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Changes to Molly's setup?

LionheadLuver

Warren Veteran
Hey

Some of you may know about the changes I've done to my rabbits' accommodation due to Molly's sore hocks, vetbed on the floor of the hutch and foam matting in the run. She used to have thick hay on the floor of the hutch and run.

Well, 2 weeks on since the changes, and they have chewed chunks out of the vetbed :roll:, and Molly's hocks have become red, whereas when she was on hay all the time, they were a healthy pink colour. She still has one remaining abscess, and she is going to the vet tomorrow to get it lanced and sorted. She hasn't had any other abscesses erupt yet, which is good news, however the redness of her skin is worrying me.

I wonder if its best for her to have a fairly large area of floor covered in hay. I don't know if the foam matting is actually doing any good, or is causing the redness. Due to the amount of hair loss on her hocks, she has little cushioning of fur on her hocks, therefore her skin is always in direct contact with the foam, and this isn't extremely forgiving or soft. I suppose foam matting works better with bunnies who have small amounts of hair loss on their hocks, whereas Molly has nearly 3/4's of her fur gone on her hocks, so wonder if this is maybe where the problem now lies.

I'm going to put thick hay in half of the run for the moment and see if that improves her hocks. If not, then I'll cover the whole run with hay, with the foam matting still underneath to provide some sort of base. That should hopefully cure it, if the foam matting is the issue here.

I'm not sure what to do about the vetbed though. They don't eat the vetbed, they just chew it to shreads. Each morning, there is a pile of shredded vetbed. :roll: I've tried putting in willow toys and things to entertain them overnight, and this reduces the amount of vetbed they chew, but doesn't totally stop it. Again, if vetbed isn't helping much with her hocks, I'm probably thinking about getting rid of this too. :(

What are your opinions on these ideas? Am I doing the right thing here?
 
Hey

Some of you may know about the changes I've done to my rabbits' accommodation due to Molly's sore hocks, vetbed on the floor of the hutch and foam matting in the run. She used to have thick hay on the floor of the hutch and run.

Well, 2 weeks on since the changes, and they have chewed chunks out of the vetbed :roll:, and Molly's hocks have become red, whereas when she was on hay all the time, they were a healthy pink colour. She still has one remaining abscess, and she is going to the vet tomorrow to get it lanced and sorted. She hasn't had any other abscesses erupt yet, which is good news, however the redness of her skin is worrying me.

I wonder if its best for her to have a fairly large area of floor covered in hay. I don't know if the foam matting is actually doing any good, or is causing the redness. Due to the amount of hair loss on her hocks, she has little cushioning of fur on her hocks, therefore her skin is always in direct contact with the foam, and this isn't extremely forgiving or soft. I suppose foam matting works better with bunnies who have small amounts of hair loss on their hocks, whereas Molly has nearly 3/4's of her fur gone on her hocks, so wonder if this is maybe where the problem now lies.

I'm going to put thick hay in half of the run for the moment and see if that improves her hocks. If not, then I'll cover the whole run with hay, with the foam matting still underneath to provide some sort of base. That should hopefully cure it, if the foam matting is the issue here.

I'm not sure what to do about the vetbed though. They don't eat the vetbed, they just chew it to shreads. Each morning, there is a pile of shredded vetbed. :roll: I've tried putting in willow toys and things to entertain them overnight, and this reduces the amount of vetbed they chew, but doesn't totally stop it. Again, if vetbed isn't helping much with her hocks, I'm probably thinking about getting rid of this too. :(

What are your opinions on these ideas? Am I doing the right thing here?


:wave: i follow your threads about your little ones feet. We have recently adopted a wonderful chap called Little Oscar~D, and his hocks are a huge concern for me. Im sorry im not going to be any help, but didnt want to just read and not say anything.

We are trying cotton sheets wrapped in camping mats (Oscar~D is a house rabbit though).
They are such a worry, hun and i really hope you find a solution for your little ones feet. x
 
My experience was that vet bed made it worse, its actually quite abrasive and rubs on sore hocks, so i didnt use it at all after a while and things greatly improved, I had nothing but a positive result with the foam tiles but all bunnies are different, i would get rid of the vet bed and go from there first personally.

:)
 
My experience was that vet bed made it worse, its actually quite abrasive and rubs on sore hocks, so i didnt use it at all after a while and things greatly improved, I had nothing but a positive result with the foam tiles but all bunnies are different, i would get rid of the vet bed and go from there first personally.

:)

thanks. I think getting rid of the vetbed is a good option. :) I think I'll still do half hay on the foam and see what results from there. :)
 
My experience was that vet bed made it worse, its actually quite abrasive and rubs on sore hocks, so i didnt use it at all after a while and things greatly improved, I had nothing but a positive result with the foam tiles but all bunnies are different, i would get rid of the vet bed and go from there first personally.

:)

This. I found duvets were better.
 
Duvets were very good, they were impractical longterm for my set up but when peanuts hocks were at their worst he had an old duvet too and that did help.
 
I think they would shred a duvet. :lol:

Well, took her to the vets today and the vet was shocked at how red her skin was and said its definitely worse than what it was. However she lanced an abscess and found no infection, however she lanced the wrong one. She lanced an old abscess, but it shows that no infection remained in that one. She did clip the fur around the abscess that I think is still there, and you can see that the abscess is very small and not white at all, so looks like this has hopefully healed up with all the antibiotics she's been on.

All the nurses were fussing over Molly, saying how beautiful she was. :D Molly was such a star, never complains about anything, even when her skin is being lanced. The vet gave her some anti-inflammatory/painrelief and some antibiotics (Duphacort and Terramycin) and go back on Monday to see how she's getting on. I've also put a thick layer of hay back over the foam matting in the run and will do the same in the hutch too, so hopefully that will help also.
 
When Peanut Butter was suffering with his hocks the very first time we saw a different vet and she clipped the fur round his hock and the next vet we saw was so angry that had happened because even if you take away the tiniest bit of fur you are removing their natural padding, even on a rex.

x
 
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