What am I doing wrong? :o(

Despite all the attention, Oidhche-Velvet's hocks are getting worse. A sore patch has appeared on the other foot and they've started bleeding again. We have fleece down, although she does insist on hopping through to the carpet in the bedroom. We're finishing the baytril, using sudocream as a barrier and are keeping her weight down and nails short, and they're GETTING WORSE.

I'm so frustrated, it must be so painful for the poor love to have bleeding feet. But I don't know what else I can do.

You're not doing anything wrong. This is a 'fault' of the breed, and those to blame are those who created a breed who are prone to this problem. All you are doing is trying your best, which is all anyone can do. Sometimes the best prevention efforts are not enough.

Can you talk us through exactly what you have done and tried?

Jane is the mine of all knowledge about rexes so she may bea good person to talk to. I also think that she has said that really deep hay is what she has found works the best for flooring.

*Hugs*
You're not doing anything wrong. We had the same problem with our Velvet.
I agree that Jane is the best person to turn to for advice.

Sky-O said:

You're not doing anything wrong. This is a 'fault' of the breed, and those to blame are those who created a breed who are prone to this problem. All you are doing is trying your best, which is all anyone can do. Sometimes the best prevention efforts are not enough.

Can you talk us through exactly what you have done and tried?

Jane is the mine of all knowledge about rexes so she may bea good person to talk to. I also think that she has said that really deep hay is what she has found works the best for flooring.

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I could do with giving them a good kick up the backside My poor girlie.

We keep her nails cut short and keep an eye on her weight, she's 3.5kg just now and the vet said that's pretty ideal.

We have padded lino on the floor with carpets on top and fleece on top of that. She's in the kitchen and the flat is rented so there's a limit to what we can do. She has a hidey hole under the desk with a fleecy dog-bed in which she loves to lie in.

We spotted a raw patch on a hock when cutting her nails, made a vet appointment, by the time we got to the vets two days later the wound was infected and filled with pus. She's been treated with baytril and fuciderm, with metacam as needed. After little improvement we went back and were told to try sudocream as a barrier. We haven't been bandaging as she still has decent fur coverage around the hock.

Vet basically said it was just a matter of time, but it doesn't make me feel any less rotten She didn't come here with dodgy hocks did she? It started with the back right foot, spread to the front left, and has now started on the back right too, I think because she's been favouring that one. She obviously has some pain as I catch her shifting from foot to foot.

I was hoping Jane might pop along. I don't know what I can do about hay as it's not really feasible for my kitchen to be covered in a deep layer of hay, and there is quite honestly nowhere else to put her, our flat only has three rooms.

In the US they seem to find that something called 'Bag Balm' can work well. Maybe that's worth looking into to see if you can get some shipped across?

Sky-O said:

In the US they seem to find that something called 'Bag Balm' can work well. Maybe that's worth looking into to see if you can get some shipped across?

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I will have a look, thanks :wave:

They sell bag balm at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bag-Balm-Wi...1_1?ie=UTF8&s=drugstore&qid=1286118067&sr=8-1 :wave:

If her hocks are that bad I would suggest confining her to a space filled with soft hay..deep bed her on it for a few weeks..changing it often so she isn't on urine soaked bits
This is how we have cured sore hocks here before..along with anti biotics to fight infection and barrier cream of course

oh poor velvet ... wish i had more advice

Thanks for your replies. I just don't know where I would put a thick layer of hay

Bumping up for Jane.

Can you cover the carpet? We found the carpet the main culprit. As soon as we covered it with some softer rugs they improved greatly. And then when we put lino down they improved even more. The rough carpet was rubbing away at the delicate fur and exposing the skin underneath. It was happening with three of my four. The only one with who it didn't was Smudge cause his fur is very thick.

Some of the US articles, are talking about applying New Skin

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/sorehocks.shtml
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sorehocks.html
http://www.vet2pet.co.uk/pethealth/rabbithealth/sorehocks_rabbit.asp

Jaime the conti, had serious bleeding hocks when he was here. Took ages before they cleared up, & they got worse before they got better

The first time I noticed an improvement was after he'd been living on a double duvet for a week. He had rubber matting, newspaper, duvet, then hay. And one week they stayed scabbed long enough to heal

Obviously he had to be restricted to a room where the duvet fit - & I had to keep replacing cos he was an unneutered male (Asda did a £10 one). His garden time was restricted area, when the grass was dry & his hocks bandaged

I'm sorry i can't offer any suggestions but you do have my sympathy - I have got 2 rexes but they are outdoor buns and they are either on grass (daytime) or a 3 inch layer of megazorb & soft hay in their hutch and I'm still paranoid.
From what i've read in other threads it seems to be carpets that are often the problem and other soft surfaces are also still abrasive - would she be ok on lino? If not, then maybe think about confinement so you can put a thick layer of hay doww.
Sorry I can't help, hope she starts improving soon, you must be so worried

Angie65 said:

Jaime the conti, had serious bleeding hocks when he was here. Took ages before they cleared up, & they got worse before they got better

The first time I noticed an improvement was after he'd been living on a double duvet for a week. He had rubber matting, newspaper, duvet, then hay. And one week they stayed scabbed long enough to heal

Obviously he had to be restricted to a room where the duvet fit - & I had to keep replacing cos he was an unneutered male (Asda did a £10 one). His garden time was restricted area, when the grass was dry & his hocks bandaged

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We also found a duvet helped. Vetbed with a sheet on top is also good. Vetbed on it's own still seems a bit abrasive. You want spongy so the nails sink in but with a thin covering on top like a sheet or duvet cover.

Schuette said:

Can you cover the carpet? We found the carpet the main culprit. As soon as we covered it with some softer rugs they improved greatly. And then when we put lino down they improved even more. The rough carpet was rubbing away at the delicate fur and exposing the skin underneath. It was happening with three of my four. The only one with who it didn't was Smudge cause his fur is very thick.

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We had lino originally - it's a funny kind of lino, very thick and spongy underfoot. It was on this that the hock issues started, so we put carpet down and fleece on top of that, thinking that the extra padding might help. It hasn't. Would I be better taking all that up and just leaving her with the lino? We still have carpet in the other rooms but I can confine her to the kitchen in the meantime if it'll help.

raine said:

Some of the US articles, are talking about applying New Skin

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/sorehocks.shtml
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sorehocks.html
http://www.vet2pet.co.uk/pethealth/rabbithealth/sorehocks_rabbit.asp

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Thanks, I'll have a good read. :wave:

Coineanach said:

We had lino originally - it's a funny kind of lino, very thick and spongy underfoot. It was on this that the hock issues started, so we put carpet down and fleece on top of that, thinking that the extra padding might help. It hasn't. Would I be better taking all that up and just leaving her with the lino? We still have carpet in the other rooms but I can confine her to the kitchen in the meantime if it'll help.

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Personally if it was me I'd pull the carpet up and put duvets all over instead of the carpet. The problem with carpet, though obviously this depends how thick the pile is, is it doesn't have any give in for their nails and in addition, it can be a bit rough.

The absolute best thing is hay but I know that that just isn't usually practical indoors.

Angie65 said:

The first time I noticed an improvement was after he'd been living on a double duvet for a week. He had rubber matting, newspaper, duvet, then hay. And one week they stayed scabbed long enough to heal

Obviously he had to be restricted to a room where the duvet fit - & I had to keep replacing cos he was an unneutered male (Asda did a £10 one). His garden time was restricted area, when the grass was dry & his hocks bandaged

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I can see what we can do with a duvet, luckily we wouldn't have the issues of spray everywhere :shock: Madam has the same problem, they scab over then she knocks the scabs off putting us back to square one. Atm we're just waiting for them to callous to some extent. She's a big fan of jumping on and off things which is where I think she's knocking the scabs off.

JLG said:

I'm sorry i can't offer any suggestions but you do have my sympathy - I have got 2 rexes but they are outdoor buns and they are either on grass (daytime) or a 3 inch layer of megazorb & soft hay in their hutch and I'm still paranoid.
From what i've read in other threads it seems to be carpets that are often the problem and other soft surfaces are also still abrasive - would she be ok on lino? If not, then maybe think about confinement so you can put a thick layer of hay doww.
Sorry I can't help, hope she starts improving soon, you must be so worried

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Thank you for your thoughts :wave: