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I had Mimzy out on the bed tonight to see if I could asses how bad his left rear leg is. To review, I’ve been posting that he is still peeing in his habitat wherever he seems to feel the need and pooping everywhere too. He no longer has a shelf to hop up on and I’m doubting he could at this point, without falling.
I’ve noticed him favoring this leg and decided to see just how messed up it might be. Plus he needed some grooming.
I began pulling loose fur from his hock to be sure there wasn’t a knot in the voluminous amounts still stuck to his ‘skirt’ area. Although he’s been blowing off his coat for the last week or so. His entire undercoat is coming out. Some of it only needs a brush of the hand, the rest needs a little tugging.
After pulling off at least three bunnies’ worth, I notice his skin is folding over strangely on his rump. Eh, he’s getting a little chub on, I suppose. But when I lift that fold to see if there’s anything visibly injured, I get the shock of my life…most of his fur is completely gone in these areas and is down to pink skin! Either he’s nipped this all away, or I just plucked it off thinking I was getting his old coat off.
I’d have to say the bare patches are at least two fingerlengths down the top of the hock area, above the foot. I would’ve gotten pix, but he chose that moment to utterly soak the puppy pad I had on the bed, and I mean utterly…the whole center was a lake of bunny pee.
This is really beginning to disturb me. He will kick with that foot, despite the fact that I’ve seen him almost drag it to move it, and he’s just pooping wherever he lies down with that leg extended. He hops in what seems a normal fashion, but he sits with the leg sticking out almost sideways and obviously doesn’t care to exert himself enough to get to his litterbox anymore. He does NOT want his foot touched, but generally he doesn’t want any of his feet touched…it just seems this one is more sensitive, and his back end as well.
I’m calling my vet in the morning. This needs to be looked at if for no other reason than I make sure the leg isn’t fractured or sprained…and besides the rampant peeing and pooping, now I’ve got all this bare skin to worry about. I’m concerned that when he pees on his floor, and then doesn’t move himself, will he get all this bare skin inflamed with urine scald? And now I’m not wild about taking off any more of his fur, but he is shedding terribly and dropping strings of pearls. I don’t want him to wind up with wool block either.
Any ideas? I’m run out of them myself.
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Thanks everyone, these are all great suggestions.
I’ve started putting the regular brown Carefresh in his litterbox to help pad his landings. He seemed very happy to have this, even though I fear he’ll nibble on it. So far though, no munching going on that I can see, and it’s got a rough enough texture that it pulls a little of the loose hair off him while he’s pottying…big plus there! It raises the height of his litter enough to make his exits easier as well. I did try using it as bedding before that, but the first thing he did was push it into a corner and pee, on his floor. >.< Oops. Well I guess that won't do….Mike I am partial to your comment on arthritis, because if I think back, he’d been having trouble moving around for a bit longer that I remembered. So it’s possible it’s just gotten bad enough that he is really needing to set the leg aside.
Yes, the skin is a healthy pink (or at least it was last night) and I wonder if his joints are heated up enough that may be why the fur is coming off so thoroughly. Don’t arthritic joints get hot when they are hurting? Those are a nice set of saddlebags he’s got on his haunches…the buildup of fur may just have raised the skin temperature too much.
He seemed more comfortable without the extra fur. I’m going to continue with his grooming, just not as aggressively. Tape rollers are great for the collected stuff, but if he sees one coming at him he tries to escape. He really doesn’t care for them and he’s still so bony in most places that I think it is unpleasant for him to have the roller go over him. I pull the tape off and try to rub it over him, but he really doesn’t appreciate it. Still, I have all manner of other ways to get the fur off, so I’m just trying to be a bit more gentle.
Katnip, I did find the Cosequin at Petco, unfortunately it was the cat one and I got it without realizing it. I’ll ask my doc about that also. I wasn’t able to get hold of her today, we’ll give it another try tomorrow. She’s definitely working this weekend.
It was so cute last night, he and Fiver were trying to get nose to nose with one another. Still trying to clear a safe area for them to begin bonding that is neutral to both of them. But yeah, they all need bigger spaces to be.
Anyway, being near a bunny buddy seemed to cheer Mimzy a bit, which was good to see.
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