I found something in Azura’s foot and pulled it out – what is this?

[Lis]

 So when I picked Azura up to get her out of the pen today for roam time, I felt something funny with her foot. She’s always had hairless patches on the bottom of her feet (not sores and not likely to develop into sores because of how clean I keep things and because they have coroplast/a blanket for their pen bottom), but this time there was something sticking out of them. I set her in my lap to look at it… and pulled it out by accident. 

There was no blood. The area I pulled it from is indeed a hole but looks normal and not infected. It looks like it was just part of her skin, but recessed. Pulling it out didn’t seem to hurt her at all – she didn’t move at all as I pulled it.

This thing looks sort of like a bunny nail and the part that was above the skin feels like it, but the part that was inside her feels too soft to be bunny nail. There’s hair stuck to the part that was outside of her skin.

Here’s pictures:

http://s296.photobucket.com/user/IAmLis/media/41D15133-2CBC-4A26-BF7D-13EFC76FDBF6-9495-000007DB7EEC65DF_zps9947ff81.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

What on earth is this thing? Does this warrant a vet visit, or should I just monitor the spot to make sure nothing’s wrong? 

[mocha200]

Did you check all of her nails and your other bunnies to make sure non of them are missing a nail? It does look like a rabbit nail. Keep an eye on the spot where it was.

[jerseygirl]

It does look like a nail. What are her dewclaws like?
I’d be tempted to cut it in half. If it looks hollow inside then I would say its a nail that had shed off. I did nail trims recently and noticed quite a few had hollow centers, especially on the hind feet and dewclaw.

Only other thing I can think is a grain or grass seed that was embedded and has worked it’s way out.

[Author]

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