Nails

Question
Hi. My rabbit's nails (almost all the nails) are starting to turn black and he is around 5 years of age. He fliched when i tried to take a look at them but he usually does that so i have no idea if there is anything wrong with them. He is still behaving normally. he jumps around and eats the same. Is this something I should be worried about?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer
Hi,

this sounds like it is a medical issue.  If whatever is happening is affecting almost all the nails, it is not "just a broken nail".  It could be some kind of infection attacking the nails.

I would make a trip to your good rabbit vet.  It's better to be safe because any infection involving the nail automatically puts the infection at risk of infecting the blood (and therefore other organs in the body) of your small guy, and that is a really serious infection in an animal that doesn't have a lot of blood to begin with.

Get him in right now while he still appears normal because you don't want to wait and drain his strength reserves while the problem gets bigger and bigger and becomes harder and longer (and more expensive) to knock out.

If you need to find a good rabbit vet go here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.