Not broken, but bent (and new member hello)

[Ohbunny]

Hi, All! I’m a newbie poster to this forum but I’ve been lurking since we brought our Buns, Ozzy, home. Ozzy is a few months old mixed breed house bunny. He’s colored like a dutch bunny, but has long furry strands that grow from the side and top of his head (not below, though). We love him and the feeling definitely seems mutual. Unfortunately, Ozzy had an accident (we are unsure of the exact circumstances ) that left him unable to use his left paw. He has no control over it and it just kind of flops around and drags under him when he hops around. We took him to the vet today (it happened yesterday but local vets wouldn’t see him so we made an appt with an out of town exotic vet). Ozzy had an xray of his legs, but there were no broken bones or fractures that showed up. The vet said she wanted to treat it like a broken bone just in case so Oz now has a splint that has to stay on for the next two weeks, with vet appt for bandage changes every 5ish days to prevent secondary compilations of skin breakdown ). He also wasn’t given any pain meds or antibiotics because he never showed signs of pain or stress. . . With all that said, I wondered if anyone had experienced a similar situation with their buns and what the cause turned out to be?

[LBJ10]

With it being one leg and in the front, I wonder if there was injury to the spine. There could be swelling and pinching of the nerves that might not show up on x-rays.

[Ohbunny]

Hmm, I never thought of that (and you would think I would since I have a dog that has back problems that cause sporadic temporary paralysis), but my vet never mentioned it either. He still seems to have some control over the upper portion of his front leg, but none from the wrist area down. I go back the first of next week for his bandage changes. If there isn’t any improvement, I’m definitely going to bring that up. I wonder what the treatment for a spinal issue would be? For my dog, he has to be crated and take anti-inflammatory meds until he is back to normal.

[Bam]

An anti-inflammatory med like Metacam (meloxicam) would be good in either case I’d think. This do sound like a nerve injury as LBJ says, with or without involvement of the spine, and either way, there might be swelling that presses on the peripheral nerves or on the nerve roots if it is a spinal injury. 
Metacam is an anti-inflammatory of the same type as diclofenak is for humans (NSAID). It’s well tolerated by bunnies but mostly used for its pain-killing properties. With humans you’d use steroids for inflammatory nerve injury, but that is seldom recommended for bunnies.

[LBJ10]

I’ve heard of using steroids in extreme cases, but they are best avoided in rabbits. I agree with Bam. Even if he doesn’t act like he’s in pain, a NSAID could help reduce swelling if there is a pinched nerve somewhere. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.

[Vienna Blue in France]

Poor bunny. Poor doggie. Good luck (((((vibes for poorly animals)))))

[Ohbunny]

Bad news and good news. . . Bad news is we had to remove the splint. It is too long and was rubbing a spot on Oz’s armpit area (vet warned me this could happen and that it is hard to treat a raw spot on a bunny). Good news isn’t necessarily good, because there doesn’t seem to be any improvement in his leg, but no decline with it either. Oz is still happy and eating well. He woke me this morning digging on the side of his litterbox, which caused his bell to ring. I plan to take him in to a different exotic vet for a second opinion and some kind of meds for inflammation. I’m really starting to lean toward the fact his leg is paralyzed. He still shows no sign of feeling in it.

Vienna, I always seem to gravitate toward the “throw aways”. One of our dogs is a rescue that was found living behind a store in town. We took her in since the vet tech who found her already had a house full of fosters and we have no animal shelter. Our second dog is the one with back issues. He’s also Oz’s best friend. I keep Prevacox on hand for him, but thankfully it’s been over a year since he’s had a flare up. We have a cat that was dropped on our street and decided our house would be a good home. Oz came from a less than ideal start to life, and today I took in a hedgehog from a mom who got it for her kid and the kid decided he no longer had the interest or time for him. My poor husband doesn’t even blink when we get a new furbaby(or quillbaby) any more. I can’t say no as long as we have the means to provide for them.

[Bam]

There is a human condition called drop foot or droopy foot which means a person can’t flex his feet upward. It’s either du to a stroke or peripheral damage to the Peroneus nerve. If the injury is traumatic (caused by an accident and not caused by diabetes neuropathy etc) and peripheral, it might very well heal, but it can take several months.
Just came to think of this since your bun’s paw is droopy.
I think it’s so enormously great that you take in animals in need.

[Ohbunny]

I have good news to share! After we got home from our Thanksgiving travels tonight, I checked on Ozzy and gave him a head rub. He was sitting on his litter box, which is pretty normal for him. I went out to get our new hedgie settled in and my hubs came into the room to change. He calls for me to come back. Ozzy is at the door of his cage (he’s a house buns, but he’s been full time in his cage since he hurt his leg) with both legs on the bar. He couldn’t do that even just yesterday. Since my hubs pointed that out, I’ve been watching Ozzy closely. So far, I’ve seen him wash his ear on the damaged leg side (I can tell it is still a bit of a challenge for him and requirks a bit more bending). And I’ve seen him place weight on his paw a few times, too. It’s also not bent and flopping like it has been. It’s definitely not 100%. I have his snacks on top of the cage top and I noticed when he stands and reaches above his head, he still can’t move the bad leg. But, he’s standing again, which is something he hasn’t really been doing, either. I know it’s probably not much, but I’m so excited for even the smallest bit of improvement!

Edit: Buns is back to doing his happy flops! I was scared he might have fallen since he fell onto his bad leg, but no, he’s just a happy bunny that wanted to stretch out and relax!

[Bam]

This is really good news! It sounds very promising.

I don’t think I’ll ever get completely used to happy flops, they just fall over and “collapse”, my heart always skips a beat =)

We’ll be happy for more updates!

[Author]

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