Open sore on rabbit tail

[Neekomie]

2 days ago I noticed a bit of a bald patch on the side of my rabbits tail. When I looked at it I was shocked to see a raw wound about a dime in size. It was a bit scabbed over on the edges and was dry except in the middle where there was a bit of fresh blood. I cleaned the wound with warm water and put some a&d ointment on it to keep it moist to help it heal. I’ve been doing this for 2 days now and there is no longer a scab on the would it it just open and sore. I am not sure what happened to the scab it was gone when I checked it the next day. My rabbit also seems to have no interest in the wound. I have been watching her like a hawk and haven’t seen her touch it once. I have trimmed the hair away from the wound to help keep it out of there. I am unable to bring my rabbit to vet as I’m going through a bit of a tough financial patch. Please any help as to what else I can do to help heal this wound would be greatly appreciated!
I forgot to mention that I’ve checked for mites and fleas and there are no signes of either!

[DanaNM]

I’m sorry but you should get her to the vet.

An open sore that is not healing could get serious very fast, especially since you don’t know the cause. Is she inside or outside? My immediate concern was the risk of fly strike, which can be deadly.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Bam]

The only good advice that can be given is to take her to a vet. If she’s an outdoors rabbit, you should bring her inside. Flystrike, as Dana mentions, a thoroughly nasty condition that occurs when flies lay eggs in open wounds, is a big risk if she’s kept outside. It doesn’t have to be very warm for flies to be active.

What you can do yourself is keep the wound clean, just like you have been doing. Trimming the hair away from the edges is very good. You can put on triple antibiotic cream (for neosporin, don’t use the one that has a painkiller added) or fucidine. How deep does the wound seem? A wound should heal from the inside and out, especially if there’s any depth to it. If a deep-ish wound scabs over and closes on the outside, bacteria can fester underneath the surface and an abscess can form. It’s important that doesn’t happen.

[Neekomie]

She’s an indoor rabbit…its not deep at all it’s like she scraped the top layer of skin off. A sore was probably the incorrect word for me to use. It’s not getting worse or bigger at all and it’s been about 4 days now. As previously stated if any extra money was available to me she would already be at the vet.

[kurottabun]

Are you able to upload a picture of the wound site? That would probably help people get a better idea on what it might be.

[Deleted User]

It really doesn’t sound like it’s healing correctly if there’s fresh blood even after a few days. I know you said money is tight but can you see about a payment plan or paying later? If it gets infected it will cost you more than getting it checked right now, especially because bunnies can honestly get stasis at the drop of hat due to other factors besides gut health, and that’s the last thing you want.

[sarahthegemini]

“Not getting bigger” doesn’t mean it’s getting better.

You could ask about a payment plan. Or see if you can send a photograph to your vet and then just pay for treatment. 

[Neekomie]

I’ve called vets up to 2 hours away from me and none of them will help me. No payment plans no nothing. If it wassnt down to not paying rent which I already spoke to my landlord about and it’s not possible to be late or pay less a vet is not an option. To be honest I thought id actually receive some help rather then people just telling me to bring her to a vet. She means the world to me and if there was anyway I could get her to a vet I would but if I don’t have a place to live that’s not going to help her either. I cant get any picture to upload it keeps saying the size is too big

[sarahthegemini]

Well, seeing as we cannot physically help heal your rabbit over the Internet, I’m not really sure what you were expecting. We already advised you to try and arrange a payment plan. And I advised sending a photo of the wound to your vet to seek their advice w/o making and paying for an appointment. We’re not magic, what else can we do :-/

[DanaNM]

Neekomie,

It isn’t that people don’t want to help, it’s just that forum leader bam has already given you pretty much the extent of what we can offer without knowing more about the injury, so there isn’t much more for anyone to add…

If you hit the reply button, there is an option to attach a photo, which would also give more information.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[kurottabun]

The photo has to be less than 300kb and in .jpg format. I use MS Paint to resize. After uploading it you need to insert it in your post for it to appear.

[Neekomie]

Believe me I understand and I’ve been trying to get the picture small enough to get inserted but it won’t get smaller then 500kb so I can’t get it uploaded. It’s just frustrating when I’ve called and tried going to vets or just asking for help offering what I could and none of them want to help. I’m worried and the last place I would come to try and help is the internet I’ve done everything I can at this point that I’m physically able to. Not being able to see it doesn’t help but as I said I can’t seem to get the pic small enough to upload. I think my initial wording of sore is what is wrong because it’s not it’s a cut. What looks like happened is she got a tuft of tail fur stuck in her cage and it got ripped out leaving the top few layers of skin attached. It was never deep and as I stated in my first post it was scabbing and healing but I put some a&d ointment on it to help which actually just made the scab that was there soft and fall off. I was trying to originally find out just how to help heal a wound because unintentionally the a&d didn’t do what I thought. I know everyone is just trying to help but like I said when I’ve already called vet after vet it sucks reading people say it over and over. Clearly since i can’t get the pic uploaded not much can be done here so I’ll just continue to monitor it and go with the advice I’ve received.

[Bam]

I have sent you a PM.

[Bam]

Posting this picture for Neekomie:

(It’s shiny due to freshly applied neosporin ointment).

[Deleted User]

What other advice do you expect to hear besides take them to the vet? There is literally nothing else that we can suggest, because we aren’t professionals. I seriously don’t understand what you’re looking for and I REALLY don’t understand why you’re berating this site and saying we aren’t helpful and you keep reading the same comments. It’s as simple as that: go to the vet. There is nothing else that we can suggest. No diagnosis can be made on a picture alone anyway.

[Bam]

The sore reminds me of hot spots that some dogs get. It’s often associated with moisture, but can also happen if the dog has very dense fur. Treatment is clipping (preferably shaving) of the hair around the sore, like 1-2 centimeters around it and washing twice a day with chlorhexidine or iodine solution (I’d use very diluted iodine on a bun rather than chlorhexidine because some rabbits’ skin is very sensitive to chlorhexidine). Then thorough drying of the area, because moisture drives the process and must be avoided. Then antibiotic cream.

How is her appetite now? Does she seem bothered by the sore now? Do you see her trying to groom it? (She must not groom it).

[Neekomie]

She’s had no interest in it at all ever since day one. She’s eating like normal and drinking just like every other day. Personality is fine every thing else with her is great. It definitely does seem to be getting better it’s slowly healing around the wound. I’ve been washing it once a day followed up by the Neosporin.

[Neekomie]

My only issue is I stated clearly in my first post a vet visit right now is Not possible. I get some people wont even try to get their animal to a vet and just come online first. This was a last resort for me and I stated that. So to tell someone whose gone thru every other option to try and help just go to a vet is frustrating. And people don’t come to internet forums for professionals I tried that and they all told me to go away cuz I didn’t have the money upfront.

[Bam]

I’m happy to hear her appetite is good and that she doesn’t seem bothered by the sore. You could perhaps trim off some more fur around the edges of the wound. Fur that gets wound liquid on it is an excellent environment for bacteria to thrive in.

We have to recommend a vet visit. Many people are reading these forums. Non-professional advice over the Internet can’t replace vet care and we don’t want to inadvertently give anyone the impression that it can. Advice on wound care can be given, as long as everybody are aware that veterinary care is always first choice.

[sarahthegemini]

Neekomi, I understand that it must be frustrating but please remember that all you mentioned in your original post is that you are having financial trouble. That’s why we recommended payment plans, that’s why I suggested emailing a photo to the vet to get their advice over the phone. You didn’t mention that you’d exhausted these avenues so how are we meant to know?

Have you looked at animal charities to see if they can help?

[Neekomie]

I have trimmed a bit more hair to keep it out of the wound. It seems just washing it with warm water and keeping nothing on it is actually working better then when I was fussing over it. So I’m just keeping a very close eye on it and it is healing…slowly but healing. Still super active and eating/drinking normally. I feel like if i initially never put the a&d ointment on it it would be close to healed by now but since the scab fell off it’s having to reheal the bit that was before.

[Neekomie]

UPDATE…wound healed up just waiting for gair to grow back. In the end keeping it dry and rinsing with so warm water and a diluted alcohol mix to keep infection out worked best cleared it up in about 3 days. Thanks for the help and hints to the people that left them!

[Azerane]

I’m glad that there was a positive outcome for your bun and that the wound healed well. Thanks for the update

[sarahthegemini]

Yay, great news

[LittlePuffyTail]

Glad to hear it

[Author]

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