Akire
Young Bun
My 8 year old bun named Dunkin (Dwarf mix) has been struggling with a bad case of sore hocks for a few months now (since the beginning of November 2016). When I say bad I mean bleeding, open wounds and infection. I'm really at a total loss of what to do because they just don't want to get better and it kills me to not be able to fix my baby boy! 
He's seen THREE different vets. The first was useless, the second not all that better. The third has been treating him since January of this year and says it will just take a long time to heal...
He's been on antibiotics for a month for the infection and had an x-ray of his back feet. It showed very mild arthritis (ie not enough to be the cause) and thankfully no bone infection. Dunkin has always been on soft material in his cage. The only sore hock related problem he's had previously is accidently having a callous on his foot getting torn off and bleeding. It quickly went away. I keep his nails trimmed and he isn't overweight. He is out of his cage pretty much all day, but he never runs around. Just sits mostly. :? I do notice he has terrible posture where he sits with his back feet far in front of him or with his toes practically pointing up in the air. So basically all weight on his hocks.
Dunkin has had his feet wrapped for two months now (they get changed of course) with thick pads on his hocks. The infection is gone. About two weeks back his feet were looking better. I just changed his wraps tonight and they are looking more swollen and red, but the most concerning is the dark spots and what looks like a boil. I couldn't get anything to come out and didn't want to press the matter. The reason his feet are wrapped is due to the fact that when they aren't his hocks start looking worse within 12 hrs. The vet instructed me to put Vetericyn on his feet when I change the wraps to help keep infection at bay. I did that tonight and he acted like it stung badly. It's supposed to be very gentle, so I'm guessing that foot hurts him a lot.
I thought that maybe he has arthritis in his spine since he sits weird and sometimes after sleeping for a while he will stretch and start thumping, almost like he's sore and it hurts. I asked the vet last time he saw her if a spine x-ray was a good idea, but she didn't think it was necessary because she could lift his hind-end up in the air and it didn't bother him? :? I'm starting to think I should get one anyway just to rule it out. I just find it weird the problem showed up so badly out of the blue and won't go away despite my best efforts. I'm so frustrated!
Here is his feet tonight. The redness is back and they are getting more swollen again. Also, they look very dry. Flakey skin was falling off.
*removed pic*
In this photo a red arrow is pointing to what looks like a boil possibly? This is the foot that he reacted very strongly when Vetericyn was applied
*removed pic*
He's seen THREE different vets. The first was useless, the second not all that better. The third has been treating him since January of this year and says it will just take a long time to heal... He's been on antibiotics for a month for the infection and had an x-ray of his back feet. It showed very mild arthritis (ie not enough to be the cause) and thankfully no bone infection. Dunkin has always been on soft material in his cage. The only sore hock related problem he's had previously is accidently having a callous on his foot getting torn off and bleeding. It quickly went away. I keep his nails trimmed and he isn't overweight. He is out of his cage pretty much all day, but he never runs around. Just sits mostly. :? I do notice he has terrible posture where he sits with his back feet far in front of him or with his toes practically pointing up in the air. So basically all weight on his hocks.
Dunkin has had his feet wrapped for two months now (they get changed of course) with thick pads on his hocks. The infection is gone. About two weeks back his feet were looking better. I just changed his wraps tonight and they are looking more swollen and red, but the most concerning is the dark spots and what looks like a boil. I couldn't get anything to come out and didn't want to press the matter. The reason his feet are wrapped is due to the fact that when they aren't his hocks start looking worse within 12 hrs. The vet instructed me to put Vetericyn on his feet when I change the wraps to help keep infection at bay. I did that tonight and he acted like it stung badly. It's supposed to be very gentle, so I'm guessing that foot hurts him a lot.
I thought that maybe he has arthritis in his spine since he sits weird and sometimes after sleeping for a while he will stretch and start thumping, almost like he's sore and it hurts. I asked the vet last time he saw her if a spine x-ray was a good idea, but she didn't think it was necessary because she could lift his hind-end up in the air and it didn't bother him? :? I'm starting to think I should get one anyway just to rule it out. I just find it weird the problem showed up so badly out of the blue and won't go away despite my best efforts. I'm so frustrated!
Here is his feet tonight. The redness is back and they are getting more swollen again. Also, they look very dry. Flakey skin was falling off.
*removed pic*
In this photo a red arrow is pointing to what looks like a boil possibly? This is the foot that he reacted very strongly when Vetericyn was applied
*removed pic*
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