Pododermatitis!!

[Sunny]

Hi!

My bunny’s been diagnosed with pododermatitis and she’s currently under treatment. I always try to keep her cage clean (I clean it every two days), but she likes to pee outside the littler box and then step on it, so the constant wetness caused the infection. If I fill the cage floor with paper pellets she just removes the bedding and pees on the plastic surface. If I put a blanket on the cage floor, she pees on it too. She even likes to pee on hay xD… Pee everywhere.

So, what would you guys do? I can’t neuter her being under treatment, but I’ve got to do something to keep the pee off her feet while she’s recovering… Help!

[tobyluv]

If she is not a chewer, you could put a towel on the floor of her cage to absorb the pee and keep her feet dry. You would have to change the towel at least once a day, and of course, the towels would make for extra laundry to be washed. But good, absorbent towels should keep her feet dry. If you don’t have enough spare towels, you can use the blanket that you already have. You can also use puppy pee pads, if you don’t mind using disposable items. I know of 2 people who use those for their rabbits. One person puts the pad inside of a litter box, but the other one just puts a pad on the floor for her rabbit. You wouldn’t want your rabbit to be chewing on the pads. I don’t know if any of them would be inclined to do so or not.

Even after your rabbit is spayed, she might not be great about her litter box habits some are, some aren’t, but the spay should certainly help with that. One drawback to using towels or blankets for her to pee on is that she might prefer peeing on those softer materials and not want to pee on anything else in the future, but you do need to keep her feet dry now, and towels, blankets or pads are going to help with that.

[Azerane]

I second putting a blanket down on the cage floor however I would recommend fleece instead of towels. You can put towels underneath if she won’t dig up the fleece, but towels are more dangerous if chewed because of the long fibers. Fleece is great for wicking away moisture, so that on top, plus another layer underneath should keep her feet dry. Yes you’ll have to change and wash them (of course) but fleece dries quickly and it’s better that she has dry feet

I’ve never used puppy pee pads and would never have been game to try with Bandit (not that he needed them) but he was a big one for digging up any sort of soft flooring to chew.

[LittlePuffyTail]

You might have to wrap her feet to keep them clean. Your vet would have to show you how as it can be tricky. Or use a protective product like New Skin or DermaGel (assuming there are no open sores).

[Sunny]

I finally opted to put a dishcloth over the paper bedding. This way her feet are over a softer surface that is very absorbant. Luckly she’s not much of a chewer haha.
I’ve noticed she can’t lean her injured foot on the floor and walks hobbling. She didn’t do this before… I’m affraid the injury is gotten worse despite the treatment and it’s more painful… but I think I saw her foot less swollen and getting better… I’m confused xD.

[LittlePuffyTail]

How bad is her foot? Is it to the point where it’s open? Did your vet give you anything to clean it? My vet prescribed chlorhexidine scrub for Olivia.

Sore hocks can be very painful.

If it’s not something you are doing, try putting hay in her litter box over the paper pellets to encourage her to use it more. If you can get her to not pee all over them, memory foam bath mats did absolute wonders for my girl’s sore hocks. 

[Sunny]

Hi guys, thank you for your replies. She’s walking fine again, she leans her foot on the ground. It still looks swollen and it bleed a bit a couple times, but she never had pus or anything, and it seems like it doesn’t bother her anymore (though she prefers not to move much from her soft blanket).

But TERROR, she pulls out the fur of her foot!!  Like, the skin is complete normal until she decides to pluck her hair off, and then the friction causes a little redness to the area.

This photo was taken right after we took the bandage off her foot (we had to because she injured herself trying to take it off)

http://oi63.tinypic.com/2hx3ivt.jpg

This is how it looks after a few days without bandage. She pulled off almost all of her fur!!

 http://oi67.tinypic.com/2ed1oif.jpg

She’s still under antibiotics and we clean the wounds everyday with chlorhexidine. I try to make her flooring as soft and clean as possible. But what can I do when she’s worsening the pododermatitis by plucking her fur!?

[LittlePuffyTail]

The poor girl. That looks pretty bad and painful. I’ve never heard of a bunny pulling the fur off their feet before.

I really don’t know what to recommend, unfortunately, if she won’t let it be bandaged. I still strongly suggest Memory Foam Bath Mats. Not sure where you are located or what’s available but I bought the ones from Bed Bath & Beyond. They are really soft and supportive, just what sore hocks need.

[Sunny]

Yeah, it looks painful but she doesn’t seem to care at all… she’s only bothered when we clean it xD
I’m from Spain, I don’t know where I could find those bath mats… She would pee all over them anyways so… they wouldn’t last a day clean xD I’m using three layers of fleece blankets at the moment, I hope it’s enough :S

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