Treating sore hocks with destructive buns

Casper has sore hocks which don’t seem to be improving much. Has anyone successfully treated sore hocks with bunnies who destroy everything? Any soft surface I give them doesn’t last long! He doesn’t seem bothered by them and is running around as normal, you can’t actually see any redness at all until you part the fur on his foot but the vet has said they are quite bad

Casco said:

Casper has sore hocks which don’t seem to be improving much. Has anyone successfully treated sore hocks with bunnies who destroy everything? Any soft surface I give them doesn’t last long! He doesn’t seem bothered by them and is running around as normal, you can’t actually see any redness at all until you part the fur on his foot but the vet has said they are quite bad

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Has the Vet investigated any possible primary cause of the sore hocks ?

The best substrate to keep Rabbits with sore hocks on is soft deep hay.

Is Casper a house Rabbit ?

Is he a Rex ?

Is he at all overweight ?

Can you post some picks of his hocks ?


In the meantime these links may be helpful to take a look at :

http://www.cunivetservice.com/docs/SoreHocks.2013.pdf

http://www.mayowvets.co.uk/pet-factsheets/Factsheets/Otherpets/24_295077.shtml

http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Miscellaneous/Ulcerative_pododermatitis_rabbits.htm

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Mechanical/Pod/Podo.htm

He is a house rabbit, he’s an angora cross - from what I’ve read angoras can be prone to sore hocks, the vet didn’t give much advice although to be fair he was there specifically for an eye issue (referred there so not my own vet). I haven’t taken him to my own vet about the sore hocks yet as I hoped some adjustments to their environment would help. TBH if that vet hadn’t spotted it while he was there I don’t know if I would have because it’s so hard to find, I always expected fur loss with sore hocks but now know different! He’s definitely not overweight, tends to be veering towards underweight / low end of normal.

It’s really hard to get good photos because it’s hidden by his fur. I need an extra pair of hands and my children aren’t the best at either holding him or taking photos! I did get a couple of not great ones a few weeks ago which I’ll look out.

I made a v short video from a Live Photo we took a few weeks ago, probably let’s you see it a bit clearer than the actual photos https://imgur.com/NRpSX8e

Casco said:

I made a v short video from a Live Photo we took a few weeks ago, probably let’s you see it a bit clearer than the actual photos https://imgur.com/NRpSX8e

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To be honest they are not nearly as bad as I had imagined. Did you look at this link that shows the grading of sore hocks ?

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?477666-Just-lost-my-rabbit-to-EC-😭

He has the advantage of still having lots of fur covering the calloused area. Make sure his toe nails are always kept short as this will help.

Personally I would get your own Vet to give him a thorough check over looking for any signs of arthritis in his spine/hips etc. As I mentioned before Sore Hocks are often a secondary symptom to another mobility issue.

I would not apply any creams to the hocks at this stage.

You mention he had a problem with his eye and you feel he may be a bit underweight. Did the Vet you consulted give an actual diagnosis of what was wrong with his eye and did the Vet check his teeth ?

I didn’t actually think they were too bad but the vet said they would consider them a grade 4 which really surprised me as I don’t think they look as bad as the example pics (it was d1ck vets so they are rabbit savvy) His eye has been diagnosed as glaucoma and is under control now with eyedrops and regular checks. He had a CT scan to make sure there was nothing behind the eye pushing it out, the vet had an all over look at the scan and said he was very healthy - teeth & roots looked very good. He is currently ‘normal’ body condition but I weigh him regularly as in the past he has lost a little weight and dropped into the underweight range which tbh I think was down to one of his buddies being too greedy so I watch them at feeding time and monitor his weight. He can be very deceptive because he’s so fluffy, I give him a haircut every few months as his fur mats really easily during a moult and he looks about half the size when his fur is short!

I will get the vet to check for things like arthritis / mobility issues at his next visit, how do they diagnose arthritis?

I always feel sorry for him - he’s been landed with angora fur but hates being groomed, now has glaucoma and sore hocks - but he still runs about binkying all over the place so he can’t be too unhappy!