How long for sprain to heal?

[Waffle65]

If anyone has any experience with sprained paws, how long on average do they take to heal? 10 days ago Kiwi began holding his front right paw up, really not putting any weight on it unless he had to. He went to the vet the next day, and they said it was as most likely a sprain or pulled muscle, and to watch him. It’s been 10 days, and while he is getting better, his paw is still not back to normal. He’s keeping it down 99% of the time now, although he’s not always putting weight on it, but more than before. Is this just the normal healing process and I’m being paranoid? Everything I’ve read on other forums/posts bunnies seem to heal in just a few days. He just doesn’t seem like his usual self right now, so I’m worried about him. But he is eating and going to the bathroom like normal, so I’m hoping it’s not too bad.

The vet said to give him 3-4 weeks, and if he didn’t improve/get back to normal by then to bring him back for x-rays. They didn’t give him any pain meds, because they were worried about the effect of it on his kidneys (he’s 8 years old), and they thought he would take it easy more if he could feel when he overdid it.

The first few days after the vet visit he seemed to be recovering quite well. Then he decided to get quite rough with his bed, digging and scratching at it quite a bit. It seems like since that day he has almost regressed a little bit. Is it possible he stressed his paw doing that making the injury worse, delaying his healing? I feel so guilty now, like I should’ve limited his movement more, but I figured if it hurt he wouldn’t do anything to make it worse.

[Azerane]

The digging would not have helped the healing, it could have set things back a day or two. Did the vet recommend to keep him confined while he was healing? You don’t want him jumping up and down from steps/surfaces like the couch etc or doing too much running around. If he’s still doing most of his normal activities 10 days is not long enough to heal. Give it more time, another week and you probably won’t notice much of the injury, another week after that and he should be pretty much fully healed. Also keep in mind that older animals do often take longer to heal than younger ones.

[Waffle65]

Posted By Azerane on 3/30/2016 9:19 PM

The digging would not have helped the healing, it could have set things back a day or two. Did the vet recommend to keep him confined while he was healing? You don’t want him jumping up and down from steps/surfaces like the couch etc or doing too much running around. If he’s still doing most of his normal activities 10 days is not long enough to heal. Give it more time, another week and you probably won’t notice much of the injury, another week after that and he should be pretty much fully healed. Also keep in mind that older animals do often take longer to heal than younger ones.

Thank you for the quick reply. I’m sure I’m just being paranoid, but I can’t help it. The vet said I shouldn’t keep him stuck in his crate, but I should make sure he doesn’t overdo it while he’s playing. I don’t have any stairs for him to climb, and I’ve been careful to keep him off any furniture he could jump from. He was doing fine and resting nicely until I looked away for two minutes, and he decided to try and dig his way to China. Clearly I need to keep him away from his bed until he heals up. But so far he’s still been playing around the living room, although not quite as much as before. And despite me telling him to rest , he still feels the need to leap around his crate every morning and when I get home from work. Hopefully this is just a combination of a little too much activity and his age, and of course me being way too overprotective.

[Vienna Blue in France]

I suspect it will take longer as he’s older anyway, imagine a 70 yr old recovering from a sprained ankle, they won’t be up and running in the same time as a 20 yr old……
Zou did hers when she was about a year old…. she was holding it up for a few days and then got very calm so I shot her to the vets, her temp was sky high (vet said in theory she shouldn’t be alive… but she a big girl fighter!! lol)!
Was it an internal infection caused by the paw, or the paw which caused the infection…?? We’ll never know now.
So after antibiotics she was right as rain again and I suppose took another week or so before she was putting equal pressure on both front paws….

I guess if he was really feeling pain he wouldn’t be leaping around of his own accord….
Just keep an eye on Kiwi’s overall health to make sure there’s no secondary something going on.

[Waffle65]

Posted By Vienna Blue in France on 3/31/2016 6:45 AM
I suspect it will take longer as he’s older anyway, imagine a 70 yr old recovering from a sprained ankle, they won’t be up and running in the same time as a 20 yr old……
Zou did hers when she was about a year old…. she was holding it up for a few days and then got very calm so I shot her to the vets, her temp was sky high (vet said in theory she shouldn’t be alive… but she a big girl fighter!! lol)!
Was it an internal infection caused by the paw, or the paw which caused the infection…?? We’ll never know now.
So after antibiotics she was right as rain again and I suppose took another week or so before she was putting equal pressure on both front paws….

I guess if he was really feeling pain he wouldn’t be leaping around of his own accord….
Just keep an eye on Kiwi’s overall health to make sure there’s no secondary something going on.

Thank you! I’m glad to hear your bunny recovered! I hate to think of him as an old bunny, but I guess he is and I shouldn’t be surprised it will take a while longer to heal. I saw Kiwi holding his paw up a little bit, but overall I think he’s starting to put a little more weight on it. I’ve been keeping him in his crate a little more, since he clearly can’t rest on his own if I don’t. He seems to be a little bored, but if that’s what it takes for him to recover then he will have to deal for a little bit.

[jerseygirl]

It took Jersey 2 weeks before I considered her recovered. HTH.

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