broken toe

shazza · Dec 9, 2016

so i have a buck who hates me, and every now and then he has 'fits' where he'll freak out and start smashing himself into the walls of his cage and freaking out all the other rabbits around him in the process. i don't know what triggers them, it honestly seems like he just wakes up in the morning with crazy in the brain. it's progressively gotten worse and worse as he's aged, and he is due for culling in a few weeks because of it.

today he had a particularly terrible fit, panicking the doe that lives underneath him, causing her to break her toe pretty badly. it's sticking up like a velociraptor claw at a 90 degree angle and she is limping on that foot. i was able to straighten it out with my hand but it would not stay that way and it obviously hurt her a lot. i would hate for her to be stuck with a raptor toe for the rest of her life. it doesn't help that this particular rabbit only has the one toe on that foot after a raccoon attack as a kit.

is there some way i can tape it down or something so it heals straighter? i know there's not really a lot you can do for a broken toe but it just looks so bad and she only has that toe on that foot.

she also is obviously in pain but i do not have willow near me. is there anything else i can give her to help make her more comfortable?

MamaSheepdog · Dec 9, 2016

Oh no, poor girl!

Other than splinting the toe and wrapping well with vet wrap, I am not sure what you can do to keep the toe in place.

Willow contains salicylic acid, which is the chemical that relieves pain, and aspirin is simply the pharmaceutical version, so I would think would be equally safe. I have never given aspirin to a rabbit, though, so do not know for sure.

Arnica is another pain reliever, often found in homeopathic kits, and I HAVE used that on rabbits. It comes in tablet form and as a topical ointment.

akane · Dec 10, 2016

You can try to splint it with stick and tape to line up with the paw but if you aren't actually moving the bone it's just going to temporarily stretch soft tissue, increase pain, and come out the same as doing nothing. You need to be able to tell the bone is sitting right. In fact it could still be badly dislocated and not an actual break in a bone. If a ligament or tendon ripped instead of bone damage that's just that. You can't make it function again.
Most will continue fine with painkillers and just have a deformed toe as annoying as that is.

gash · Dec 10, 2016

If you're to do aspirin, would it make sense to do baby aspirin instead? idk.

Lavender calms animals and it's also a natural pain reliever. If you splint the toe, you could apply some diluted lavender on it....1oz coconut oil and 5-10 drops lav. Also for the buck that freaks out. perhaps have a rag with some lavender on it on his cage where he can't chew it or something. It'll help his nerves. I had a rabbit who must have either broken his back or he just buggered it up real good one time. Every time I'd come try to help him he'd freak out. So I finally put a rag with a bunch lavender on the top of his cage where he couldn't reach it. He's been calm as heck ever since, even now with the lavender removed.

Good luck!

akane · Dec 11, 2016

Maybe he likes the rag

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shazza · Dec 11, 2016

she seems to be doing much better today - no limping or favouring the foot, but she isn't as active as normal and flinches when i touch her leg. i didn't have any lavendar either but i gave her the biggest handful of lawn weeds yesterday and she seemed appreciative. i just hate that her little toe looks dumb now

and that it happened at all, ugh. that buck. he was perfectly normal the next day and today - chill as could be. it's just maybe once or twice a month he snaps i guess and goes crazy. it's very stressful for everyone. i'm not keeping him much longer - if nobody buys him he'll be christmas gumbo but i'm not holding my breath in this market. i have a litter of his possibly on the way and i might save the calmest kit because he is pretty, but not worth breaking toes and possibly worse.

owiee. you can see the big white scar from getting her other toes bit off too. that poor foot.

akane · Dec 12, 2016

Might be a coon or stray cats going by some nights. Some are far more sensitive than others. A guy we were getting champagnes from up in WI said he has mountain lion come through occasionally and freak everything out. He has all steel bar welded cages and solid floors he made himself.