Sore Hocks again

[kmurphy]

Hi everyone! 

Kraken has sore hocks again… He had them about 6 months ago and we were unable to find the the cause of them. At that time he was kept on carpet with fleece covering it in his pen and we assumed that he got them from the abrasive carpet when he was loose. He was not overweight at all at the time. It took for ever to heal and the vet ended up having us wrap his feet for about 2 months to allow them to heal. I do not want to go through this again! 

Kraken is in my new apartment and we have hard wood. So for the bunny area they have a thin foam mat topped with fleece and a rug covered in fleece. They then have 4 memory foam bath mats that I have placed in “high bunny traffic” areas under the fleece. They never go on the hardwood floor. Kraken is now bonded with Jitterbug and we have notice that he has been gaining weight which is a fairly big concern (I’m sure it has lead to his sore hocks resurfacing). He is not obese, just slightly over the trim weight we would like him to be at. He is getting about the same amount of food but he is much lazier now that he is a married man  

Obviously the first thing is to get him to loose a bit of weight but the struggle is that Jitterbug was underweight when we got her. If anyone has any tips for weight stability in bonded pairs let me know! Kraken also has been having a bit of a dirty bottom (Might be the weight gain). 

Now on to my question. I am at a loss on what to use for flooring for their area. I was thinking about using Vet Beds which are synthetic sheepskin used for disabled animals. Now, my bunnies are far from disabled but I feel like I have tried everything. Our vet also had no idea what to make of his sore hocks besides that it must have something to do with his conformation. 

Does anyone have any experience using Vet beds? Do you cover it with fleece or leave it as is? I would think you would leave it as is because that way their feet can sit more naturally with the toes lower than the heal. But the only thing is that I’m sure hay will stick to it like velcro! Will the vet bed be better than memory foam? What are your guys thoughts?

What the Vet beds look like

My current set up. Kraken is the Holland Lop. 

[Bunny House]

Hi there, 

I have a New Zealand( 10 pounds) and she was recently getting sore hocks. She was on vinyl so I haven’t had experience with vet beds but I know that if you cover them with fleece it will help with more padding and it is easy to take off and wash when it gets dirty. After I put that down ( the fleece), it really decreased her redness and has helped since she is a big bunny. It also makes them feel safer so they will binky everywhere.  I hope this helps!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Sorry to hear about Kraken’s hocks. They can be super frustrating. I’ve dealt with sore hocks, although not as bad as Krakens, in both Bindi and Olivia and it was so frustrating because their whole condos were pretty much fleece and soft blankets.

I did order a Vet Bed several years ago but never ended up using it as I was concerned about the bottom being a tempting chew. I probably would be able to use it now as Bindi is older and not much of a chewer now. However, I did find that good quality memory foam bath mats (I bought mine at Bed Bath & Beyond) really did wonders, especially for Olivia’s which were at the point of blistering.

I can’t say which would work better, however. Might just be trial and error.

[kmurphy]

Thanks for the comments!
I was able to get a good look at Kraken’s hocks this evening and although they do look reddish and irritated, they are calloused over and are not open or have scabs.
It’s comforting at least to hear that other people struggle with sore hocks even with fleece and foam. I always hear that the fix to sore hock is to take them off wire or linoleum….
I might look into purchasing a vet bed as it doesn’t hurt to try! Where did you get yours LPT?

[LittlePuffyTail]

Just re-read my reply. I forgot to the put the words “Memory Foam Bath Mats” are what I found work great and I bought those at Bed Bath & Beyond (I edited it )

My vet bed I ordered from a site called Montreal Critters. You can probably buy it through many online sites. Just google it.

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