red lump

Question
My rabbit has a small red lump on her right heal . she does not flinch when it is touched and it is quite hard, do you have any idea what it is?
thank-you

Answer
Is it on her foot, or on her rear hock joint (where the leg bends)?  I believe what you're describing is fur worn off her hock due to friction.

If she is overweight, this is causing her body weight to wear off the fur, exposing the hock.  She will need to go on a diet from high calorie treats and such and get more exercise to correct it, if it is due to this.  If she is not overweight, the surfaces she is resting on are too hard.  You need to get her in her cage on a nice synthetic bedding (synthetic sheepskin or medical pet bedding (palace pet bedding) to reduce the friction of hard surfaces on her.  If she is overweight you should also get her resting and spending time on softer surfaces too.

You want to try to correct this asap as they need the fur protecting their hocks.  Otherwise that bare skin can dry out and crack and have an infection take hold and go into the bone.  

I would recommend taking her in to your good rabbit vet for her yearly checkup and ask the rabbit vet about her hocks.

The one thing you can do while they are healing is to put some vaseline on them daily, or every few days put some New Skin on them (the bare spots) to protect them while they are healing.  Don't wait too long as it's very hard to get this fur to grow back once its gone.

If you need a good rabbit vet go to:  www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

for a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.