Foot Paralysis

[Scotttrey]

I took my bunny in to get neutered last week and had a few unforeseen complications; first of all at the incision site he started bleeding pretty badly and it looked like he had some swelling due to some internal bleeding as well. Luckily after another trip to the vet that was resolved, but then I noticed a more troubling issue… His back right foot isn’t working very well. At first I thought he was sore from the neuter and was just favoring that side, but since then he’s back to normal with the exception of that foot.

His leg works just fine, but he still can’t move the very bottom portion of his foot. It’s the saddest when he tries to scratch himself but the foot just kind of hangs there limp and doesn’t cooperate…   Also sometimes he’ll be sitting on his toes instead of flat footed like his other foot because he’s got no control.

Long story short, I took him back a third time to the vet to take a look and confirm paralysis instead of broken bones or anything else. I was suspicious since he was injected to be knocked out for the neuter that they had hit a nerve in that leg. The vet said they did inject but had never seen something like this happen. The only thing they really told me was that it should go back to normal eventually, and that even if the nerve was severed it would regrow with time.

Has anyone seen or heard anything like this? I’d like to believe the vet but my gut tells me they just said that to make me feel better. Any input would be helpful!

[Bam]

Didn’t they suggest some type of splint to prevent him from sitting on his toes (the dorsal aspect of his foot)? With people who get a foot drop you make a splint that’s either to be worn permanently or until the nerve has grown back. This is to prevent further injury from stumbling on the foot. The outgrowing nerve also needs to find its proper way as it grows and the blood supply to the area needs to be secured, (if he can’t feel his foot he could sit on it and happen to put pressure on blood vessels so circulation gets cut off), so I’d think some type of alignment of the foot could be useful. The problem with splinting a bun’s foot is that the bun as a rule will try to take the bandage off, so he could need to wear a cone when he can’t be supervised.

I have no experience with this happening to a rabbit, but it did happen to my SO when he was young and hurt his peroneus nerve. He got a foot drop that took months to heal, but it did heal just fine. He wore a temporary splint while they were making a personalized splint for him, but when that was ready, the foot was fine again. (The NHS worked slowly even back then). 

Hurt periferal nerves grow back if they get the chance. There are several mechanisms that the body can do this by. It takes time though, at least 3 months.

[ThorBunny]

It definitely sounds like they nicked a nerve in surgery. They wouldn’t have had to be injecting his leg, as there are several peripheral nerves that extend directly from the spinal cord to the hindquarters (extrapolating from my knowledge of human anatomy here). They probably hit a particular nerve that controls the bottom his foot.

The good news is that Bam and your vet are right, given the chance he should regain function of his foot just fine! In general, nerves regenerate at a rate of about 5-10cm per month. So about 3 months to regain foot function sounds right.

In the meantime, I would recommend keep an eye on his feet/hocks to make sure he doesn’t get sore hocks by positioning his body strangely during recovery. Hope he feels better soon!

[Scotttrey]

Thanks for the input Bam & Thor! Hearing someone else say that the nerve can regrow is comforting. I’m thinking about taking him to another vet to see if they’d recommend any sort of splint in the meantime. Sometimes the way he sits on the toes just looks really uncomfortable.

The poor bun was dumped outside my apartment by a neighbor (Easter present gone wrong), and when I went to catch him he was being chased by wild cats! My roommate and I got a game trap to catch him and were able to after awhile. Poor guy went from being dumped, do being chased for food, to having his neutuer surgery complications, to having his foot paralyzed! I just feel bad that he can’t catch a break

[BanditCamp]

He did catch a break a loving parent like you.

[Bam]

Completely agree with BanditCamp. He got a human who loves him

[ThorBunny]

Many “easter rabbits” aren’t so lucky to have a caring human save them

[Scotttrey]

I’ve got some updates regarding this that I’ll post soon; hopefully it can be of some help to anyone that’s experienced similar issues.

[Bam]

We’d be very happy for updates. I hope all is well with you and your bunny.

[Kaninmor]

Thanks Scotttrey – and thanks for replying to my message. Seems quite similar to Kattis.

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