I saw the recent posts on sore hocks as I was coming on here to post my issue with sore hocks now too
So about two weeks ago I noticed Dutchess was sitting funny sometimes, but it took me a few days for the light bulb to go on and I checked her feet. Her hocks are all red and have clear sores on them. Luckily I already had an appointment for regular rabbit care (nail trim/vent cleaning/overall check etc.) with our tech scheduled, but I was only able to bump it up one day. Anyway she suggested some vitamin e capsules, to break open the liquid and put it on her hocks. I did that two to three times a day for about a week without improvement, and was able to upgrade my tech appointment to a vet appointment.
So she got a thorough exam and we got a tube of antibiotic ointment that I put on her hocks twice a day. She does not lick it off, I watch her after I put it on. That was on Tuesday, and now I do see a little improvement they are not as red as they were. My concerns now are how she got them and how to help heal and prevent them from happening again. I don’t feel we’re out of the woods yet so I thought I would explain the set up at our house and see what I can improve on.
Right now she has free range of much of the house 12-18 hours per day, every day which is carpeted. She has an open bunny abode condo that is two stories with a ramp, upper and lower are carpeted. The condo carpeting is much thinner then our house carpeting. At night she has a large 3 foot by 1 1/2 foot tall cage that has wire sides and a deep plastic basin for flooring. I am reading now that plastic is not too good for bunny feet? She has bedding in there but always shoves it around to get to the bare plastic floor no matter how deep I put bedding in. I use yesterdays news litter for her which seems soft, she doesn’t spend time in there beyond her bathroom needs. She does have a cat cube she sits in frequently that I just realized I believe is a vinyl material? It sits on the carpet, but I suppose that would still be bad.
I have just put a fleece pet bed in her cage for night time, I only have one and it takes up one third of her cage, her litterbox another third, and a third has bedding which she still pushes around to get to the plastic bottom of the cage. I have ordered two of the fleece beds that was recommended in the other thread, I hope the one will fit nicely in the cage so that it will just be bed and litterbox without her able to get to the plastic floor.
Sorry this is so long is there anything else I can do for her/how is her set up and how can I improve? I really hate these sore hocks! She is eating and drinking like a little trooper and beyond sitting different sometimes and pulling her feet when I put the ointment on she is behaving normally.