thanks everybody for the help,

Brown Hare & Chocolate

[LittlePuffyTail]

Two bedding changes I have done to help sore hocks: either REALLY deep bedding of hay or for Bindi I use a faux-fur mat I made (I bought faux-fur at Walmart and just sewed it into a sitting cusion) and a snoozy pad (it’s a furry type pad that is made to put inside a dog kennel). Although if your bunny is a chewer you will have to go with the hay option.

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