Little bunny feet and hard floors

Wasn’t really sure if I should put this in health or housing! I check my bunnies feet regularly, and have noticed what looks like the early stages of sore hocks. This was something the vet had told me to keep an eye on at his last appointment, and up until this week there hasn’t been any change. There is no broken skin, but his poor little feet look are looking kind of sore. Gonna check in with his vet, but I want to get on top of anything I can change at home asap.

Our condo has hard floors and is open plan. And the shape of the space kind of makes it difficult to block off areas from him. Also, he is a big part of our family, I really don't want to shut him out of areas of his home.

He does have his own little area sectioned off at the end of the living space with rugs and vetbed down, but he is only restricted to that space at night or when we are both not here, the rest of the time his gate is open and he mostly chooses to be out and with us. I don't even know where to start with trying to cover the floors. I tried to put down blankets across the spaces he runs across the most, and he just ran around them. I’ve put rugs and blankets in his fave sleeping or playing spots, and he just drags them out the way. Rubber mats etc is a no go, he eats them! I’m wondering if I should just buy a ridiculous amount of blankets to put layers down in the whole space so he can’t run round them :lol:

Any ideas I haven’t thought of? How have other people protected their bunnies feet on hard floors?

I had this same situation with my bunny Treacle, a couple of years ago. She has the whole of the extension adjoining the lounge, and has access to lounge for about 6-8 hours every day, both are hardwood floors. I bought some fairly cheap non slip vinyl for her room, but have had to cover it in fleece blankets, as she also a developed a sore hock. The lounge has large rugs everywhere. Not sure if that would work for you, I'm sure others will have plenty of ideas too.

I have been going backwards and forwards on the rug idea. My worry with rugs is that he will just avoid them the same way he does with the blankets unless we completely cover the entire floor with them. I’ve had a look, and it would be quite expensive to do that. Plus we will be leaving this home in a year and likely moving to the other side of the country. Since we arrived here we have been making an effort not to acquire too much stuff as we know we have another big move ahead of us. And it just seems like a lot of money to put into a home that we know isn’t a long term home for us. I wonder if a big rug for the largest space and blankets to put around the edges might be worth trying.

I’m kicking myself because I had so much brand new vetbed, and when we shipped our stuff out here I just packed a few small pieces and donated the rest. We had a shipping container so there was no reason why I didn’t just bring it all. Now I’m a student so our financial situation is very different, and I’m like I think we need to go buy vetbed :lol:

I just want to cry thinking about his poor little feet, I hate the thought of anything causing my baby to be uncomfortable or sore

I had the same issue. I'm in a rented flat with laminate flooring. Is there an IKEA anywhere near you? Best things I ever bought from there were two large stoense rugs. They are very reasonably priced and you can get them in quite large sizes so can cover a large area. Best of all, they're lovely and soft for bunnies' feet. My two absolutely love these rugs.



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There is an Ikea in the next town, I didn’t even think of ikea. Thanks for the tip!

I've seen Churros feet & they are not little:lol: . I'm sorry he is having probs, sore hocks are horrible. My floor is covered with old quilt covers, fleeces & blankets. I have to have the soft stuff for arthritic Mousey but it has to be washable as Rudey has a good few accidents. Its a strange collection consisting of reduced stuff I've bought, charity shop stuff & a few things from family. Typical that he runs around rugs. I hope he gets better soon

You are right, they are definitely not little :lol: quilts or comforters are actually a really good idea! I may go downtown later and check out some thrift stores. That’s the other thing, I would prefer something washable. I don’t want to cover the entire floor in rugs I can’t wash. He doesn’t have accidents, but I find the little rugs in his area need washing quite often. He dribbles his tea and drags food about all over the place. There is always little green spots of the juice from his dinner on the floor

sillyrabbit said:

You are right, they are definitely not little :lol: quilts or comforters are actually a really good idea! I may go downtown later and check out some thrift stores. That’s the other thing, I would prefer something washable. I don’t want to cover the entire floor in rugs I can’t wash. He doesn’t have accidents, but I find the little rugs in his area need washing quite often. He dribbles his tea and drags food about all over the place. There is always little green spots of the juice from his dinner on the floor

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I find Lopsy drags wee and poo stains around as well, because he gets his feet wet outside and then sits on wee an/or poo in the litter tray, so there's brown marks everywhere on the newspaper when it's wet. Hopefully you won't have this to contend with as he's indoors! :thumb: