Arthritis and dewlaps

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shananagrams

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Hello,

I recently took in a rabbit who was left on the side of the road and brought to the pet shop I work at. I think she is a French lop, she definitely has a bit of arthritis in her hind legs, and her dewlap is pretty large.

The dewlap does not get in her way of cleaning, and she is not overweight. In fact I can feel her bones. She is on alfalfa oxbow pellets for two weeks to get her back to a healthy weight.

However, she has extra skin on her hindquarters, they overlap her legs when she sits. They do not impead her mobility and they are not hard so i don't-think they are abscesses but I have never seen this on any of the rabbits I've had before. The vet said she is spayed, so I doubt it is from excess pregnancy. Does anybody know what these excess pieces of skin are? I'm not familiar with her breed so it could be that.

Also, has anybody ever used the oxbow joint support tablets? Good? Bad?

- new owner of an old bunny


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That's so great that you are able to take this rabbit in! That is quite the dewlap! Did the vet say anything about whether she was at a healthy weight, or anything about the flabby skin on her hindquarters? I know you say that you can feel her bones, but it seems like she may be more overweight than underweight. That's what the flabby skin on the hindquarters looks like to me. I have a bun that is slightly overweight and she has the 'skirt' of flab around her bum. If her spine and ribs feel pretty smooth and aren't protruding, then she wouldn't be underweight. That being said, if she is underweight, maybe that flab of skin is leftover from a time when she was overweight and she lost the weight quickly and the flabby skin was leftover.

Anyhow, welcome, and I'm glad your bun has a good home now :)
 
When we got Coal, she was a 9 pound mini Rex--she looked like a gray blob with ears. We got her weight down over a couple of years and she had the same look from behind for quite awhile--related t carrying too much weight/fat at some point and takes a while to go away. Good luck.
 
thanks for the replies, JBun - the vet said that she is underweight and recommended baby alfalfa pellet for at least two weeks to get her wight back up (we're on week 1). I think that may be a possibility that this skin is excess from her old owners. Since we have no knowledge of her they were and what they fed her, I guess we can only ever assume! She may have been left outside for weeks, and lost the weight fast.

In a few weeks, Penny will be switching to timothy pellets, and she has a follow up appointment in a month to see how she is adjusting.
 
At a guess, she was at one time quite overweight, and although the excess weight has gone she's got the extra skin left, which is creating saggy folds.

They are probably even more obvious than normal due to her being underweight. I take it if you feel them they are just skin and fluff?
 
tamsin - I think that it is the remnants of a former overweight bun. As of now they don't get in her way! Hopefully they don't get in her way since I think she is too old to consider surgery.
 
i refer to that extra skin back there as a Dust ruffle" my willow had that too. She was a large standard rex and also had a very larger dewlap. i liked it, thought it was cute:biggrin2:
 
I've seen the other pictures you've posted of her, and it looks like at some point she must have been pretty stout. She's got some flabby skin on the bottom of her, but her back does look boney. The flabby skin probably won't be as pronounced as she starts to put some weight on. Poor Penny, it's sad she would have been treated the way she was. I'm glad she's with you now. She looks like she's comfortable and happy in her new home :)
 
Where can I find the other photos of her? From the picture above, it almost looks like she's molting. But it's kind of small and sideways, so that may not be true.

Some breeds are more prone to larger dewlaps and "skirts" than others- not because the are overweight, just because that's a normal characteristic. Those traits have actually been bred out of some breeds, particularly dwarf breeds, because it is a show DQ, which is why you'll see it more often in certain breeds.
 
It really looks like she has lost a large amount of weight. I would agree with everyone else.
But I have a mini lop, who has a large dewlap and a more pronounced "skirt" than a lot of other buns I've seen.
 

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