Fractured Leg

[Horlicks]

We recently adopted a bunny from our local rescue. He is a 1 year old Angora and an absolute sweetheart. Our original intent was to bond him with our resident girl bun.

Cornetto (that’s his name) came to us with a cast on his left back paw. The back story was that he tried jumping out of his playpen and wound up fracturing his toes. However we were told that he’s on the road to recovery so we had no qualms adopting him and we were even told by the shelter’s vet that we can do bonding activities if we want because he’s really stable on his cast leg anyway.

It seems that the previous vet really has screwed him over because when we brought him down to our usual rabbit vet, it turns out that his entire ankle bone is displaced. Because the ankle bone has been displaced for quite some time without proper casting to encourage healing, the vet isn’t hopeful that his leg will recover..

We have sought the advice of one of the best orthopaedic rabbit surgeons in our area. He too am not sure if the displaced ankle bone can still heal back but says that he will try anyway. The surgeon has put Cornetto’ s leg in a much more stable cast, complete with a splint and pin for 3 weeks and we review again. Worst case scenario is that he can try to do a surgery but no guaranteed success obviously.

We are devastated and extremely guilty that we continued to let the bonding happen between him and our girl bun. Can’t help but think that perhaps our bonding may have worsened his injury.. I hope noone thinks we are terrible bun parents..

We wanted to ask how do we make his environment comfortable for the 3 weeks his leg is on a cast. He’s so incredibly unstable now and sometimes he falls over and takes a long time to regain his balance. We have limited his playpen area and flooring is all foam mats. His playpen fence is also lined with towels in case he needs to lean against them for comfort. I have placed a few toys inside in case he gets bored but he hasn’t seemed to take to them yet haha.

Oh and I need to mention that the poor boy has developed pressure sores on his remaining good hind paw. We have gotten silvin cream per our rabbit vets recommendation and monitoring his sores continuously to make sure they don’t worsen further. We got him metacam as well in case he’s in pain.

Anything else I can help him with?? He’s really a sweetheart. Always staying still for us for head pats. We seem to be more bothered by his leg than him really.

And if anyone can share some hopeful stories of fractured leg recovery, I’d be grateful as well. It breaks our hearts to see the boy struggling to maintain his balance..

[Horlicks]

Oh and I am currently placing my resident girl bun’s playpen next to him because I noticed that even though they are not bonded, she often likes to lie next to him, separated by the playpen fence. I thought it would be a good idea for him to have some rabbit company. It might help him recover faster? The two playpens are placed a few inches apart so there shouldn’t be any risk of her biting him I would think. Is this a good idea?

[Sirius&Luna]

Poor little guy! It’s great that you adopted him and have put so much effort into finding a good vet to help his leg. I don’t think many people would put in that much effort for a newly adopted bun <3 You shouldn't feel guilty for taking advice from the shelter! It sounds like he was injured before you began the bonding, but even if it did get worse, it's not your fault.

It sounds like you’re doing everything right. Have you tried any chew or food based toys? Willow and apple twigs, hay and pellet stuffed toilet roll tubes, hay with flower petals etc mixed in… Most bunnies are more enthusiastic about food based toys, and none of those should put any stress on his legs.

When my bun had sore hocks, I gave him a 100% cotton pillowcase with a fleece stuffed in it (for easy washing, rather than a pillow). The cotton seemed to really help his little paws. I wonder if towels might be a bit abrasive.

As long as he doesn’t seem stressed by your girl buns presence, I don’t think there’s any harm in having them close by! She may well be of comfort to him, but some bunnies do find the presence of other buns stressful, so it’s good to establish that he’s not a stressed one – signs of stress would be spraying pee, throwing things about, biting bars, stomping (might be difficult with a broken leg!) etc.

There was a bun on here very recently with a broken leg… I’ll see if I can find him!

[Sirius&Luna]

Ooooh, you’re the one with the uninterested boy bun… I thought I recognised the name. So perhaps it was pain making him not interact during bonding.

[Bam]

I’m sorry to hear that Cornettos leg injury was worse than initially thought. You seem like very good bun parents, you had no reason to question the shelter vet’s diagnosis.

Chew toys and twigs (willow, pesticide-free apple twigs) as S&L mentions could offer him some distraction. The presence of another bun is most often beneficial for healing (reduces stress levels), but as S&L says, stress can also be a reaction to another bun, so look out for signs of that. If they were bonded they should absolutely be close to each other, but since they aren’t bonded (yet) there could still be a lack of trust between them.

The website http://www.disabledrabbits.com/ has tips for rabbits with temporary or permanent disabilities. Maybe you could get some pointers there about how to make his habitat as comfy as possible and how to keep him clean etc.

[Horlicks]

Posted By Sirius&Luna on 6/18/2018 10:25 AM
Poor little guy! It’s great that you adopted him and have put so much effort into finding a good vet to help his leg. I don’t think many people would put in that much effort for a newly adopted bun <3 You shouldn't feel guilty for taking advice from the shelter! It sounds like he was injured before you began the bonding, but even if it did get worse, it's not your fault.

It sounds like you’re doing everything right. Have you tried any chew or food based toys? Willow and apple twigs, hay and pellet stuffed toilet roll tubes, hay with flower petals etc mixed in… Most bunnies are more enthusiastic about food based toys, and none of those should put any stress on his legs.

When my bun had sore hocks, I gave him a 100% cotton pillowcase with a fleece stuffed in it (for easy washing, rather than a pillow). The cotton seemed to really help his little paws. I wonder if towels might be a bit abrasive.

As long as he doesn’t seem stressed by your girl buns presence, I don’t think there’s any harm in having them close by! She may well be of comfort to him, but some bunnies do find the presence of other buns stressful, so it’s good to establish that he’s not a stressed one – signs of stress would be spraying pee, throwing things about, biting bars, stomping (might be difficult with a broken leg!) etc.

There was a bun on here very recently with a broken leg… I’ll see if I can find him!

Yes that’s us with the “uninterested” boy hun! On hindsight it was so obvious it must be the pain. Still feel really guilty over that..

Fleece unfortunately is rather expensive in my area. Perhaps instead of using towels to line the playpen, I can try soft baby bolsters? Can I tap onto your experience with sore hocks? This is quite new to me. We have lined the entire playpen with memory foam mats now and we have taken away the litter box for now because he has so much trouble using it (we have resorted to using pee pads underneath soft rubber mats for traction and pee absorption). We are also applying silvin cream on his back paw twice a day. Is this sufficient for the sore hocks to heal on its own?

Seeing those angry red bumps on his paw just makes me feel awful. He can’t balance well already and now he has to deal with a painful paw.

I am going to try out the toilet roll stuffed with hay tonight. Can’t help thinking he must be bored out of his mind in his tiny little playpen but we were told to limit his area as much as possible so he doesn’t exert too much pressure on his casted leg.

He seems to be ok with my girl bun around. None of those signs you mentioned have been displayed so far. It’s really more of indifference towards her haha. She has a one sided crush on him.

[Horlicks]

Posted By bam on 6/18/2018 11:07 AM
I’m sorry to hear that Cornettos leg injury was worse than initially thought. You seem like very good bun parents, you had no reason to question the shelter vet’s diagnosis.

Chew toys and twigs (willow, pesticide-free apple twigs) as S&L mentions could offer him some distraction. The presence of another bun is most often beneficial for healing (reduces stress levels), but as S&L says, stress can also be a reaction to another bun, so look out for signs of that. If they were bonded they should absolutely be close to each other, but since they aren’t bonded (yet) there could still be a lack of trust between them.

The website http://www.disabledrabbits.com/ has tips for rabbits with temporary or permanent disabilities. Maybe you could get some pointers there about how to make his habitat as comfy as possible and how to keep him clean etc.

We tried throwing willow twigs at him (not literally at him of course) but he just sniffs at it and ignores them haha.

He seems to be quite indifferent towards her. My girl bun is always the one taking the initiative to go lie down next to him (separated by the fence). Perhaps she can sense that he’s not well? Although she’s quick to abandon him whenever I come by with her treats haha. Food above everything else.

The website is really helpful!! We do not really have those low entry litter boxes here though. May have to get my engineer husband to think of something haha. Right now the poor fella has no litter box so he’s just peeing on the mats with pee pads underneath.

[Sirius&Luna]

My bun was a tiny runt that came to us as a baby with little sore hocks. They weren’t bad, but I assume they came from being in a breeder’s wooden hutch. I’ve been told to use Sudocrem on buns with sore hocks or urine scald by my vets (a thick baby nappy rash cream in the UK… not sure what equivalents would be elsewhere). I just dabbed a little on the sore bits each day, and gave him the cotton pillowcase (which he then always chose to sit on), and they were gone in a couple of weeks.

There are different levels of sore hocks – a red raised bump needs to be dealt with, as you’re doing, but it’s not a huge cause for concern. The huge cause for concern is when it turns into an open wound, which obviously you want to prevent.

If fleece isn’t available I’d still recommend the cotton pillowcase, and stuff it with a towel or whatever you have – I think cotton is quite soothing for their feet. Memory foam mats in the pen should be helping him as well

Another thought on toys – what about a mental game? There’s some toys where buns have to work out how to open little doors and lift bits out etc to get to treats – that could provide some stimulation!

It sounds like having your girl bun near him isn’t doing him any harm, even if it’s not clear it’s doing him any good, so I’d leave them near by – it will help their bonding process in the long run.

[Horlicks]

I just thought I’d give an update on my boy. We had a review with our surgeon last week who decided to take more xrays to assess the situation.

Guess what?? The 5th leg bone is indeed pretty displaced BUT he’s not too overly concerned as the 4th leg bone has more or less healed back. The 3rd and 4th bones are the weight bearing bones of a bunny and if these 2 bones are OK, our surgeon is fairly confident our boy will end up being just fine. In fact the surgeon gave the go ahead to switch him to a much lighter cast to get him to start using his back paw and he’s running around like there never was a problem to begin with.

And his sore hocks are so much better!

I’m just so thankful and relieved. We bring him back tomorrow for another review with our wonderful vet/surgeon and hope that this good luck continues. Prayers for my boy! He’s a strong one.

On a completely unrelated note, he has lost soooo much weight. He’s so skinny I can see his spine. Any tips on how to safely get him back up to a healthy weight? We feed him hay as always and currently giving him 2 tablespoons of pellets a day and a cup of greens. He’s about 1.4kg and I was told he used to be about 1.8kg previously, so that’s quite a lot of weight for him to gain back. Should I up the pellets? Up the greens?

[sarahthegemini]

Really pleased to hear your vet is more confident that his leg will heal and that his sore hocks have improved

For weight gain, you could try using critical care. You can either syringe it or make it quite a thick mix and put it in a bowl for him to try to eat on his own.

[Sirius&Luna]

So glad to hear he’s doing well! That’s great news

As Sarah said, critical care is a good option, but if he doesn’t like the taste you can just increase his pellets a bit, and give him a sprinkle of oats

[Edited to add…] Do you know what the weight loss is due to? Was he not eating at any point during the leg injury? If it’s unexplained, it might be worth the vet running some tests to find out if there’s any other problem underlying the weight loss

[LittlePuffyTail]

Glad to hear this! (((((Continued Healing Vibes)))))

I also used Critical Care to help my senior gain and maintain weight. It’s expensive but effective.

[kurottabun]

Glad to hear that he’s doing well! My bun recently lost a lot of weight (about 300-400g) due to a bout of illness and I’ve also been trying to help him gain it back. I’ve bought about 4 x 36g bags of Critical Care in total but it was really putting a hole in my pocket as the product is imported, making it even more expensive. So I’ve stopped buying it.

Tried giving sunflower seeds for a few days but it seems to be causing a light molt, so I’ve stopped giving that for two days now and am currently just adding an extra tablespoon or two of his usual Oxbow pellets. I’ve heard that rolled oats work too, but make sure it’s not the instant kind.

[Horlicks]

Posted By Sirius&Luna on 6/28/2018 10:27 AM
So glad to hear he’s doing well! That’s great news

As Sarah said, critical care is a good option, but if he doesn’t like the taste you can just increase his pellets a bit, and give him a sprinkle of oats

[Edited to add…] Do you know what the weight loss is due to? Was he not eating at any point during the leg injury? If it’s unexplained, it might be worth the vet running some tests to find out if there’s any other problem underlying the weight loss

We just came back from the vet. So apparently when he was still with the shelter, he did a round of blood tests and those turned out well. The vet wants us to try feeding him critical care first before we repeat the blood tests again. Our vet reckons its probably due to his loss of muscle tone that’s affecting his weight.

The good news is our boy seems to love the critical care. I don’t even have to syringe feed him. He grabs the bowl from me and eats it straight from there. That silly boy!

[Horlicks]

All, my boy’s cast is officially OFF! He’s running around like crazy now and you can see how happy he is without that heavy cast impeding his movements.

His paw isn’t ever going to heal perfectly though. He will have a slight limp and his paw is slightly crooked but in the words of our orthopaedic surgeon, he is functional and that is all that matters. We love him as much, crooked paw or not.

We just gotta get his weight back up to a healthy range. He’s just so scarily skinny I can see his spine right now and that worries me. Going to be trying out the critical care. Fingers crossed he starts putting on weight soon!

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