Sore Hocks?

[Treori]

 Hi guys. I have a question regarding sore hocks. I was giving my rex, Freya, a quick look over yesterday because I noticed she had what looked like a bald patch on one of her heels (she was laying down as usualy but both her back feet were stretched out towards me, thats how I spotted it)

I know sore hocks can be a problem in particular for rexes because of their short fur so I have been extra careful. She is a house bunny and she basically lives in the living room. It’s fully carpetted with full underlay (I have concrete floors underneath so made sure to buy the best I could afford), her cage is plastic bottomed and its ALWAYS got a deep layer of sawdust with a double layer of newspaper on top of that (she doesn’t dig of shred the newspaper so she never accesses the sawdust) so it’s nice and soft for her, with a good layer of straw on top for nesting and sleeping in.

While checking her I noticed that two of three of her toes also have bald patches. The skin itself is a nice healthy pink, no redness and defintely not open sores or weeping. Her nails are starting to get long again (apparently rexes naturally have long nails, that’s what I’ve been told so I’m really nervous about trimming her nails, I’ve paid the vet to do them instead in the past, but I really should put the money spent there into something else that will enevitabley be needed). I gently touched her on the bald spots and she didn’t jump or jerk her feets so am I right in assuming that she simply has bald feet? Because other than stopping her from moving around at all I don’t see how I could have prevented this from happening  

So yeah, sore hocks? Or just my bunny being a bit of a baldy?

 

p.s. she is still runnning about, binkying and causing general mayhem so I don’t think she is in any pain at all. Just worried in case it is the ‘first stage’

[bpash89]

I’ve never dealt with sore hocks myself so I can only go off of what i’ve read, but the hair loss sounds like the very early stages of sore hocks.
http://www.petmd.com/rabbit/conditions/skin/c_rb_ulcerative_pododermatitis#.UfjOMSt81Xc
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Mechanical/Pod/Podo.htm
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/sorehocks.shtml

Rexes are much more prone to it so even being careful it’s hard or impossible to completely prevent it. If there is no redness and she’s not acting like it’s causing her pain then it’s really good that you noticed it so early.
How big is her cage? Does she get a lot of out time to exercise? Prolonged immobility is listed as a cause as well as overgrown nails since having long nails makes them redistribute their weight and therefore putting more pressure on their hocks. Does she use a litter box? If so does she like to spend a lot of time just hanging out in there? You might need to up the cleaning regime to every day/multiple times a day to try and keep her feel as clean and dry as possible. Sometimes it’s just about their genetics though. Thinner fur, naturally longer nails, bad bunny posture…

I’d still be concerned about the sawdust in the cage though. From what I understand, the wood shavings are bad because of the oils and it causes damage from bunnies breathing it in. Even with newspaper over it I think it would be an unnecessary health risk.

[Deleted User]

Have to admit I don’t really understand the sawdust? If the floor is solid plastic there isn’t any need to cover it. If the cage is on your fully carpeted floor then what is directly under the plastic won’t be hard. In a recent thread about sore hawks someone mentioned (I believe it was Sarita) that different surfaces different textures etc. were often helpful and having it all soft wasn’t necessarily the way to go. If she isn’t a chewer you could put a blanket or towel on the cleaned plastic floor. But you might be surprised at how often she chooses solid empty floor to lie on. (Always good to remember an animal’s origins, rabbits live in boroughs, … earth that has been dug out is not all soft and full of nesting material so it isn’t surprising that their preferences are often different from the ones we think they should have.)

Does she have a litter box? A good thick layer of hay is always a comfortable place to sit, … long as it is clean of course.

It does sound as though you may have caught something before it becomes a problem (which is the best time to notice it), maybe try a few changes and get her nails cut asap, then watch very carefully?

[Treori]

@bpash. Thank you for the links, they are very informative. But Freya is a very young rabbit (under 6 months old still) and she definitely not obese either. As I said, she basically lives in my living room, and her set up means she is NEVER confined to her cage, rather her cage is inside a larger pet pen with enough room for her to stretched and hop around in. Her cage is basically her bedroom or warren, it’s been covered with the door always open and the only time she uses it during the day is when I have done something to really annoy her (repeatedly taking things from her does this) or I am hoovering the living room (she will still make a point of coming out to watch the hoover, but will run away again if it turns towards her).

According to the info I have, her nails are an OK length (they were clipped a little over 2-3 weeks ago).

Anything that’s spilt or wet gets dried right away so she isn’t exposed to that, with her fur you notice right away if she gets wet or damp and she generally likes to sit on my feet so I would feel if her feet were wet XD

The sawdust I use it one specially for rabbits, can’t remember exactly what type of tree its from but the one that causes problems is pine and certain softwoods, I got it because of her spay (and removal of a strange unidentified cyst like object), she wasn’t allowed to lay in straw and needed something soft to lay down on

@Grey Dove. She has several surfaces she has access to, my coffee table is toughened glass and chrome, it has a very low ‘second’ level that she sits in when its hot (nice and cool for her) same with the TV unit which has two levels she can reach and play in. I also have a wooden shelving unit that has nice wide slat like shelves she likes to run about on too but her preferred spot is where I haven’t gotten round to cutting the carpet fully (it’s laying in folds and she stretches out between two of those folds, its like a little cradle made specially for her)

She is litter trained, but she doesn’t lay in her tray, in fact, strangely, she doesn’t even like hay in her tray, she will dig at it until it’s all out and only the newspaper and paper litter stuff is left and she will use that quite happily [I have stopped putting hay in there because of this, and instead its placed in a container next to her tray)

What should I do about the current bald patches though? She genuinely isn’t showing any signs of discomfort (in fact she is currently racing around the room and tossing her head about) I accept she might just have lil baldy bits, but I would like to make sure that they never become any worse than that.

[Beka27]

I’ve never taken a poll or anything (that’s an idea!), but I’d venture a guess that the majority of rexes have some degree of “sore hock” chronically. Unfortunately, it’s just because of their fur… and most notably their extreme lack of “fluff”.

My mini rex lost fur on her heels within the first year. They were checked out, and our vet said the same things I already knew (no wire, keep her lean, keep nails trimmed, provide a variety of surfaces, including something soft*) and basically, it’s a chronic condition… keep an eye on it. Sometimes her heels are pinker, sometimes they’re more calloused looking, but the fur is gone. I guess you can consider it “Mini Rex Wear and Tear”.

If the vet hasn’t seen her heels yet, I would take her in at some point and have her examined. He might give you an ointment to keep on hand, or recommend something over-the-counter, but his long-term advice would likely be to keep an eye on it. If the heels get inflamed, are bloody, or super red, or there is any kind of discharge, you would need to take some action. But since this is a chronic condition, it’s going to be better to be proactive and not let it get to that point. The best outcome would be for her heels to be calloused because that means they are toughened up.

Having done nails trims on a rex and a lop (one after another) for years, it’s completely crazy how super fluffy HIS huge feet were. I could barely FIND his nails to trim them among all of the fur. And then I got to poor Mead and her itsy bitsy, almost no fur feet…

I don’t know if you have experience with different breeds (especially lops with their big, chunky feet!), but it’s shocking how little fur there is on rex feet in comparison!

 

Edit to add:

* “Soft” doesn’t mean carpet.  Soft means fleece, or a pet bed, or something with very little texture.  Carpet is cushioned, but it’s not soft.  

Have you ever had “carpet burn”?  That is due to movement on a rough/textured surface.

When we were kids we loved to play house and we always made our little sister be “the pet dog”… lol!  She’d end up with red knees from crawling around.  It’s the same idea.  The carpet fibers can actually pull the fur from the heels as they hop and run around.

[Treori]

Really? So she probably is just gonna be a bit of a baldy? Shame.
It’s one thing I do keep a close eye on because it’s something I do worry a lot about but I’m glad to know its not really something that I have done (or haven’t done in this case) to cause it.

That’s so weird, what type of lop did you/do you have? My rex is female too ‘cept she is a standard rex instead of mini and we will be bringing home what will be her partner next week and HE is a french lop. I’ve seen their feet, he looks SO goofy compared to her because rexes have these pretty slim delicate feet in comparison to their body size and frenchies have normal to chunky for theirs.

Oh, so the carpet could be causing the problem? I might see about getting some lino offcuts or something for her see if that helps her out any.

[CheriB603]

Glad to read all this info on sore hocks. Sorry to hear Freya has little bald feet. Never knew it was a Rex thing. Was worried (of course, we bunny Mums worry about everything!) that my Jo might develop them but looked at her flemmie feet and her fur is so thick it’s like she’s wearing snowshoes! Hope Freya stays perfect and thanks for all the great info !

[Beka27]

Max was a mini lop, or a mini lop mix of some sort. He had big clunky feet… lol. I don’t really have a great picture of his feet, but it was comical to see his in comparison to hers.

Rather than getting lino that could be lifted up and chewed on, pick up some 12 inch ceramic tiles, maybe 4 of them? You could configure them in a square and that would provide another option for hanging out, and a lot of bunnies like tiles because they remain cool, even in warmer weather! I bet both buns would enjoy them!

[Treori]

Hehe thanks Cheri and yeah, Rexes in particular are prone, I didn’t realise the big breeds were too though so that was new to me, which means I will have to keep an eye on Zeus’ feet when he arrives too (both his parents are over 14lbs and he is looking to be a very large boy too)

@Beka I was considering getting lino for under Zeus’ pen anyway as he would be too big for a conventional cage. We have some ceramic tiles already to help Freya cope with the heat wave we had, but she doesn’t like them at all, I think it might be the lack of traction XD She seems to like them better when I prop them up against a wall or such, she then happily lays alongside them with her back against them but only if she hasn’t got a frozen water bottle and then nothing could move her away from that Freya’s never really been much of a chewer (thank goodness) she likes nibbling on the cardboard boxes I get for her from work, and the apple sticks I get for her to chew one (need to get new ones actually) but she ignores pretty much anything else unless its a pencil and then that WILL be eaten if not hidden. She even has a wicker basket in her pen to hold her hay and she hasn’t so much as licked it lolz.

Gonna go check her feet again in a minute. I feel bad because she is all chilled out and this will just annoy her greatly.

[Beka27]

After discussing this this morning, I went and took a good look at Mead’s feet. She needed a nail trim anyways. Her feet are looking really good, better than they did a few months ago when they were a little pinkish. I’m not really sure why, I haven’t changed anything, but I’ll take it!

I think as long as you’re aware of it, and know what to look for, she’ll be just fine!

[Treori]

Yeah I checked her and I think I must have blown the bald spot up in my mind because its really small XD But again looks fine. She was not pleased with me so I offered her a peace offering of banana which she ignored, but she did follow me back to my seat and gave me a gentle nudge and a lick before going off to do her thing. I will take that as her accepting my apology

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