Do you have a cage with a wire bottom? I think I remember that, but could be wrong. A wire bottom could do that. I think I may have spotted one on Mae today. She was scratching with her back foot and I think I need to flip her and get a good look. Hopefully it was just the light or something lol. But what do you do for sore hocks? It doesnt need to be taken care of with the vet does it?

sore hocks are red, i think. like raw skin.
LPT’s bindi has them, i believe- maybe she can give you some advice.
the wire cage can definitely do it. i don’t think its the litterbox since you change it so often.

Wire cage bottoms would be the culprit.

May I suggest holding them firmly and gently pulling the foot out as if you were going to trim it, and put a mirror on the floor so you can look at the feet without necessarily flipping the bunnies over? It’s just that if they squirm they could hurt their backs, so if there’s another way to look, I would suggest it.

It’s not a sore hock but could become a problem. A sore hock is an actual inflammation.

Keeping the litter clean is important – wet stuff is bad too especially if they sit in the litter box. Wire bottoms, bad too.

Keeping nails trimmed is important too – you want to keep him from rolling back on the back of his hock.

It would be better to trim the nails as far back as you can before the quick monthly- by only doing that twice a year it allows the quick to grow out longer and the nails will be longer.

Yes, the quick will grow more noticeably with infrequent nail trims. You end up trimming much less in order to avoid the elongated quick. Frequent trimming causes the quick to receed I believe.

Yep, the quick will become shorter the more you trim the nails. Long nails, urine scald, and wire bottom cages can all cause the problem. Rexes like Leroy are prone to sore hocks because they have much less fur on the bottoms of their feet than other breeds do. Leroy has callouses on his hocks. I adopted him like that. Since I adopted him he’s been on nothing but carpet/towels (and occasionally tile when he ventures into the kitchen or bathroom), and the fur around the callouses has grown longer, but it hasn’t grown back. He gets around fine, it’s never been an open sore and they don’t seem to bother him, also the vet said his feet looked ok, but I still check his feet every day, just to make sure nothing develops. So if I were you, I’d definitely keep an eye on his hocks. The hand mirror on the floor is a great idea, that’s actually what I do. That way you can sneak a peak without the bun even noticing!

When I was reading about sore hocks for Leroy, I saw that some people do try to use a product called “New Skin” (it forms a protective flexible film over the sore) or neosporin or try to bandage the hocks… but if his heels get that bad, you’d definitely want your vet to take a look at it first and tell you how to treat it, the last thing you want is for him to get an infection.

Yes, I’ve been dealing with a mild case of sore hocks with Bindi. He has pink calluses now but one of them was red and inflammed when we were at the vet.

Here’s what I learned while I was treating Bindi:

My vet said that the pink, hard calluses are okay and once they get these on their feet they will never go away or grow hair back in that spot. If you notice these on your bun, you have to be diligent in checking that they do not become red, or inflamed. If they become ulcers, the infection, if not treated, can spread and cause a lot of pain and even require amputations or be fatal to the bunny.

Add something soft for bedding to cushion the feet. I put some shredded paper and a nice big fleece blanket in Bindi’s cage. I watched him very carefully for a few days to make sure he wouldn’t eat the blanket. He LOVES the blanket.

You can soak the calluses in warm tea to help harden them. I used chamomile (it smells nice for the bunny!), soaked the teabag in warm water, drip it dry and then apply to the calluse. I found the best way is to sit bunny on a towel and just put the tea bag in place under his foot for a few minutes. Bindi seemed to enjoy the warmth and I found doing this once a day seemed to help.

Ask your vet to recommend an ointment if it gets to the point where it’s red/raw, bleeding or sore. Products with corticosteroids or zinc are not recommended for bunnies.

Bindi didn’t get to the point where his feet were sore because I caught it early. Now they are better, I check his feet every two days.

Here’s a good article:
bb-bunnies.com/sorehocks.aspx

Hope this was helpful.

Yes, twice a year is no good. The quick does grow, plus long nails are uncomfortable. Trim nails monthly and you’ll have shorter nails-which do impact sore hocks.

Can you take the wire bottom right out of the cage?