Splay Leg Splint

Question
Dear Dana,

My rescue group ended up with two litters of babies born 01/07/11 and 01/09/11.  The first group is growing VERY rapidly and one especially is very large (white, pink eyes).  This one has developed right rear splay leg.  My vet was not able to wrap the back legs as per your instructions.  Can you explain it a bit more for me?  What I'm not getting is; how the heck does the cork stay in?  And how will I know if I have the leg in the correct position when I tape it?  I really want to help this little baby, any advice you can offer will be very greatly appreciated!

Answer
Dear Renee,

I've had a few splay leg bunnies since I wrote that page, and I no longer use a cork in most cases.  I now simply use a ring of VetWrap with some padding underneath, and then pull the legs into the right position and fix them with loops of water-resistant adhesive tape.  This holds the legs firmly, but is flexible enough to make the bunny comfortable.

Since this is a back leg, you might need to brace the splayed leg in more than one place to attain proper orientation.  I can't see bun to suggest positions, but perhaps one stabilizing brace linking the calves (tibia/fibula) and then another one (or possibly two) on the feet to keep them in proper orientation.

I've also done an additional bit of reading and found that as an animal grows, proper development of joints can be affected by the relative positions of the components.  So simply putting the legs in the right position may help mitigate the genetic condition that has put your little guy at an initial disadvantage.  I hope it works!

That said, I've recently had to brace two new little guys.  One, Rusty, has a permanent hip dysplasia, but he runs like the wind with his leg braces (feet only).  He is now an adult, and will war the braces for life.  But he loves his braces.  If they slip off, he'll sit there sadly, staring at us and almost begging for us to put them back on!

Then there's Boris. He was a small baby when he came to us with badly splayed back *and* front legs.  But he would absolutely NOT allow us to put on braces.  Within seconds of our putting them on, he'd rip them off and be terribly agitated if he couldn't get them off.  We finally gave up.  Boris wants to be a splayleg bunny, and he still runs unbelievably fast.  Though he looks like a speeding rowboat when he does.  :)

So the individual bun will determine the type of treatment and its success.  I hope this works for you!

Dana