Bunny is licking off silver sulfadiazine cream

Hi bunny lovers, I have a 10 year old rabbit Oslo who in the last 4 months developed a tumor on his heel from a bad sore hock that wasn't treated correctly. He lost some hair on his heel and a sore hock began to develop, I brought him to the vet who suggested olive oil? and different bedding and surfaces from the rug he usually lounged on so I changed all of that, but the sore hock kept growing and getting worse. I would clean it and soak it in epson salts but it still seemed to get worse and worse until it started growing into a tumor- all the while I was taking him to three new vets and nothing seemed to help. It's now been around the same size for a month as he's on oral antiobiotics (orbax 1 ml once a day) but I'm supposed to be covering his wound in silver sulfadiazine cream two times a day as well as administering the oral meds as a topical antiobitic. The problem is every time i put it on, I sit with him for 30-40 minutes and then once he leaves my side he starts going at it, making it bleed again. It can't make a scab because he licks at it so much. This only happens when I use the cream, but my latest vet (who also doesn't recommend surgery because of his age and where the tumor is) tells me I have to use the cream. I feel like my rabbit is walking around with an open wound. The other strange thing is that my rabbit seems to remain quite cheerful throughout the whole process. Still gives me kisses, is active, loves his food and his treats. Is there a way to put something else over the silver sulfadiazine cream so he doesn't want to touch it? If I cover in gauze he just bites it off so I may be looking into baby socks, but I have a feeling he'll just bite and tear at it more in the booties. We will be so very grateful for any suggestions! Thank you.

Welcome to RU. Strangely enough I have a 10 year old boy who developed a fast growing lump (my vets think his is a plasmacytoma) on his hind foot. Like you we followed vet advice to not pursue any surgical intervention. Like Oslo, Joey is coping really well so far. I don't really have any advice for you but agree if the cream causes him to over groom the area & cause more injury it seems counterproductive & I can understand your hesitance to use it. My boys tumour looks angry because its so big the fur came off & the skin is really stretched. On occassion he has caused the skin to break but its healed again quite quickly so far. We've also wrapped his foot but the lump makes it awkward & it gets flicked off in seconds.

So mines more of an empathy post than a helpful one. I hope you stick round as i reckon what might help Joey might help Oslo & vice versa

I'll ask the mods to move your post to health where it should get seen more & hopefully get some more replies

Jane (Inspector Morse) has a lot of experience with sore hocks - hopefully she will see this.

Hi, I don’t have any experience of this so I can’t advise, but I’m sending lots of vibes.

If he is only licking the area after applying the Silver Sulfadiazine it might be that he is reacting adversely to it and it stings a lot.

There are other topical treatments to try. Could you ask the Vet about trying a different topical treatment ?

Is he on pain relief and is the vet certain the lump is a tumour and not an abscess ?

joey&boo said:

Welcome to RU. Strangely enough I have a 10 year old boy who developed a fast growing lump (my vets think his is a plasmacytoma) on his hind foot. Like you we followed vet advice to not pursue any surgical intervention. Like Oslo, Joey is coping really well so far. I don't really have any advice for you but agree if the cream causes him to over groom the area & cause more injury it seems counterproductive & I can understand your hesitance to use it. My boys tumour looks angry because its so big the fur came off & the skin is really stretched. On occassion he has caused the skin to break but its healed again quite quickly so far. We've also wrapped his foot but the lump makes it awkward & it gets flicked off in seconds.

So mines more of an empathy post than a helpful one. I hope you stick round as i reckon what might help Joey might help Oslo & vice versa

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Oh well thank you for sharing your story with me- it definitely helps to have your empathy and know you're going through something similar. Good luck with Joey! Thanks for the kind words.

I've asked and they said that the silver sulfadiazine is specifically important because it's a topical antibiotic which he needs right now...I wish there was something I could put on top of it so he wouldn't immediately lick it...but he on pain relief meds and supposedly it's definitely a tumor! Thank you for your reply!

Zoobec said:

Hi, I don’t have any experience of this so I can’t advise, but I’m sending lots of vibes.

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Thank you so much!

joey&boo said:

I'll ask the mods to move your post to health where it should get seen more & hopefully get some more replies

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thanks so much!

Have you tried a dressing that includes the use of a cohesive bandage ?. Even if Bunny gets it off eventually it will take some time to do so and thus allow the cream to be absorbed first.

One word of warning about the ingestion of Sulfadiazine cream. Until very recently I had used it for years on numerous Rex Rabbits who are prone to Sore Hocks. But last year one Rabbit developed neurological symptoms shortly after having the cream applied which he too kept licking off. We cannot say for certain that the neurological symptoms were due to sulfadiazine toxicity, he was treated for EC as a precaution. But the symptoms were seizures and ataxia which lasted for about 3 days. This side effect is apparently very rare, as I said I had used the treatment for years on numerous Rabbits with no issues. But now I would be very wary of using it if the Rabbit was constantly licking it off.

Perhaps the Vet could add some lidocaine cream to mix with the Sulfadiazine. Lidocaine Cream is a local anaesthetic.