Loss of hair on bottom of back foot

Question
I have a two year old male lop ear bunny.  I noticed blood on the bottom of his cage this morning and found that a small patch of fur was missing from the bottom of his hind foot, right at the back of his foot.  I have no idea what he could have possibly done in his cage to hurt himself, as he is living in a ferret nation cage with no wire bottom.  I cleaned it up with warm water, it had stopped bleeding and it appears fine, other than missing fur.  Could you please perhaps suggest if there is anything else I should be doing to keep this area clean.  I would hate to think that he pulled this fur out himself?  He is a digger but he does that with his front paws, not his back.  Any information would be helpful.  Thanking you in advance.

Answer
Dear Debbie,

A rabbit has only the fur on the bottom of his foot to protect the bone, and almost no fat.  This is very different from the case in most other mammals, which have generous fatty pads on the foot bottoms.  So when hair goes missing from the bottom of the foot, it's important to keep things covered up until they have time to heal and regrow, lest the sore ulcerate and become even worse.

It could be that he has an early case of "sore hocks," and not an injury (though I hope it's just a case of him accidentally injuring himself, which will heal much more quickly than sore hocks).  This will give you the information you need to deal with the problem:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sorehocks.html

You can find a good vet to help you here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Hope this helps.

Dana