Sore hocks or something else?

[Invisible_ink]

Our bunny had been hopping a little funny so we took him to the vet and discovered that he had calcium build up in his bladder. This was completely flushed out and antibiotics given.

A few weeks later he's hopping funny again. Back to the vet, another scan, everything looks normal. But he's now got sore hocks so we figure the dragging of his back leg is due to this.

We've been giving him antibiotics, foot cream and putting protective socks on him for the last two weeks. He finished his antibiotics two days ago and this morning he is dragging his back leg again, not wanting to put weight on it.

Has anyone else seen this behavior in a bunny with sore hocks before? He's had two CT scans now, so we know it's not his bladder or any kind of injury to his legs or spine. But he only has one sore on one foot and it's fairly mild. So I'm trying to figure out if he is just pain avoidant because of the sore hocks or if there could be something else wrong.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Shimmer]

Is he on any pain relief?
You don't mention his age. Could it be arthritis? Again, pain relief may help.
Has your vet mentioned treating for EC? It's a common parasite in rabbits, and one of the symptoms is dragging back legs.

I would also look at the surface he is living on - some can be very rough on delicate bunny feet. Deep hay, or covering carpet with fleece blankets can help. Until you sort out the cause of the dragging leg, you need to look at ways to stop it becoming sore and infected again. Some breeds are also more prone to sore hocks eg Rex rabbits.

Bladder sludge can reccur if the rabbit isn't very active as it is just allowed to settle out. A more active rabbit will keep the bladder contents stirred up, so any sediment will pass more readily.
Encouraging them to increase fluid intake also helps. So - water in a bowl rather than bottle, fresh greens which have been washed & left wet, etc.

 

[Invisible_ink]

Is he on any pain relief?
You don't mention his age. Could it be arthritis? Again, pain relief may help.
Has your vet mentioned treating for EC? It's a common parasite in rabbits, and one of the symptoms is dragging back legs.

I would also look at the surface he is living on - some can be very rough on delicate bunny feet. Deep hay, or covering carpet with fleece blankets can help. Until you sort out the cause of the dragging leg, you need to look at ways to stop it becoming sore and infected again. Some breeds are also more prone to sore hocks eg Rex rabbits.

Bladder sludge can reccur if the rabbit isn't very active as it is just allowed to settle out. A more active rabbit will keep the bladder contents stirred up, so any sediment will pass more readily.
Encouraging them to increase fluid intake also helps. So - water in a bowl rather than bottle, fresh greens which have been washed & left wet, etc.

He's 5 years old lionhead and as far as the scans go, we couldn't see any sign of arthritis/joint issues.

He had pain killers and antibiotics after his bladder was flushed. He finished them two days ago. Until today he wasn't dragging his legs again. He was definitely sitting funny occasionally etc, but we thought this was most likely due to the sore hocks. Now he is dragging his legs again, I'm not so convinced it's sore hocks/left over pain from his bladder issue.

He's an indoor bunny and has a carpet/towels etc. Until this issue with his bladder/back legs he was very active and is a healthy weight.

I'm pretty familiar with rabbits and sore hocks, but he has me stumped. His case of sore hocks is really mild.

As for EC the vet didn't think it was likely, he has no other symptoms other than dragging his back legs. So at first we thought it was because of the pain from his bladder/sore hocks but both of those problems are mostly cleared up.

I'm waiting for the vet to call me back now. I've asked if we can try a treatment for EC. But if it's not EC (he has no other EC symptoms) I'm not sure what to try/test next

 

[InspectorMorse]

Can you post a video of how he hops when ‘dragging’ his back legs. Did the problem stop whilst he was on daily anti-inflammatory analgesia and start up again when this medication was stopped ? If so this could indicate that pain/inflammation from somewhere is the primary cause of the hind leg weakness. Sore hocks are often a secondary symptom of another mobility problem as opposed to being the cause of the mobility problem.

I assume you are 100% certain that the scans previously carried out looked at his full body and not just his abdomen ?

 

[Shimmer]

If he's started dragging the leg again a couple of days after treatment stopped, it would suggest that he might benefit from at least more pain relief. Metacam is also an anti-inflammatory, so will help with issues that haven't so far shown up on tests. There's obviously something making him uncomfortable, and that's resulting in poor posture and therefore sore hocks. The sore hocks are a result of something else, rather than being the primary issue.

EC treatment is a 28 day course of daily oral Panacur, along with an anti-inflammatory such as Metacam if there are typical symptoms. Panacur can be bought without a prescription. I use the 10% liquid dog/cat version as it's easier to dose accurately than the syringe of paste, and cheaper for doing multiple rabbits.

Lack of mobility will impact on other conditions, such as bladder sludge. Pain may also affect appetite. Weighing weekly will help to judge if he's eating enough.

Personally, I would be asking for a longer course anti-inflammatories, then see what happens when everything else seems to be fully back to normal in a week or two.

 

[Invisible_ink]

Here is a link to a video of him hopping, he's not so keen on moving around so it is great - https://vimeo.com/821205143?share=copy

He had full CT scans twice (first a month ago and again last week) that showed all of his spine and legs. The practice he sees is pretty knowledgeable about rabbits and two of the vets checked both scans and couldn't find anything on the scans to indicate why he was having a problem (aside from the bladder inflammation from the first one - it was completely gone in the second one)

 

[Invisible_ink]

I just spoke with the vet and we're going to continue with another round of antibiotics for the sore hocks + anti-inflammatory pain killers + EC treatment. She said if there's no improvement in a week that we'll need to try and see if something else could be the problem, but as I said, he's had two full CT scans that haven't shown any issues with his spine/legs.

 

[Pets mum]

Sorry to hear that your bunny is having problems, just to say I am unable to view your video, but maybe others will as my tablet is pretty old. Hope you and vets get to the bottom of his problem.

 

[Shimmer]

I couldn't view it, either. It asks you to log on.