Sore hocks?

[LittlePuffyTail]

Last night I noticed Stormy had a big clump of loose hair on his heel. I pulled it off and it had a little tiny scab on it. I picked him up and examined his heels and there are big, yucky looking pink calluses on both his heels. He’s always had little calluses there, sort  of under the fur but now there is no fur and they are quite large. They don’t look like they were bleeding. It’s not on the part of his foot where he walks just that little heel bulb. Is this sore hocks?

He spends most of his day in his cardboard house, which is on his plastic floor. I’m worried that they are going to get worse. I got him a nice, fleece baby blanket today and folded it up so it fits perfect in his house. I tried several times and he just has a fit. He, very angrily, bunches it out of his house. What else could I try? Carefresh? I don’t really trust that stuff, I’m so scared he will eat it, not to mention Bindi absolutely hated it when I gave him some after his neuter.

[Sarita]

No, those are just callouses – my standard rex has those too. A sore hock is an inflammation and/or infection.

The best you can try is to make sure his nails are trimmed so he doesn’t rock back on his heels.

[Furface]

OH, good I just noticed a wee bald patch on my rex’s back feet last night. No scab & doesn’t appear to be sore. It pink but he’s white with the red eyes & pink ears so I think the pink is just his skin color? I wonder how he could possibly have sore hocks when the NIC cage has a white board floor covered with carpet. If I can talk my camera into working. I’ll post a pic.

[MarkBun]

Maryann has lived on nothing but carpets her entire life and she has a couple of good callouses on her ‘heels’ too. She’s just a professional thumper.

[Deleted User]

Furface, my min rex has them, too. His are grey, he’s a black bun, though. If your rabbit’s pigmentation is REW then the callouses would be pink.

[Furface]

He has cute pink toe pads too. LOL Startled me a bit at 1st as Bugsy & Buddy (dwarf lops) have such furry feet that I wouldn’t have known there were toes under there. I guess you just see much more skin on a rex, with their shorter sparser (term?) hair.

[wendyzski]

*nods*  I was worried too but my vet told me that the pink callusses my bun has on her heels are normal.  If they seem to get particularly hard, irritated, or if they crack she said I could use plain diaper rash ointment or vaseline on them.

[LilynJestersMama]

I noticed the same thing on Jester’s feet this week…I was a little concerned at first- I put A&D ointment on them. They aren’t huge and they don’t look irritated. One foot has a little bigger bump than the other. It’s just little pink calluses. I will make sure to keep his nails trimmed down, as I know that helps.

LittlePuffyTail, I have the same issue with Jester. I put towels down and got him a nice new bed- he works hard to shove it away and ends up sprawling out on the linoleum. Maybe in colder weather, they won’t mind the more cushy stuff we put down for them!

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