I’d say it was both a slow progression and yet seems to have accelerated of late. He began having trouble with the leg first, definitely. He was also missing jumps to his sleeping shelf and falling backwards a lot in the week or so leading up to his recent dental, so I took it out of his habitat completely. Perhaps I removed it too late? Maybe he’d already hurt himself?
His favoring of that leg is definitely getting worse though. I would think if he had broken or cracked it or injured his back in a fall, the doc would’ve noticed something wrong with how he moved, or a lack of movement, while she was putting him under, don’t you? He didn’t fight me much when I had to give him that emergency butt bath when we brought him home from his dental and I’ve never attempted that on him before. Once again, I hope I didn’t move him wrong or not support him properly during the bath. >_<
I made him work for his treats last night by leading him around in circles after it so he’d have to hop. He does hop, albeit slowly. Kind of like an inchworm. Front legs go forward first, then the back ones he pulls forward and drops them with a thud. I do see him stretch them both and he tends to sleep in the ‘superman’ pose a lot too…or in a way that he can still stick that leg in particular out to the side if not straight back. Sometimes when he’s in bunloaf position, he is up on his toes in the back feet…which is kind of odd.
I’m concerned he’s going lame. There’s only a few reasons why this might be so and none of them good ones. There are no signs of sore hock. He will actually sit on his hind legs and balance if I hold something he wants to eat up in the air, we call those ‘bunny-ups’. But he is not steady like he used to be in that position. I watched him wash his ears this morning waiting for him to begin kicking at them with his feet, but he doesn’t scratch after a grooming like he used to. I’m worried. I don’t want to try to get him too move too much anymore for fear I’ll make an already bad problem worse.
He tends to push his hay over next to his litterbox, then pee on it in the back corner. His poos are all throughout the hab and he strews his hay over the top of them or just poops right in his hay. It’s like he’s turned the whole hab into one giant potty box. He drinks from a sippy bottle (he’s given up using the crock, all it does is collect his shed fur) but sometimes I do find he’s peed underneath where that is and this is positioned towards the front of the hab near the door. Is this significant?
BTW, BB…I had to squee in my pants when the BB.com store boxes came the other day…the new ‘snuggle bunny’ (Holland lop) is TOO adorable! I was going to use it to help Fiver and Mimzy bond, but now….(squishies) Shame on you for selling something so KYOOT! ^_^ lolz….