Adult Rabbit Has Ripped Off 3-4 Front Toenails

Question
Hey Dana,

So I let my 2-year-old black male out to play today.  I put him on the bed because he gets kinda fiesty when I'm carrying him from his cage to my bedroom.  I went over and sat on the bed and started nudging him off the bed.  He resisted for a moment, but then jumped off.  I then noticed that a couple nails were on the floor.  Like WHOLE nails.  He then jumped back on the bed and was bleeding everywhere!  

I have never had an occurence like this before with my several bunnies and the several years that I've had them.  I know his nails were probably a little long because he is black and his nails are black so I'm usually pretty scared that I might trim the nails too short because it's hard to see the quick, but I didn't think they were THAT long.  I mean they weren't curling, and none of my other bunnies have had problems.

I called my best bunny vet, who incidentally is out of town.  I was told to put flour on them because I don't have cornstarch.  He seems to have stopped bleeding, but the area seems bloody. I am running to the store soon to pick up some quickstop, which I'm sure is probably much better than flour.  I also read in a different posting that I should clean the sites with dilute povidone iodine.  I'm gonna stop at the store for that too.

How often should I be rinsing the sites with iodine? Just once? Or once daily for a week?  How often should I put quickstop on the sites?  I just put the flour, but he has already been licking his paws.

I'm a little confused about why this happened.  I mean his nails didn't seem long enough to me to have this happen.  I mean I'm not "rough" with my bunnies, but I really wasn't nudging him off the bed too hard.  He has just never seemed this fragile before, not that I go around trying to see how hardy my precious bunnies are!

One of my elder bunnies got E. cuniculi, so all six of my bunnies have just been through a round of Fenbendazole.  There last dose was a few days ago.  Do you think that his recent fragileness could have been a side effect of that dewormer he was taking for 28 days straight?

Thank you,
Amberly

Answer
Dear Amberly,

I apologize for the delay.  Unexpectedly, a middle school ecology outreach program I was running went crazy at the end, and I'm just now getting my life back.  So sorry!  But I'm back now.

Your bunny might have just taken a bad landing, and that can result in broken nails.  I don't think it has anything to do with the Panacur treatment.

You did all the right things by disinfecting and keeping an eye out for any sign of inflammation or infection.  Once the holes start to scab and dry, you don't need to continue disinfecting if bun is indoors.  The nails should eventually grow back.

Now would be a good time to get his nails checked by the vet to be sure they are of a good length, but this can happen even with normal length claws.  Unfortunate, but generally not life-threatening.

Hope he feels better by now!

Dana