Sorry for the blurry picture; this is the best that we could do with our small point-and-shoot digital camera. This is a picture of what looks like a red sore the size of a penny on the bottom of Hoppy's back foot. It looks like very bad carpet burn or something.
We didn't know that it was there until we went to the vet yesterday. My wife was worried about Hoppy because he didn't eat his grass on Friday and early Saturday morning. We went to the vet, and during his checkup he pulled back the hair on Hoppy's foot and discovered what in Japanese is called a soahokku. I have no idea what the translation is; I looked it up in all the Japanese-English dictionaries I have access to, but to no avail.
According to my wife (I was in the waiting room during the checkup), the vet said that soahokku happens when a rabbit spends too much time on a flat floor. The vet said that he needs to spend more time on floors with ridges, something uneven that the rabbit can grip. We have a large rug in the living room, and our computer room is covered with carpet, but otherwise our condo has smooth, wooden floors. I don't know if the wooden floors may have given him soahokku, but it sounded like the vet was suggesting a radical change in our condominium. Floors with ridges? What does that mean? Are we supposed to replace our wooden floors? Does the vet know how much that costs? It's all confusing to me.
But that's beside the point. Poor Hoppy has a bad sore on his foot. For his part, it doesn't seem to bother him; he hops around like usual. He shows no pain, which goes along with what I've heard about rabbits, that they hide their pain. But I hope he gets better soon.
Poor Hoppy, My Haven gets those sometimes too but not for the same reason. Does Hoppy live on a wire floor mostly?
ReplyDeleteNo, he has a plastic floor in his cage, with 1/3 inch-wide holes spread apart about 1/2 inch. They said it's better than wire floors.
ReplyDeleteWhy does Haven get those? Do you know?
ReplyDeleteHaven gets a pressure sore on one foot because his balance is off due to his head tilt. He also has arthritis in that foot and tends to hold it at a funny ankle. Wire floors are terrible and yes the plastic is better. I have never heard of a sore hock because of a flat floor though. If you can get a cream called Silvadene over there it will heal that in no time. It works like magic on Haven's foot. Hoppy is such a cutie!
ReplyDelete