Diva is not getting better, maybe worse

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Fergi

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Right here..."pointing finger to pa, Minnesota, US
We started the baytril 2x's a day and a cream for her feet, Silver Sulfadiazine cream. I have seperated her from the other buns but her feet are not improving and it is moving up her leg, she has lost all fur on the inside of one hind leg. The corn starch baths were just not cutting it, last night and today I have had to bath her bottom half in warm water and then do the best drying possible, alternating between towel and cool hair dryer.When I put her in her cage last night she was nice and dry but now today she was soaked again with urine. I am assuming that because her feet hurt she isn't lifting her bottom up to pee and it is just soaking her hind area.

I am at a loss here. I don't know what else I can do for her. I will call the vet again on Monday but in the meantime has anyone else had a problem like this or any ideas on how to solve this problem? I am keeping her out of the cage as often as possible so if she does go pee she for sure isn't laying in it but she can't be out 24hr.s. I do have to put her in her cage at night and when I work.

I feel awful bad for her, I know she is not a happy camper with me or the treatments she is getting. Any advice or support would be great!

EDIT to add: She still is eating and drinking as normal, she enjoyed a nice chunk of pineapple tonight and I have critical care on hand if she goes off her feed.
 
After doing some research on the Internet I am thinking about getting some bag balm to keep the urine off the skin. I also read on one of the sites that you can wrap the feet to avoid the urine from soaking in. Any idea's on this? I know I would have to use a e-collar on her but I already have one from when my Chinchilla was sick, it is a cloth one that bends easily.

Any thoughts???
 
Fergi wrote:
I have seperated her from the other buns but her feet are not improving and it is moving up her leg, she has lost all fur on the inside of one hind leg.
Click to expand...
Hi Fergi!


Do you mean she has lost fur from urine scald?..you can use baby nappy rash cream which will soothe her skin, it will also help to keep the urine of her skin.



cheryl

 
Fergi wrote:
After doing some research on the Internet I am thinking about getting some bag balm to keep the urine off the skin.

I also read on one of the sites that you can wrap the feet to avoid the urine from soaking in.
Click to expand...
Bag balm sounds like a good idea. Since it's formulated for cows with chapped udders, it would not only help protect the skin from urine, it could help with any dryness she might have, and it can't do any harm.The worst thing that could happen would be nothing at all. As for wrapping the legs, I would worry that the wrap would be penetrated sooner or later, and that it would keep the urine in once it got there. Just my .02

 
Poor thing. Can the fur on her foot grow back once the irritation is taken care of? I hope she feels better soon.

You know, there are litter boxes out there with screens in them that separate the bunny from the litter. The ones Iuse for my buns are called Scatterless lock-n-litter. Something to think about.

Blyre


 
We do have a screen on the litter box. The problem was that with sore hocks she wasn't feeling up to jumping into it, but thanks for the suggestion, if only it were that easy.

I did get the bag balm and put some on tonight, I also did wrap her feet but it is a moisture proof kind of covering over it and I will be checking her periodically to make sure it isn't soaked through. I just think if I could keep it dry for a few days it would start healing much faster.

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. I will keep you posted on her progress.
 
Poor Diva :(

I hope that by keeping it dry it will clear right up. :pray:

Fergi, this is from one of yourother posts...

When he was examing her the very bottom of the end of her nails has little sore spots. What may have happened was the mats were holding the urine close to the body which caused urine scald and that escalated into a bacterial infection I believe he said Cocci was the strain.Chances are it was from matting. I guess I never thought to brush the bottom of a bunnies feet but considering she weighs 14lbs 3/4 ounces the weight must have just been enough to cause the matting.


I guess I'm still wondering if it is the sore feet causing the problem(and if so, why),or if she maybe leaking a little, and that caused the sore feet. Chicken and the egg syndrome.I assume the vet tested the nail bed problem to find that it was bacterial and what strain it was? And did theyrule out a UTI? I checked around and found that a lot of bunnies don't show any symptoms other than 'leaking',and you did say she had a slight fever.

Of course that said, the Baytril would have cleared it up, so probably not.:ponder:

If she's not better in a day or two, I can post something on Etherbun list for you and see if anybody there has any suggestions.

I've never had a bunny with a problem like this although I currently have a cat with a fungal or bacterial infection of the nail bed, which is apparently common but not easy to get rid of.I wastold the testing was absolutely necessary to determine it's origins and prescribe the right medications or I would risk making it worse, but before being told that I had startedwashing her feetwith Hibitane skin cleanser and it seems to have worked,so I guess you never know. :dunno

Hopefully something will work soon! :goodluck

Give her a pat for me. :hug2:

sas :expressionlessand the warren :brownbunny:brownbunny:brownbunny:brownbunny:brownbunny

 
Fergi wrote:
After doing some research on the Internet I am thinking about getting some bag balm to keep the urine off the skin.
Click to expand...
Bag balm sounds like a good idea for the sore hocks.
Or something like Desitin?

It almost sounds like a yeast infection of sorts. :?
UTI?...or maybe some obstruction or leakage issue?:?:?

I've only had sore hocks on little buns, but it wasn't exasperated by urine scald. Resting boards and Neosporin works in both cases. They eventually formed callouses and the fur grew back where they didn't form.

Smore and Binkie have both had bad scald, but not as bad as poor Diva :(.
Their scald was caused by poop/cecal matted fur obstructing the urine stream. That,combined with not lifting their butts high enough because they were so uncomfortable.
Both got tushie baths..dry,dry,dry....and Neosporin. They weren't happy about it all, but definitely appeared more comfortable afterward.

Our cages have wire bottoms, which is another thing that helped at the time.
And I had to remove Smore's litter pan for a couple of days when it got real bad.
They both have places to rest off the wire, but they both seem to prefer the wire sometimes.
I'm not surethat a wire bottom cage is an option for you, though. It would most likely irritate the sore hocks.

How did the wrap work?? Did you have to put the collar on her, too?
Poor bunnie:(

:pray:

jim






 
Thanks for all the replys, your thoughts and input are greatly appreciated!

Pipp, it is sore hocks, to be honest it may be because I wasn't cleaning the cage often enough with three rabbits in there. I clean it once a day but not everybunny would use the litterbox every time and because she is so big she just laid in it.

In the summer they are outside all day and then Fergi and Sam are in an outdoor hutch at night and Diva is in the indoor cage. This was the first time I put all three together in the indoor cage. They had bonded so well this summer I knew Diva especially would enjoy some extra company. This may not have been such a great idea. The cage is extra big with three levels but Diva being so big always hangs out on the bottom. All it would take is for her to lie in some urine and then since she sits on her hind feet (doesn't kick them out ever like other bunnies) it never dried out and just caused irritation.

The reason he thinks it was becoming baterial was purely from taking her temp. He did not do any skin scrapings based on him feeling it was urine scald that had escalated. We did not do a urine sample either,her urine has been normal color and consistency and I have not witnessed her straining to go, it seems perfectly normal when she does go. She may have been leaking, I will have to ask the vet.

JimD, up until now she never had dirty bottom either. They are checked for that on a daily basis because Fergi is prone. Thanks for bringing that to light though, diffinetly an interesting thought. I agree a wire bottom would keep the urine from getting on her feet but it is not really feasible right now, I would have to get a huge custom made cage and I just can't afford a big one like that.

As of this morning her bottom is dry :elephant:, I will be unwrapping the one foot in a bit to check how the inner leg is doing, the other foot came unbandaged before I went to bed and since it wasn't the one that was getting worse I left it alone. She seems to really be enjoying her blanket and has been lieing on it all morning, she is licking it,it's too cute.

Anyways, thanks again so much I'll let you know how the leg and feet look in a bit when I'm awake enough to clean them!

By the way, for now she is in the upper level of the cage blocked off from the others. Most of her urine should spill down to the next level as there is an area that is wire, the rest is coroplast.
 
We were on the road to recovery until last night when Sammy managed to break through to the top level of the cage and Diva jumped down to the bottom. Her rear was soaked again although her feet are still looking better than they were. She was hopping better before last night too.

I have securely blocked the upper level off so no more escaping to the bottom! I will be doing another corn starch bath tonight and have been applying the bag balm over the Silver Sulfa which seems to be helping out a lot!

Hopefully the trend will continue with healthy feet and rear ends in the future!
 
They sure are getting better! The bottom of her feet are scabbed over now but she is hopping so much better and not as crabby w/ the other bunnies as she had been. She hasn't had any more fur loss and her tail fur is starting to grow back. Since I seperated her from the other two while they are caged she has had a dry bottom every day! Just a few more days of antibiotic and cream and she should be good to go!:bunnydance:
 
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