Elvira chewed all her toenails off!

[whitelop]

Hello all! Its been a very long time since I posted anything!

I did want to share this weird thing that happened this morning, just because its uncommon.

This morning I got up to feed Ellie and the cats in the laundry room. Walked in, its a murder scene. Ellie is hopping around, leaving trails of blood behind her. I immediately freaked out! I called the vet and told them it was an emergency, I loaded her up and got her down there as fast as possible.

She chewed all of her toenails down to the quick! My very rabbit savvy vet is a little baffled, because apparently its really rare for rabbits to chew their own nails off.
He took some fur samples from all of her feet, put them in this medium to help fungus growth, to see if it is a fungal infection. I'll get the results back from that in like 5-10 days.

I have antibiotics and I have to give her warm foot baths in epsom salt water until her nails heal up.

It wasn't just a few, its ALL of them.

My vet said, it was either a bacterial infection, a fungal infection or she got shocked by chewing on wires. The laundry room is rabbit proofed, so she didn't get any wires. So its either some sort of bacteria or fungus. He said she may have been nibbling privately, but then something happened and it sent her over the edge and she chewed all of them off.

Other than her nails, he said everything else looked good. Her stomach and heart sound good. He said shes a little plump, shes 5.4 lbs.

Everyone check your buns toes! Make sure their nails are looking healthy and good. Although, Ellie's nails DID look healthy and fine, I guess they were not.

I'll update as I get results from the fungal test!

 

[JBun]

Hey Morgan! Good to see you on here again, though never fun when it's a bunny problem

In case you want some additional possible causes, there's a few things that I can think might have possibly caused her to do this, along with what the vet already is looking into. One possibility is sarcoptes burrowing mites causing itchiness and pain in her toes. Unfortunately I can't get this link to load right now, but maybe it will work for you. If not the second link has some info on it, though it's a little bit more on the technical side and the pictures aren't as good.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/Mange/Sarcoptes.htm
http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Parasitic/Sarcoptic_mange.htm

The other thought I had was self mutilation. There are a few things that can cause a rabbit to do this. Acting out from boredom or frustration is one. Another reason is stress, or fear/anxiety causing stress. And then there is an underlying health problem from something totally unrelated to her nails/feet causing her to react from the pain and discomfort of it, and chewing at her nails due to this. Something like her mouth hurting from dental problems is not unheard of to cause a rabbit to self mutilate. Then there is nerve pain or a spinal issue causing numbness or tingling in the toes that might cause a rabbit to self mutilate. This would more likely cause self mutilation to the toes themselves, but might also result in a rabbit chewing at its nails.
(another link not working for me right now, but might for you, or should work eventually)
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Mechanical/Mutilation/Selfmutilation.htm
http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/PhysicalTraumatic/Self_mutilation_rabbits.htm

Also check for any slivers, thorns, etc in her skin on her toes that might be a cause for irritation. Not easy to do I know, but it is another possible cause. Long nails and the rabbit 'self trimming' might be another possibility.

Good luck, and definitely update if you(or your vet) figure out what caused the little trouble maker to do this. I hope you can get to the bottom of this and that Ellie will be alright.

 

[whitelop]

Thanks Jenny!

I'll look over all the info!

 

[whitelop]

Ellie has a fungus! LOL I found out like last week, but its been nuts around here.

My vet prescribed her TerBINafine 50mg. She gets one dose every 24 hours, for 4 weeks. Then she has to go get retested for fungus.

Thankfully, I figured out the BEST way to give her meds. In applesauce! I HATE having to wrestle her down to give her meds orally. So putting the little amount of meds in a little bit of applesauce has been a life saver!

We're on day 3 of the meds, a few weeks left!

Other than her toenail eating, she is showing no other signs of discomfort or any symptoms of fungal growth. She seems really happy and normal, still eating and pooping well! The meds don't seem to be bothering her either, so yay!

 

[Aki]

It's good you found the cause! It's always awful, not knowing what's going on. It's nice you found a solution for the meds. I just finished treating my Tybalt's pododermatitis and he looked like I was going to murder him everytime he saw the ointment (which was really unfair - I mean, I was staying on the ground and basically giving him a foot massage).

... on another topic, I have to ask: is Elvira's name a Don Giovanni reference?

 

[RavenousDragon]

My own bun just finished a round of meds herself- but I'm lucky. She's so darn food motivated I trained her to eat meds out of a syringe (with apple sauce at first- which is not great for them, but let me tell you, having a rabbit who actually likes syringes is the BEST). She actually gained a bit of weight from the treats I would give her after each dose- so now that meds are over it's diet time.

Good luck with your bun and I'm VERY glad you found out what was going on!

 

[whitelop]

Ellie chewed her nails off again this morning! I can't believe it. I've been dosing her with the meds every 24 hours on the dot for 2ish weeks?
I'm not sure if it was the fungus this morning though.
I think this is what happened...my dogs got into the laundry room and scared her. I, like the responsible pet owner I am, put earplugs in and slept in! We have a macaw, who doesn't allow me to sleep passed sun up, so I put earplugs in on the weekends to sleep passed sun up. I got up at 9, walked into the living room...murder scene again. Ellie was visibly scared. I'm not sure if she chewed her nails out of fear, or because of the fungus and the dogs just happened to go into the laundry room. My dogs are fine with her, they just come in and pillage the laundry room for cat food and anything they can get their mouths on, so it freaks her out when they come in and sniff and everything!

I washed her feet off, then put some corn starch on them as they started bleeding again. Shes okay now, no more bleeding.
She is done with her meds on 3/8, I'll schedule a follow up test for her that day.
For now, I'm just going to make sure my dogs don't get in the room again. And I'm going to add some more toys and things for her to do. Maybe shes bored? I'm in here a lot, I interact with her constantly. Maybe she just needs stuff to climb on and do? I'll try that and then just see what the vet says. What else can I do?

And as for her name, Elvira. Its not a Don Giovanni reference, though I wish it was! She was a surprise rabbit, I stupidly went into a pet store and she was an under-aged bun in with a bunch of bigger babies so I bought her. I had no idea what to name her, so I posted it here and asked for some suggestions. Elvira was one to pop up! It totally fit her, and then she grew into a super sassy Elvira!

 

[whitelop]

So it just occurred to me that Ellie snacks on cat food! Could that be causing her foot stuff? Could she be allergic to something in the cat food?
Yes, I know they're not supposed to have cat food. I stop her when I see her, but I'm not always in the laundry room. I'm going to find a better place to feed the cats, to get the food out of her reach.

The food is salmon and sweet potato. Could it be something in the food?

 

[RavenousDragon]

It could still be fungus. Fungal infections take a while to clear up so I wouldn't be too hasty to dismiss that yet. It could have been a combination of the stress of the dogs and the infection that caused it.

While an allergy is possible, it wouldn't be high on my list of causes. I personally have never heard of a rabbit chewing off nails simply due to allergy (I've seen more ear scratching, diarrhea, etc.).