Help! my bunny toenails seems swollen

LittleBean · Sep 30, 2015

Dear all, i noticed that the feet and paw area of my bunny seems swollen.
she seems okay when i touches those areas, and she still scratches the floor vigorously and does binkies sometimes.

if she's really in pain would she be doing all those actions?
is her swollen feet/paw something to be concerned about and should i bring her to the vet?

many thanks in advance for your advice.

bunnyrose · Sep 30, 2015

Hi LittleBean-- yes, to the vet. Maybe fur mites but whatever the cause, toenails shouldnt be bare like that. And she cld b relieving the itch and irritation by running around etc. to use her toes. Its possibly not pain, but itch. If mites, they dont go away by themselves but they are easily treatable.

Also, ask the vet or vet tech to show you how to look at the toenails to see if they are too long. It's a physical stress on the paw toes when the nails grow out too far, and from your photos they need trimming. The points are sharp and too long past the pink of the quick. The nail grows out kind of like a tube and when it changes shape to look like an overhang of single sided nail, thats the point at which you can safely trim. You can see the change-point even in a dark nail. You still need a bunny vet to look at the nails and fur, though.

Congrats to you for being alert and asking questions, to say nothing about taking fotos!

Saby · Feb 8, 2019

Hi, could you help me out with this problem.. My rabbit has exactly the same problem. His toe nail bed as well as the nail has turned red and he licks it quite often. What did you do to help your rabbit? Please help. Thanks in advance.

Lindsay Gunn · Jul 14, 2019

Hi same thing going on here! Did you guys ever sort out what was going on with your buns!

JBun · Jul 15, 2019

Fur loss on the toes can indicate a mite problem or a possible fungal infection, which would need to be treated with the correct rabbit safe medication. I would suggest having your rabbit seen by an experienced rabbit vet to properly diagnose the issue.
https://rabbit.org/vet-listings/
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/furmite/fur_mite.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/Mange/Sarcoptes.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Fungal/Fungal_en.htm

Thumpy · Sep 21, 2024

LittleBean said:
Dear all, i noticed that the feet and paw area of my bunny seems swollen.
she seems okay when i touches those areas, and she still scratches the floor vigorously and does binkies sometimes.

if she's really in pain would she be doing all those actions?
is her swollen feet/paw something to be concerned about and should i bring her to the vet?

many thanks in advance for your advice.

Did you ever figure out what the problem was? My rabbit has a similar issue.