What’s Wrong With My Rabbit?

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Bunnylover

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She is a Mini Rex. She lives in a wire cage, but she has a wooden nest box she uses. I’ve tried Vaseline and silverdene, but they haven’t seemed to help. IMG_1321.jpegIMG_1322.jpeg
 
She is a Mini Rex. She lives in a wire cage, but she has a wooden nest box she uses. I’ve tried Vaseline and silverdene, but they haven’t seemed to help.
Ouch! Those are some very sock hocks (they're not really her hocks, but that's what sores on the back feet are often called).

Mini Rex and Rex do tend toward sore hocks, which I've always thought was weird since rex coats as a rule have denser fur, and sore hocks usually result from thinner fur cover on the feet, super heavy rabbits (which Mini Rex are not!) or a dirty and especially wet living condition (which, looking at the photos of your clean white bunny, does not seem to the problem).

All of our Rex and Mini Rex (and all of our other rabbits) have always lived on wire, so that is not necessarily the problem, particularly since she has a wooden box so she can get off the wire if she wants or needs to. In fact, is the box floor clean and dry? If it ever gets wet and dirty in there, that might be an issue.

All of our Mini Rex ended up with callouses on their feet, front and back, but very rarely were they bloody, open, scabbed or irritated-looking, like your poor bunny's feet. Most of them had boards to sit on, which I flipped over or replaced when (not if - when!) they got soiled.

Sometimes if a sore hock gets really irritated (overmuch thumping can cause it, too), it just takes a while to get it healed up again. I don't use any ointments. Not only does the rabbit usually just lick it all off, which can cause more irritation if the rabbit works too hard at getting it off, but some substances will further irritate open wounds like on your bunny's right hind foot. Some substances may also upset the bunny's gut; for instance, I don't think I'd put Vaseline on a rabbit. Silver sulfadiazine, which is a topical antibiotic, may also be a problem if the bunny ingests it; antibiotics kill bacteria, which you don't usually want to do in your rabbit's gut if she's otherwise healthy. I've found that if you solve the underlying problem that caused the wounds to start with, the rabbit's normal instinctive behavior and immune system will usually heal the wounds without medicating.

One thing you might check is if the wire flooring is right-side-up. I had some big rabbits suddenly get sore hocks, and I discovered that the new (old) cages I'd inherited had the floor wire upside down. Wire floors are usually made of 1"x1/2" mesh. You want the mesh to have the 1/2" side facing up, where the rabbit's foot will be supported by a wire every 1/2" instead the other way round, where the foot only rests on a wire every inch or so. Especially for a little Mini Rex foot, that's not much support, and all the rabbit's weight may be resting on two wires, instead of being spread out over four. I often built our Mini Rex cages with 1/2" x 1/2" wire, since their poops are small enough to fall through those openings.

You might also take a look to see if the wire is rusty or otherwise rough, which can be an irritation. Even galvanized or painted/powder-coated wire will eventually be degraded by rabbit urine.

To get her healthy again, you may need to put your bunny in a solid-floored cage with soft bedding (I like white shavings; avoid coarse straw) for a while, but you'll need to keep it scrupulously clean and dry. Alternatively, you can fill a wire-bottomed cage with a solid mat of soft hay or a towel, and again, change it very frequently - excess urine will drain out the wire bottom, but will still leave the hay or towel wet and acidic. I am not a fan of solid-bottomed cages because they get soiled and/or wet so quickly, and it's amazing how many rabbits will insist on just sitting in the wet corner. :rolleyes: Some (many) bunnies will choose to use a litter tray; in that case, you need to change the potty litter frequently, but not necessarily the whole cage.

I've used this approach to help several Champagne D'Argents heal from serious sore hocks (I'm finding that that breed can also tend to develop them). Once they were healed - the sores were no longer open or inflamed-looking - I put them back in their wire cages with resting mats (those need to be cleaned or changed frequently, too), and they haven't had any more problems. I think they probably developed protective callouses that have prevented more sores.

Good luck and God bless!
 
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I would have guessed mites. Sore hocks as a result, but since the front legs are affected too (haven't seen that before) I would think there is more to it.

https://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/Mange/Sarcoptes.htm
All of our Mini Rex and a few of our Rex had callouses on the front feet as well as the hind feet, and the Champagne that had it worst had sores on all four feet. It's not uncommon; the rabbit is so sore on its hind feet that it shifts its weight to the front feet.

If it was mites, especially a serious infestation, I would expect to see other places affected rather than just the bottoms of the feet. Fur mites often show up first around the face/head and nape/shoulders. If the feet happened to have the worst infestation, you'd most likely see hair loss around the toes/nails and on the tops of the feet as well (sometimes a foot infestation is passed to the face/neck, or vice versa, when the rabbit tries to groom the itchy area). It's certainly worth a look at her nape to check for mites. At the very least, a rabbit which is compromised in one way is more susceptible to other pathogens/parasites.
 
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