Body Lumps and Sore Hocks//UD P. 7

Elidore (English wildie cross) is almost 10, he is a small petite but strong and usually hyperactive rabbit (has wild blood in him and acts quite wild). Lately though he has taken to sitting more during free range time and also eating more (hay, grass, rose hips, dandelions and fresh greens). He is also becoming a wee bit easier to approach and handle where he used to run away from everyone. He might just be old and lonely since his mate passed on but I was suspicious and gave him a thorough health check.

I found that he has sore hocks on both feet, one has a fading scab on it. The tips of the hocks are very pinky red. He lives in a run with slabbing, covered by foam mats covered in hay and he free ranges on grass so all very soft surfaces. The fur covering is thick and the red tips are covered by fur which I had to brush back in order to view the sore bits.

He has one medium sized lump (size of my pinky finger) on the middle of his back. It is hard and under the skin, it does feel like I can sort of move it on the spot a bit though and it also feels there is something like a vein leading away from it. There are also two tiny lumps (bit larger than pinheads) on his back not far from the large one.

On his face there are 4 symmetrical small scabby lumps, 2 on either side of his face in the whisker area below the eyes. One of the scabs is like an earwax colour and one of them is black. The other two seem darker brown.

Also under his chin (not on the jaw) going towards his chest there seems to be a lump or fold of skin. Its squishy and might just be a tiny double chin but there is a scab near that and very little fur covering. The fur down one side of his chest is much shorter than down the other side which suggests he has been plucking.


So I am pretty confused by all of this. He is a healthy and normally active rabbit for his age. He gets into everything and recently did have a go at the rose hip (very large and thorny) which I thought might to blame for the scabs but I am not so sure. He is due at the vet for a booster on Thursday and as he is eating and playing mostly as normal I wonder if it will be ok to wait 'til then.

I am aware the cause might be a dental or mandible issue although he is not dribbling and he has a really good diet which supports effective tooth wearing. He also has a very strong bite as I found out yesterday :roll: I now have a bruise and lump the size of a 10p. So I'm just not sure what to do except continue as normal for now. The chin lump might be dental too but the back lumps? Unless there is an infection and that is an abscess and of course how do the sore hocks tie in? I have more theories than reasonable answers. I want to do what is best for Elidore of course. He becomes highly stressed quite easily upon handling and pants excessively (hyperventilates?) in any environment but his home but I would rather not distress him and combine vet trips if I can. If I can't I'll try him with some rescue remedy and then pop him along but as I said he does seem fine within himself despite the issues mentioned.

Does anyone have any advice or ideas as to what he may be suffering from.

In all honesty it is impossible to say what the lumps may be, if they are associated or individual (different) issues, without a hands on examination. You could always try to bring his Vet appointment forward to Tues/Wed this week then you wont be stressing about 'what ifs' til Thursday.

The sore hocks are probably due to the fact that he is less active now and spending more time resting.

There really are so many possible causes of the symptoms and listing all of them wont be helpful as they would just be total guesses. Sorry I am no help at all on this one !!

I'm not sure about everything you describe, but we have had few elderly males who have developed harmless cysts over their body, which might be part of what you are seeing.

I am wondering if the more crusty ones near the whiskers May be related to his scent glands??

Hope all goes well at the vets.x

Thanks for your replies ladies, its much appreciated. That is a good idea Jane about bringing the date forward, I'll see if they have a slot sooner. The sore hocks think makes sense. Its hard to tell sometimes but it does looklike he is resting on his hocks at times as you can see in this photo. I have savlon, fuciderm, aqueous cream BP and E45. Would it help at all to apply any of that. I also have barrier creams but he is not sitting in wee or anything like that.




Liz, I hadn't thought of scent glands. Elidore thinks he is the king rabbit and routinely displays his dominance to the other three boys he has as neighbors and quite often he lets off a smelly hormone/scent gland smell. Perhaps he is overproducing on that. I had thought his lumps might be cysts or lipoma's especially as he is older now.

Its all very strange because he seems otherwise very healthy and he is incredibly strong, always has been. He seems to consist mostly of muscle!

From the photo of how he is sitting he looks as though he may have some discomfort in his hips/spine - arthritis. That could account for him being less active. So getting the Vet to check for that too would be a good idea. He might benefit from having some Metacam daily.

Jack's-Jane said:

From the photo of how he is sitting he looks as though he may have some discomfort in his hips/spine - arthritis. That could account for him being less active. So getting the Vet to check for that too would be a good idea. He might benefit from having some Metacam daily.

Click to expand...

Thanks Jane, I will mention that too. I had wondered but he is so bouncy I thought he couldn't possibly have it but it would make sense in a way as he is slowing slightly.

So I am not long back from the vet with Elidore. I couldn't bring it forward as there is only one vet on, my regular one is on holiday but this vet was very thorough and competent and she didn't even charge us for the meds and consult. Elidore has slightly blocked scent glands around his whisker areas hence the scabby lumps. The smaller body lumps are lipomas and the large one is a sebaceous cyst. His sore hocks are from extended periods of sitting on the balls of his feet because he is slowing down (he will be 10 in August). He also sustained a bite on his nose from another bun through the mesh and its a little infected so he did not get his vaccine but got an antibiotic instead. Because he is eating and playing pretty much as normal we feel there is no need for any surgery to remove the cyst at this stage but we will keep a closer eye on him as it seems he might now be prone to lumps. Hopefully though he will be ok and feeling well enough to get his vaccine next week instead.

Fifibutton said:

So I am not long back from the vet with Elidore. I couldn't bring it forward as there is only one vet on, my regular one is on holiday but this vet was very thorough and competent and she didn't even charge us for the meds and consult. Elidore has slightly blocked scent glands around his whisker areas hence the scabby lumps. The smaller body lumps are lipomas and the large one is a sebaceous cyst. His sore hocks are from extended periods of sitting on the balls of his feet because he is slowing down (he will be 10 in August). He also sustained a bite on his nose from another bun through the mesh and its a little infected so he did not get his vaccine but got an antibiotic instead. Because he is eating and playing pretty much as normal we feel there is no need for any surgery to remove the cyst at this stage but we will keep a closer eye on him as it seems he might now be prone to lumps. Hopefully though he will be ok and feeling well enough to get his vaccine next week instead.

Click to expand...

That is a fairly positive update all things considered and pretty much what i would expect for an elderly bunny I hope he is able to get his vaccination next week and he is able to stay on top of his issues for a long while to come xx

Hugo's There said:

That is a fairly positive update all things considered and pretty much what i would expect for an elderly bunny I hope he is able to get his vaccination next week and he is able to stay on top of his issues for a long while to come xx

Click to expand...

Thank you and I agree it is fairly positive all things considered