Sore Hocks with No Rabbit Savvy Vet Nearby

[Al_Koenig]

Dear All,

We really need your help and advice on this one. Our bunny, Luna, an 8-year old female Lionhead has been developing sore hocks on both her feet. It started out with tiny patches a couple of months ago and developed into these:

As you can see from the images above by now she there are bald patches on both her feet. One is even quite reddish.

Our problem is that there is totally no rabbit savvy vets nearby (we live in Indonesia). We have been medicating our bunny through several serious illnesses alone (she went through pasteurella with the help of some very generous help from this forum), and it seems that we have no other choice than to continue to do so.

We have followed the instructions by dana kremples to treat sore hocks
(http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sorehocks.html), and the rabbit has been wearing those vetrap bandages for over a month now. However, the problem is not getting any better, and we cannot find any other underlying problems (I guarantee you all that she lives in a clean and healthy enclosure, now padded with towels and mattresses to make the flooring extra soft).

We are really desperate, and in need of your sound advice. Is there any way we can treat this problem ourselves? We have access to a huge range of medication (it's Indonesia fellas, you can buy pretty much anything), so if anybody has a certain recipe for a salve or any other form of medication, we are all ears.

Many, many thanks in advance!

Al & Kathy

 

[majorv]

Hmmm, that article doesn't have you putting anything on the skin, just wrapping them. There are a couple of things you can try putting on the skin. Many breeders use Preparation H to help the skin heal. Another thing you could try is Bag Balm. You may be able to find it at a pharmacy or a store that carries livestock supplies.

I remember that one poster found some baby socks and put them on their rabbit's hind feed and secured the tops so they didn't come down...vetwrap would work. She had a mini Rex, which are bad about getting sore hocks.

 

[JBun]

Do you keep her nails trimmed regularly? Long nails can cause them to walk on their feet differently, putting more pressure on the backs of their feet and making them sore. A health problem like arthritis can also cause changes in how they walk, which could in turn cause sores to develop on the feet. Sometimes metacam is used for rabbits that have arthritis, as well as glucosamine. One or both of these may be helpful if this is what she has.

Do either sores on the feet have an open wound? If so, it's possible there is bacteria in there that is preventing the sores from healing, in which case using something like a plain triple antibiotic ointment(not the kind with pain relief added) under the foot wraps, may help.

Here's a thread showing the baby socks being used:
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f27/bunny-trouble-69718/index2.html

 

[Al_Koenig]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the prompt reply. That is how we pretty much bind our girl's feet now for the last month or so. However, the sores are not getting better. Her nails are all neatly trimmed.

Bag Balm is hard to come by around here, but we might be able to try the triple-antibiotic route. So, plain regular Neosporin should be safe for bunny, right?

 

[gmas rabbit]

We have a friend with a bunny with on going sore hocks. Hers were looking as bad as your bunnies. She has been using Bag Balm and before that Healx Soother Plus. When she switched to tiny baby socks padded with bunny fur her feet started to improve immediately. Try getting bag balm online. She padded the socks and then secured them with vet wrap, but be careful not too tightly.

 

[Al_Koenig]

We finally got hold of some bag balm today. We'll keep you guys updated on how it goes. Thanks for all the advice so far

 

[Al_Koenig]

Just wanted to update you guys on how Luna is doing. Bag balm and wrapping the feet didn't help us. The more we observed her, the more we felt that she has adopted a strange posture, where she would hop with her heels (if that makes sense). She got more and more lethargic. Her weight was on her heels and she also started to not be able eat her cecal pellets. She would drop them on the ground, make a turn and then eat them from the ground. Sometimes she would step on it with her feet, making matters worse.

We were certain that she had some anatomical problems. Maybe she had arthritis?

We decided to give her meloxicam for a week. That took care of her lethargy. But still she couldn't bend her back as well as she did in the past and her posture was still a bit off. We continued with meloxicam for another week, combined with a tiny dose of vegan glucosamine & chondotrin. We gave her the supplements for 2 consecutive weeks (first week along with the pain killers and then only the supplements).

I would say that she has totally recovered. Her posture is back to that of a "normal" bunny. After she wasn't hopping with her heels anymore, the fur on her feet has grown back, although it is still very thin.

Hope this info can help other rabbits with similar problems. And many thanks to all of you, who took the time and thought to help us out.

Cheers,
Al & Kathy

 

[degrassi]

Thanks for the update

My rabbit, gimpy, also has postural problems and has developed sock hocks because of it. He's had the posture problems since birth(hence the name Gimpy) and he is now almost 10yo. I've also noticed in the last few years that he has trouble eating his cecals or cleaning himself. He's also had some trouble getting into his litter box and now I use a towel on his cage floor. The towel has helped with the sore hocks but he is still having issues with his posture and maybe even arthritis now. I tried meloxicam and it didn't do too much for his movement.

So I was wondering how you dosed the glucosamine & chondotrin? It might be worth trying.

 

[Al_Koenig]

I've read somewhere that someone (yeah, I know it sounds like trial and error) gave their rabbit 20mg / kg rabbit / per day. Our rabbit weighs around 3.5kg so it should have been 70mg per day. However we could only find vegan glucosamine & chondotrin in 500mg tablets.

So we crushed the tablets into powder and divided each into 8 parts (62.5mg per serving) and gave it to her daily.

It really worked wonders, and I she's really eating all her cecal pellets effortlessly now, and she's also cleaning herself much more than before. I wish we had tried it earlier. It's definitely worth trying. Wish ya all the luck, and please keep us updated!