Hock Sores?

Question
I have a Dutch bunny, 6 1/2 years old.  He is a house bunny that is in a flat surface cage and is let out when I am home.  He developed a sore on the bottom of his right back foot which was open when I found it 6 months ago.  I immediately took him to my local vet, and she extracted any infection and put him on 2 kinds of medicine twice a day.  I was also instructed to clean the wound twice a day with antibacterial liquid.  It looked like it was working and then it got worse, and started to spread.  They then performed a type of surgery, with anesthetic and cleaned out the entire wound.  They said they did not get it all, but if they had tried to he would not have had a foot left as bone and tendens were already exposed.  We kept him on the medicine and cleanings and waited, hoping the meds would take care of any infection left.  I was at this point wrapping the foot in bandages after the cleanings so it would not get further infections.  It looked as if it was getting better and then it got MUCH worse again.  So i took him back and they said my options were
1. to see a specialist
2. to leave him with them for 10 days for them to do repeat the operation and clean it twice a day thoroughly.
3. ambutate

So i have decided to have them board him for 10 days and remove any infection and clean it twice a day.

Have you seen this before, or if it is Hock Sores, have you seen it get this bad before?
Do you have any advise on this, or if I seem to be making the right decision?  I really don't want to ambutate!
I apologize for the lengthy story.  
Thank you for any help you can provide

Melissa Ward

Answer
Sore hocks can be a real problem in certain breeds of rabbits, and when it gets this advanced your options get much more limited.  Certainly sore hocks never heal completely in my experience, they just get less sore.  However, yours has gone into probably an abscess, which is not uncommon.  If the vet can get the infection to stop advancing, you will need to keep his care scrupulously clean to prevent further infections.  

If, however, they can't stop the progression, amputation may be the only option.  I have known a number of rabbits who have had this done, and once they recover from the initial surgery they recover quite well and don't really notice the loss of the leg.

I hope that what the vet is doing now will cure the problem, but be aware that it may not.

Kim