Bloody Feet??

[Mjacqu6]

I have two rabbits that I got from a rescue almost 3 years ago. The past few months I have noticed a little red spot on one of my rabbits back legs. I have tried to inspect it but he does not tolerate being picked up and even if we can grab him (which we unfortunately have to do sometimes) he screams and squirms the whole time so I haven’t been able to really inspect it. I have read that rabbits that live in cages get irritated areas on their feet, but my apartment is completely carpeted (except for the kitchen and bathroom which they rarely enter). My rabbit is either on aspen chips in his litter box or on carpet so I didn’t think too much of it. I was obviously going to mention it to the vet next time we went but she said they were both in perfect health at their visit just a few weeks before so I didn’t think it was a pressing matter.

Tonight I found blood spots all over the carpet when I got up to go to the bathroom. Not a lot, even for their size, but I did confirm it was from my rabbits “red spots” after seeing him run and leave a trail behind. If he left any blood spots before I would have immediately noticed them on my white carpets so I know this is new.

I am very worried about him getting infected and even more concerned about how this happened in the first place.

Any experience or ideas to share? My vet isn’t open tomorrow and it’s really not easy for me to get the day off Monday but I’m thinking I should….

Anyways I am not going to be able to sleep tonight. Please help with some insight. My boys have been with us for almost 3 years but I am still very much a newbie when it comes to rabbit care.

[Megabunny]

I’m not sure we ever get to be experts on these critters unless you have, like, 10 at a time like a few people on here.

It does sound like sore hocks to me. I don’t know if you can do this for a rabbit that doesn’t want to be held, but in the meantime I’d consider trying to bandage it with a bit of neosporin, but you have to bandage down to the toes or you could cause it to swell up. I don’t know that it’s an emergency, per se, if you can get in to the vet just sometime this week, but I imagine it is very painful for the rabbit.

I don’t really understand how they get this. Someone posted a good article on here one time, but I guess I didn’t save it. They talk about having memory foam covered with fleece in their pen, which I’ve been considering for my guy,as he’s a giant breed and I suspect more prone to this problem.

Sorry I’m not coming up with much. But if someone could get him to the vet to be looked at, again, I doubt it’s something you have to do TOMORROW, but in a reasonable period of time. I hope someone else responds…particularly if they can refer you to that site. But you could Google sore hocks, perhaps???

[Little Lion Head]

I don’t know too much about sore hocks, but I feel like it’s unlikely since the buns live in a carpeted area and have for years. Makes me think it could be something else, but I’m not sure what. Maybe he caught it/cut it on something? I would definitely call your vet Monday morning to run it past them and see what they think.

[LBJ10]

Where is the red spot? Sore hocks typically refer to the “heel” area on the foot (although they can get sores on other parts of their feet). Bunnies will often have a callus-like area on their heel, I don’t think it matters what kind of surface they spend time on either. Now if the callus got caught on something a tore off, then that could cause a bloody spot too.

[Mjacqu6]

Thanks for all of your replies… I figured out what happened…. apparently when my girlfriend was leaving for work after I went to sleep (she works nights sometimes) she hit her foot on something in the kitchen. She cleaned and bandaged her cut but neglected to actually clean the fairly large pool of blood she left on the floor because she was late (???). Apparently one of my bunnies stepped in some of her blood and was tracking it around the appartment.

I told her about the blood I found when she came home today and she just laughed and told me what happened…..

I missed the blood on the kitchen floor last night when I posted and saw the blood spots on my rabbits foot thinking it was his.

Anyways I am thrilled that my bunnies are fine and fairly confused as to why someone would leave a large blood spot on the floor and go to work… but all is well.

Thanks again for trying to help!

[Megabunny]

And she let you sleep when she was bleeding to death?? I would’ve been a crying mess and EVERYONE would have known I was bleeding!!
That’s really funny…minus the injury

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