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Subluxating/very lax joints - any advice?

weedug

Mama Doe
Blossom's hock joints subluxate, and her front leg joints are very lax, sometimes causing her to fall over. I'm starting to get worried about her as I'm sure her legs are getting worse.

The vet says there is nothing they can do, other than give her pain relief. They are happy enough to do this just now, but have said if her quality of life deteriorates, they will need to pts :(.

Has anyone ever had this in a rabbit? Does anyone know of a condition causing lax joints that will progessively get worse?
 
Re:

Blossom's hock joints subluxate, and her front leg joints are very lax, sometimes causing her to fall over. I'm starting to get worried about her as I'm sure her legs are getting worse.

The vet says there is nothing they can do, other than give her pain relief. They are happy enough to do this just now, but have said if her quality of life deteriorates, they will need to pts :(.

Has anyone ever had this in a rabbit? Does anyone know of a condition causing lax joints that will progessively get worse?

i have very lax joints which dislocate very easily, I have to sometimes go to a physio and/or specialists to get splints fitted to support the joint if I've dislocated a joint a lot and I've also had operations on my one knee to stabilise the joint. Physio is the best help though. My joints seem to be getting better though as I've only had about 5 dislocations in the past year. I don't know if I've "grown out" of it or whether it's because I'm more careful now. It's something I'll always have problems with, especially with my knees, hips and shoulders, but I've dislocated pretty much every joint. You need to find out why your rabbit has the condition before you can cure it.
 
I clicked here to see how Floppy was as I have been thinking about him a fair bit recently - meant to send you a PM. Are he and Blossom related by any chance? Actually, thinking on it, is she the wee girl Floppy had a date with?

I don't know about rabbits, but *in humans* there are conditions which cause joint laxity which can get progressively worse. As it was explained to me, some people are unaware of how far the muscles around the joint are stretching because of a lack of receptors. This means that the joint itself can flex further. Because of the constant stretching of the muscles they become more and more lax, and the subluxes and dislocations will become more frequent as a result. And because the dislocations are more frequent, the muscle becomes more lax, which then causes...you get the idea.

In humans it can be partly rectified by physio of the affected joints, attempting to strengthen the muscles around the joints and help to hold them in (I think, I didn't ask a lot about this). In some cases surgery can be used to pin in certain joints to stop the dislocations, but as a rabbit has mostly weight-bearing joints I can imagine this would be inhumane - in humans it's mostly shoulders that corrective surgery is done on. I think there are some ops which shorten the muscle tissue as well, I really don't know much about this though.

I also feel I should touch on another reason for dislocation which I think I mentioned to you before - sometimes the shape of the joints can be different from the norm and this contributes to dislocations, i.e. a shallow joint is going to slip out more easily than a standard one. Often there are lots of factors which work together to cause easier dislocations. With regards to pain, I was told the hoomin doctors don't know why it gets worse - but this was a few years ago and they might now. But in my experience it certainly does get worse with age, the cold makes it far worse too so if she is an outdoor bun maybe it would help to bring her inside? I don't know, just a suggestion. Does she have any osteoarthritis at all?

Best wishes for your girly (and nose rubs to Floppy!).
 
Thanks for the replies, and thank you Coineanach for thinking of Floppy :wave:.

I am fairly certain that Floppy and Blossom are related, either cousins or brother/younger sister. And she is the one that Floppy had his date with. It seemed fine, until Blossom launched herself at him and Floppy got knocked flying. Took his little leg almost a week to get over it :(.

I am mostly worried because Blossom's joints seem to be deteriorating. I'm sure she wasn't like this a couple of months ago. She is indoors again now, and will be staying indoors for good.

Having said that, Floppy isn't so great the past week or so, although I would say that Blossom's legs are worse than Floppy's. Other than one of his rear legs sitting at a slightly strange angle, there isn't anything obvious with him. It is difficult trying to juggle his leg and pain relief, and his tummy which has the habit of causing him problems, and has ever since I have had him.

I do think with Blossom that the more times her joints are moving into the wrong position, the more out of place her joints are able to go. The vet could only think of fusing her joints, but felt it would cause her more problems than it helped. Also, she would need to put her weight on her front legs more, until the back ones healed and she got used to the new way of walking. Her front legs aren't up to the extra stress :(.

Right now, she seems happier in herself since starting the pain relief, which is a great relief. It's just not knowing how long it will last for.
 
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