ilikerabbits
Active Member
Probably a little over a month ago we had to take our 6 year old to the vet. We had noticed she wasn't jumping up onto boxes like she used to, so took her out and let her run around, and saw what looks like quite severe muscle wasting on one of her back legs. It's hard to describe, but when you look at a rabbit from the back, the back legs more or less form a straight line and fit in with the body, but on one leg there was a noticeable dip towards the inside.
We wanted her seen that day, and the only available vet was a dog vet, as our rabbit savvy vet was all booked in that day. He felt her back legs and said that there was rather severe muscle wasting on the leg that we had noticed, but also some on the other leg too. He kept her in for x-rays and called us back saying that she had osteoarthritis, spondylosis in the lower lumbar, and something to do with her hip, displacement I think? the person on the phone could not remember exactly what it was. He told us that he would keep her overnight so he could talk to the rabbit savvy vet in the morning, which he did. Called us back the next day and said the rabbit savvy vet had nothing to add and put her on 1ml of Metacam (Meloxicam) once daily.
We haven't noticed a huge difference when she was put on the Metacam.
But what concerns me most is that I would say over a short amount of time the leg has rapidly declined, 2 - 3 times worse in a month. Her leg was contracting so we have to do gentle stretching and massaging daily now. You can feel that the hip is actually out of the socket, and when you try to push the foot there is no resistance at all, which her other leg does have. She isn't able to itch herself with that leg very much anymore, which she was able to the day we took her in. And sometimes the toe of her foot it put at a funny angle so that it is under her.
We are going to organize an appointment with the rabbit savvy vet very soon, and if the same answer probably a second opinion. But I'm getting confused if what they said was correct, or if they needed to do more.
We wanted her seen that day, and the only available vet was a dog vet, as our rabbit savvy vet was all booked in that day. He felt her back legs and said that there was rather severe muscle wasting on the leg that we had noticed, but also some on the other leg too. He kept her in for x-rays and called us back saying that she had osteoarthritis, spondylosis in the lower lumbar, and something to do with her hip, displacement I think? the person on the phone could not remember exactly what it was. He told us that he would keep her overnight so he could talk to the rabbit savvy vet in the morning, which he did. Called us back the next day and said the rabbit savvy vet had nothing to add and put her on 1ml of Metacam (Meloxicam) once daily.
We haven't noticed a huge difference when she was put on the Metacam.
But what concerns me most is that I would say over a short amount of time the leg has rapidly declined, 2 - 3 times worse in a month. Her leg was contracting so we have to do gentle stretching and massaging daily now. You can feel that the hip is actually out of the socket, and when you try to push the foot there is no resistance at all, which her other leg does have. She isn't able to itch herself with that leg very much anymore, which she was able to the day we took her in. And sometimes the toe of her foot it put at a funny angle so that it is under her.
We are going to organize an appointment with the rabbit savvy vet very soon, and if the same answer probably a second opinion. But I'm getting confused if what they said was correct, or if they needed to do more.