Front paw sore hocks?

[BunBun260]

So once again I’m questioning if my bunny has sore hocks or not. Last time I posted about his back paws, which look great now. Last night I was trimming his nails and noticed that at the base of his nail it looked red. I don’t know if this is normal, or not. Like I said in the last post I made, this isn’t my first bunny, but my last rabbit never got sore hocks. My rabbit right now is a Rex, so I know they are more likely to get it. He still seems to be acting normal, I’m mostly posting this to make sure I’m not overlooking anything. I have a picture of him on my floor, if it is sore hocks, could my floor be the cause? He does have a cage but it has 4 layers of fleece and he is a free roam rabbit. The cage is mostly for him to rest, use the bathroom, and eat. Thank you In advance!

[Bunny House]

He’s a cutie!
It does indeed look like a sore hock on the front paw, and of course him being a Rex doesn’t help. My New Zealand has constant sore hocks since she’s a big girl. You might need padding under the fleece, mine has 3inches of foam under the fleece. Also, what do you have in the litter box? Mine used to have a hard metal(thick) but hard grate, I then switch the metal to a plastic sheet( what you used to thread tiny pieces of yarn through to make a rug) and it immediately helped her hocks.

What type of flooring do you have in the rest of the house? And where does he often like to be more?(the flooring)

[BunBun260]

Does it look bad? Or is it something I can probably fix without bringing him to the vet? The litter box has this plastic cover over it, to block him from touching his poo and pee. In the rest of the house it is tile, and he hates going on it. The flooring in the room he is in, is kinda soft. It might be a little rough if you run on it. He likes to be in my room, or in the living room, which has the same flooring as my room. He is still very active, he was running all around my room this morning. He has been laying down a little more today but I’m assuming that is just from him running around so much this morning.

[Bunny House]

I mean it could be worse, he could have broken skin, that could lead to infection.

With him being a Rex, anything hard will wear at his feet and you don’t want him to permanently not have hair by not fixing the issue.

See if you can get a very soft rug or get some foam padding and put it under the fleece so he has something to cushion his feet when walking. Hard floors are hard are buns hocks , especially if they are big or Rex’s.

Even getting some memory foam bath mats from like Tuesday mornings can really help his feet out and are relatively cheap.

The vet wouldn’t probably be able to help too much besides to say do chlorohexadine soaks and increase the plushiness of the flooring.

[BunBun260]

Alright thank you. I probably won’t be able to cover the whole entire floor, but I’ll buy some soft mats and put them at the area he is running around the most. Once again thank you again, I just get freaked out about sore hocks, because I don’t want him to be in any kind of pain or so. Thanks again!

[Bunny House]

Of course! And you don’t need to do the whole floor! My buns have about 1/5 of their rooms with padding so they can run to it if their feet start to hurt.

His feet probably are sore but as soon as he can run on the mats, he should feel better!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’ve had success with good quality Memory Foam Bath Mats.

Your bun is super cute!!!!!!! My first and very beloved bunny was a Harli Mini-Rex.

[Author]

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