Mini Rex - Hock bleeding and we can't get it to stop....it seems like a lot

We left a message for our rabbit savvy vet, but haven't heard back from her yet. We tried cornstarch because that is what was recommended at one time. We have tried applying pressure, and now I don't know what to do.

If your animal is bleeding profusely and it will not stop, any vet is better then no vet.

You either need to get the bleeding under control or take the animal to a vet asap.

Kind of hard for us to know what is even going on with no photos.

I can't post photos for some reason. He has a bloody spot on the heel of his hock and when I would apply pressure, there would be more blood to come from this spot. We went through about three gauze pads and a handful of tissues with blood spots as big as the size of a dime. I cannot see anything because there is so much blood clotted up there, and I am afraid to further clean it because we just got the blood to stop coming out. We had to remove his litter box from his cage because he kept jumping in and the bleeding would start again. We are still waiting for our vet to call, and there are no other vets that do emergency vet services for rabbits in our area. Our vet is an hour away and usually returns the messages within an hour.....so my concern is that they are out of town and that the service doesn't know who is covering her. What I am most worried about right now is that he is stress breathing, but he is still eating, drinking, and pooping. He is already on Baytril and Metacam for a chronic health problem, and he had the evening dose of Metacam about two hours ago. I can get him to the back up vet in the morning around 9 am, but if the rabbit savvy vet doesn't call tonight, I don't know what else I could do.

Most people upload photos to photobucket and post the IMG tag link in the forum.

Is this just from sore hocks? Which is quite common in true rex rabbits.

He may benifit from some type of bandage or padding, if he wont chew it.
But that doesnt sound like too much blood.

Make sure he stays on a soft surface. Continually playing around with the leg may stress him out. If hes not a chewer fleece blankets could work well.

He is a chewer and can't stand any kind of cloth. His cage is plastic, and we tried padding the floor with foam exercise mats, but he got under the many, many layers of newspaper to get to them and chewed a small amount. He was caught before he could hurt himself, but we had to remove the pads. We did put the pads underneath his cage and as I said, we ended up removing his litter box so he wasn't jumping in and out of it. Seems like the bleeding has stopped now. Our vet finally called back and we have a plan.....hopefully, paws crossed, we don't have any more bleeding tonight and we can hold off on seeing the vet until tomorrow.

Agreed, in the future any vet is better than no vet. Any ER vet could probably apply a bandage to your rabbit's hock and help you stop that bleeding.

Glad you have a plan and hope your bun is feeling better!

I think keeping your rabbit on lots of layers of hay or straw will help more than any kind of padding, blankets, or carpet. To me is also sounds like you really need to bandage the feet. I think there is some really good information here about how to treat sore hocks from this rabbit rescue which seems to have treated quite a few bunnies with it. http://helicopter-ears.org/2016/04/07/the-sore-hocks-nightmare/

squidpop has posted a really great link, and I second the recommendation that hay or straw can be quite beneficial to rabbits with sore hocks, some do well on vet bed, but not all.

Have you been applying any ointment?

FWIW

In the future, I highly recommend keeping an advanced hemostat for instances where traditional means are not enough to stop profuse bleeding. Easy to use and extremely effective for people and pets alike, it is a life-saving product. Celox powder is probably the most flexible offering -- I watched this stuff prevent a friend from bleeding to death.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004NG8V1M/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20




As for treating the sore or infected hocks, I also highly recommend this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008VGQHA2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It is available as a gel, ointment, and gauze bandage. While many doctors and vets are not up to date on many of the newer products, this product is, in every which way, far superior to the topicals most doctors and vets still use. It is one of the few products that can rapidly & completely kill harmful pathogens, turning the wound sterile, while also removing necrotic tissue from the wound bed. Because of this, it is the topical of choice for second degree burns, chronic wounds, pressure ulcers, and and surgical wounds.

Beyond being a good choice given it can successfully treat chronic ulcers, of special benefit to rabbits is its lack of toxicity and its potential to reduce or eliminate the need for antibiotic therapy in the treatment of certain wounds, which is a huge plus given how rabbits have such sensitive GI tracts. IMHO, this (or this + antibiotic therapy, depending on how far along the disease is) will give you the best shot at stopping the progression before it reaches a point where the wound goes very deep and causes full body inflammation (which is frequently fatal at that point.)

I just wanted to provide an update. Our poor bunny made it to our rabbit savvy vet a few days later and we showed her all the bandages, tissues, and the towel that we had to use to stop the bleeding. The vet was shocked at how much blood there was, and said that he must have had the sore really close to a small artery or something, and when it busted open, it bled more than it should have. Thankfully, by the time we got to the vet, about 48 hours after the incident, it was completely healed and the foot was totally clean (which shocked me because we did not clean the blood off because we were afraid it would bleed again). Our vet started flocillin shots once a week for a few weeks, and we decided to leave the litter box out. We replaced it with a small tray, and just put in plenty of newspaper and hay to catch everything. We are 19 days out since this incident, and at the last appointment a few days ago, the vet said this is the best they have ever seen his feet (front and back) even though we have battled with sores on the front paw for months! So, they think that the combination of removing the litter box, changing the hay to a softer hay (we switched from Timothy to Orchard Grass), and now the flocillin shots, that maybe we finally found the permanent solution to the sore back hocks and the front paw that wouldn't heal! I am updating in case anyone else is dealing with similar problems with sore hocks.

ray: We had hock problems with 4 of our 5 Mini Rex rescues--seems like the fur covering their feet is less resilient. We used second skin on one and it helped--I always kept it in my backpacking first aid kit. Thankfully, we never had one bleeding, I'd have been out of sorts for sure.