Fiona's foot

[missyscove]

This sort of happened once before, I'd say about3 months ago, but I haven't seen it again until now. I flipped Fiona (my black dutch) over, and on the side (not the bottom)of her foot, was what looked like a large, pink wart. Except that when I touched it, pus came out. I wrapped her up in a towel to take a closer look at it, then called my mom in. She decided to squeeze all of the pus out of it, then we wiped it with a warm, wet paper towel.

What is this? Is there anything else we should do?Could we put say hydrogen peroxide on it? The only neosporine we have here is the pain relieving kind which I know we aren't supposed to use. I'm going to my dad's later, and I'll see if I've got any there without the pain relieving stuff. I don'tthink my mom thinks it's at the stage where we'll need to go to the vet, though I did explain to her that I think it might be an abcess that would need antibiotics and such.

 

[Offspring2099]

Was the pus think like cottage cheese or not?

 

[Haley]

:yeahthat

Also, I remember Pamnock said that sometimes the pus can be a little thinner too, like human pus. It does sound like an abscess to me. Sore hocks usually dont have any liquid inside them.

So is there pus in it now or did it all drain? You could try some neosporin to see if that helps, but if it is an abscess she'll need to see the vet. With it being on the foot, the vet may be able to just remove the entire thing easily.

 

[missyscove]

It wasn't really thick. Umm, maybe like yogurt consistency. I don't really know how do describe it.

I think it all drained.

She did have a slightly smaller version of the same thing a while back that went away, or, at least I thought it did.

I was always under the impression an abcess would feel more like my dog's fatty tumors do, under the skin. This honestly looks like a wart or a zit, except no whitehead part, it just started squirting out when I touched it.

I didn't think it was sore hocks because it is on the side- not the bottom- of her back foot.

 

[missyscove]

If I wait a little while before taking her to the vet to monitor it- obviously if it looks worse, we'll make the first appointment we can- would that be horrible? Is this immediately threatening to her? Or is it okay for me to wait a bit.

 

[aurora369]

I would call up the vets and make the first appointment you can. I don't think a day or so will make a difference, but you definitly want to get her on some antibiotics.

It does sound like a small abcess on the foot. But if it's nice and small and already draining, you should be able to get rid of it with a course of antibiotics and possibly some sort of ointment to put on the abcess itself.

--Dawn

 

[Haley]

yeah, its not life threatening, but it would be best to get her in as soon as you can to avoid the risk of it spreading. If it is an abscess, it could spread which would be a lot more costly and difficult to treat. As it is now, some simple antibiotics might do the trick.

 

[~BunBuns~]

Wait to see what it is, you wouldnt want to go to a vet just for him to say its fine. If it comes up again take your bunny to the vet , im sure its some kind of blister or something (im guessing) but i would'nt recomend putting neoporin or anything else on since rabbits like to lick and your bunny might get poisoned.
( I M GUESSING AT THIS)
-April

 

[Haley]

Actually, my vet recommends putting neosporin on any type of exposed cut or wound. If a bunny is licking the area, you can hold them for a while until it dries a bit, or cover the area with guaze. I also use sulphadine cream, but I think you need an rx for that.

 

[missyscove]

Thank you all so much for your information. I'm going to go ahead and put neosporin on it. If it seems to come back, we'll definately take her to the vet, but for now, we're going to wait a bit and see what happens. It isn't particularly difficult to get an appointment at our vet, so that isn't much of a concern, and my mom has Tues. and Thurs. off, so it would be easy to take her one of those days.

This comes at a bad time because my best friend's rabbit is having some issues himself. Her other rabbit beat Mr. Courage up. He had to have the scar tissue cut out or something along those lines. Now he's all stitched up, but he's on Critical Care and an anti-inflammatory and an anti biotic. Poor Mr.Courage.

 

[missyscove]

Okay, so my mom said we had some of the non pain relieving neosporin, she lied.

What is the problem with the pain reliever? I've just always heard it's bad.

I have neosporin and generic stuff, both with pain reliever.

ugh.

 

[missyscove]

http://www.mnhouserabbit.org/care/firstaidkit.html

This website says hydrogen peroxide is okay, so we're going to go ahead and use that.

 

[Runestonez]

Having had a rabbit with an abscess keep in mind that abscesses not taken care of(antibiotics) can seed to other parts of the body and create more abscesses. Not trying to scare you...just an FYI! Hope Fiona is feeling better!

 

[naturestee]

I'd say you should probably get her in to a vet soon. Since it's small it should be easy to deal with, but you don't want it spreading. It's really easy for foot abscesses like that to get into the bone.

BTW, I think the problem with the pain reliever in Neosporin is that it can upset their stomachs. It's not meant to be ingested, but rabbits will lick it off.

 

[Savannah1687]

You should take your bun to the vet asap. If it is an infection it could spread to the lymphatic system and cause a lot more than just a bump on her foot. I'm not trying to scare you but my Rabbit had to go to the vet yesterday for the same thing. They gave her an antibiotic and told me to keep the area cleaned and drained. You can use peroxide and neosporin or any other kind of triple antibiotic...at least thats what my vet told me. Hope Fiona gets to feeling better!

 

[missyscove]

Once again, thank you all for your advice.

We're continuing to drain it ourselves, then using a hydrogen peroxide dilute to clean it out. It has become noticably smaller. At this point I think we'll continue with this.

Once again, if it starts to look worse, she will certainly go to the vet. Basically, my mom feels like it's getting better, and if it's something that can be fixed, she'd rather not spend the money on taking her to the vet. It's not that we can't afford it or that we're unprepared, that's just the way she feels right now. Personally, I can't drive, I don't have a job, and I'm really busy right now, but these are technically my mother's rabbits(and she will tell you that), and the decision is ultimately up to her,though she relies on my bank of knowledge to inform her.

I'll see if we can get some antibiotic cream without the pain reliever.

It doesn't seem to bother Fiona (except when I wrap her up in a towel and flip her over to look at it, of course).

Fiona was on antibiotics shortly after we adopted her for an upper respritory infection. That wasn't fun for either of us.