Limping bunny, prednisolone?

[Kaninmor]

Hi! I’m new here, tried searching but haven’t found anything to answer my questions.

Kattis-bunny had a breast lump, and the biopsi showed cancer. The vet recommended surgery, saying ahe was very heathy otherwise. She had a massive incision, and lots of stitches, and her skin ripped where the stitches were. Once the main incision healed, they fixed the tear, and she seemed be be doing much better. After being at the vets to get the last stitches out, she developed a limp on her right hind leg. Lifting it up, not standing on it, curling her toes under etc. i rushed her back to the vet, but they weren’t too worried, and said it was probably a strain. She also had a bit of sore hocks on both hind legs, most likely from being caged with the stitches (she’s normally free-range in our apartment). Two weeks later it hadn’t got much better, so the vet recommended trying metacam again, as she had been good with that after the surgery, try some stretches and massage and ring them after the weekend. She was still lifting her foot, maybe more than before. Today at the vet they took heaps of xrays, but couldn’t find anything unusual. They are suggesting she might have pinched a nerve, and put her on a small dose of prednisolone to see if it might help relax wherever its pinching.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? She is still eating, drinking and pooping, but she sits with this leg pushed forward and all her weight on the other.

[Mikey]

We actually have a user whos rabbit was recently diagnosed with a leg problem that almost sounds similar to me. Their bunnies back legs stopped working randomly and they could not figure out why. It was finally determined that her knee caps slipped out causing her to be unable to walk/walk in pain. Maybe that happened to your bun too?

[Kaninmor]

Hi Mikey, Thanks for the tip. I’m trying to search for this, but can’t seem to find it. Maybe you can help point me in the right direction?

I’ll try put up some pics in a bit – can’t seem to load them straight from my phone.

[jerseygirl]

Link is below to the thread Mikey referred to.
It’s long, so if you don’t want to read all, there is an image on page 2 (when logged on) showing how the rabbit was sitting. And on page 4, the most recent consult concluded the rabbits knees had slipped out of place.

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/161082/Default.aspx

[Kaninmor]

Thanks Jerseygirl! I had a look at the the way she is holding her leg doesn’t look similar at all. Kattis lifts her foot up parallel to the ground. Trying to put in a pic here, lets see if it works. The vet put little bandages on both her feet yesterday, due to the sore hocks. Actually the vet was surprised she lifts this foot, since the sore hocks was worse on the foot she is keeping her weight on:

cture, but 

[jerseygirl]

Oh what a sweetie! Looks at those eyes. : ) The avatar oic is magic too.

Jersey once sprained her front foot and held it up close to her body. She’d hop around on it but then have it tucked back up when she was still. It took about 2 weeks to come back to normal.

What age is Kattis? Was there any sign of arthritis seen in the xrays?

Have you noticed any changes since she started the prednisolone?

[Bam]

Is she spayed? Do you by breast lump mean a mammary tumor?

If you mean another type of lump located in the fatty tissue around her chest, this would not apply, so just nevermind it:

http://rabbit.org/tumors-in-rabbits/ scroll down to CANCER OF MAMMARY GLANDS

In this article it says it’s not unusual for a rabbit with this cancer to also have uterine cancer. If she has pain from her downstairs regions, it could affect her gait. It doesn’t have to be full blown cancer, it often starts with other cellular changes that can then proceed to become cancer. A spay would of course put and end to that whole process. I don’t know if they’d have seen any uterine abnormalites on x-rays, with dogs it as a rule takes an ultra sound.

[Kaninmor]

Posted By jerseygirl on 7/11/2017 6:12 AM

Oh what a sweetie! Looks at those eyes. : ) The avatar oic is magic too.

Jersey once sprained her front foot and held it up close to her body. She’d hop around on it but then have it tucked back up when she was still. It took about 2 weeks to come back to normal.

What age is Kattis? Was there any sign of arthritis seen in the xrays?

Have you noticed any changes since she started the prednisolone?

Hi Jerseygirl . She has the biggest eyes, bit sore in this pic since she was sedated for the xrays, and despite all the gel they put in them to protect them they are so out there that she automatically gets something in them. 

The vet also said a sprain at first, but after the 2-3 weeks now she was a bit more worried. They did every plausible xray looking for breaks, fractures, dislocation, bone spurs and signs of arthritis, bit didn’t find anything out of the usual. She is 5, which is why they were looking for arthritis, but she is a very small and active free range bunny, and everything looked good. That’s why she wondered about a pinched nerve. 

Kattis has only taken the prednisolone once so far, just about to get her second dose. She is going back to the vet on Thursday so that they can see if there has been any change, as they don’t want her on it too long without a check. She seemed pretty feisty this morning, hopping around the relatively small area (2,5x1m) that we have set up for her, biting her willow ring, hay, food and then sitting down for a couple of minutes before doing it all again. She hops on the front of the foot, but then lifts it when she sits down. If standing ‘at attention’ she puts it out to the side, and moves her left rear leg under her butt. Hoping that this treatment will make some difference, it’s so hard to see her not using her leg properly .

[Kaninmor]

Posted By bam on 7/11/2017 6:20 AM

Is she spayed? Do you by breast lump mean a mammary tumor?

If you mean another type of lump located in the fatty tissue around her chest, this would not apply, so just nevermind it:

http://rabbit.org/tumors-in-rabbits/ scroll down to CANCER OF MAMMARY GLANDS

In this article it says it’s not unusual for a rabbit with this cancer to also have uterine cancer. If she has pain from her downstairs regions, it could affect her gait. It doesn’t have to be full blown cancer, it often starts with other cellular changes that can then proceed to become cancer. A spay would of course put and end to that whole process. I don’t know if they’d have seen any uterine abnormalites on x-rays, with dogs it as a rule takes an ultra sound.

Hi Bam – thanks for your comments.She had a cancerous tumour in one of her front mammary glands, but with no spreading to other areas. They did xray and ultrasound at the time, and confirmed no uterinary involvement. They took out all of the mammary glands on that side, as they said that any reoccurence would generally be in that same area.

She wasn’t spayed when she was young, because she was very underweight when we got her (600grams at 1 year old) and the vets did not want to sedate her. Now she weighs about 950 grams, and she is scheduled to be spayed in October, as the vet wanted her to have a fair rest after this big surgery. 

The vet had a very thorough investigation of her yesterday, both with x-rays, checks while she was awake and while she was sedated, and doesn’t suspect uterinary cancer. 

[jerseygirl]

And her toes were all checked?

Was she conscious when they took rest of stitches out? Im presuming they are for this.

Did she have a line put in that leg for the original surgery? You can normally tell if there is a patch of fur shaved on on the inner side.

Is she managing to toilet alright?

[Kaninmor]

Posted By jerseygirl on 7/11/2017 8:34 AM

And her toes were all checked?

Was she conscious when they took rest of stitches out? Im presuming they are for this.

Did she have a line put in that leg for the original surgery? You can normally tell if there is a patch of fur shaved on on the inner side.

Is she managing to toilet alright?

Hi Jerseygirl,

They checked her toes, only a little worried that she doesn’t seem to have as much ‘tickle reflex’ under the bad foot.

Yes, she was concious for the removal of the last stitches, and I was there holding her when they did it. Didn’t see her do anything unusual at all. They shaved a front foot the very first day at the vet, trying to get a vein for the blood tests, but she is so little they ended up having to shave her neck and use a vein there because the ones on her feet were too small!

She is doing really well with the toilet, she is able to lift her bum up and is not getting dirty at all.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I have nothing to add, except that your little bun is super cute and I hope she is back to hopping around normally soon.

[Kaninmor]

Thanks Littlepuffytail! Me too! Will keep you posted

[Bam]

She really is a beautiful girl! I’m very glad further cancer has been ruled out. If there’s damage to a peripheral nerve, it can take several months for it to heal. I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, since she seems to be doing well in all other respects. We’d be very interested in updates.

[jerseygirl]

Posted By bam on 7/11/2017 1:20 PM

She really is a beautiful girl! I’m very glad further cancer has been ruled out. If there’s damage to a peripheral nerve, it can take several months for it to heal. I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, since she seems to be doing well in all other respects. We’d be very interested in updates.

Ditto. Great that there isn’t other cancer.  I missed your earlier response to Bam.

By chance, I came across this info about cold laser treatment the other night. I was looking for something else but was happy to find it as im curious about how much it could help rabbits for various things. You might be interested in taking a look! It might even help in the healing of sore hocks. 

http://www.houserabbitga.com/cold-laser-therapy-rabbits

[Kaninmor]

Hi So we just rang the vet today, and didn’t go in. Kattis is still eating, drinking and pooping like a champion, and we are doing stretches with her. She seems to be doing better with her toe reflexes, and when we are stretching her foot and leg she has more resistance in her muscles before, rather than being limp. So we will keep going for a few more days, and head back to the vet on Monday.

btw, Jerseygirl, I checked, and there is no cold laser treatment up here, not even for humans.

[LittlePuffyTail]

(((((Healing Vibes)))))

[Kaninmor]

So, Kattis’ leg has been getting stronger. Both her tickle reflex and general muscle strength have been getting better.

But, not the best day today. When doing her daily bandage swap I saw a lump on her ‘good’ foot. It’s about halfway down the foot on the outside edge of her foot. Moved the fur away and saw a that it was red and had a sore on it. Luckily her vet is awesome, and asked me to send pictures – it’s Saturday night here. She went by her clinic, then came home to us with oral antibiotics and helped me wash it out with antiseptic and rebandage it. She will stop in tomorrow, and we will go to the clinic on Monday to see if it needs to be surgically cleaned out.

So, while the treatment has been helping her get stronger, she said the prednisolone makes Kattis more susceptible to infection, so we will start trapping down immediately.

Happy healing thoughts please!

[Bam]

Lots of happy healing thoughts for (((((Kattis)))))

[Kaninmor]

Hi guys,

Little update and some crossed fingers here. Kattis is at the vet just now, they are going to clean out the sores. Yes, sores plural now, because since Saturday she started putting all her weight on her heel, since her foot hurt, and now has a sore there too. Poor little bun! Her right leg is stronger, but still not 100%, and now she doesn’t want to put weight on her left either. Home they manage to get this under control now. Update after I pick her up. 

[Bam]

I’m so sorry it’s gotten worse. Keeping my fingers crossed for her. You seem to have a very good vet, that’s wonderful.

(((((Kattis)))))

[Kaninmor]

She’s a bit dopey now. They couldn’t give her metacam because of the steroid still being in her system, so they had to give her another type of painkiller. She is eating a bit but not too active yet.

The vet was pretty happy, only the sore on the middle of her foot was infected, the heel was ok. But the middle of the foot sore was right on the little bone spur on the side of her foot, so she said there wasn’t a lot of space here. We are going back on Thursday. Luckily we got liquid antibiotics from them, since Kattis hates the taste of the tablets.

Update when she is moving around again

[Kaninmor]

Today went from bad to worse. After waking up from the surgery on her foot, she seemed ok and we went home. Had her all cosy in the corner, and then noticed her fur on that leg was weird. At some point she has managed to grab at her leg, and literally ripped open her skin! Another emergency home visit, and then straight to the clinic where they have sown this skin flap back (it was a triangle about 5cm each side, still attached at the front). Not going to post a pic without starting a new thread about graphic content, it looked awful. My poor little bun, I just don’t know how much more she can take!

[Author]

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