Bone spurs

Left: Scanning of anesthetized rabbit

Right: MRI of an osteophyte in a knee joint (inside circle)

A bone spurs, also called osteophytes, relate to growth of the bone, usually next to where the bone is stressed. The word spur is official, but badly chosen. Bone spur are no needle like structures, but round smooth structures, that take a long time to form. The danger of those growths is compression of the adjacent blood vessels and nerves. The later leads to pain and inflammation, rarely to muscular atrophy. They are mainly seen in joints and in the back.

The first treatments usually proposed are rest, and pain medication, with NSAID drugs (e.g. meloxicam), as they reduce pain *and* the inflammation caused by those bone spurs. The pain medication does not need to be given on a daily basis, once or twice a week may be enough. There is no rule here, just observation of the rabbit. Removal of osteophytes by filing, is a last resort surgery. Indeed, this kind of surgery may worsen the problem, in other cases the bone spurs are placed in such difficult location that it is impossible to reach them for surgical removal.

Since a few years, glucosamine/chondroitin has been used to relieve arthritis in rabbit.

For rabbits, Cosequin dose is taken from Carpenter's formulary: "use empirically at feline dose". More precisely, we used Cosequin in "our" rabbit and started with 1/4 teaspoon BID. After one month, it was dropped to SID for maintenance.

For Adequan: the used dosage has 2.2 mg/kg SC, IM, q once a week during 4 weeks, then q 14d.

Those products do not show an immediate relief; it needs time, usually 4 weeks, to show its positive effects.

Cosequin or Adequan do not relieve pain, so pain medication is recommended.

Metacam (meloxicam) is often used. It does not need to be given on a daily basis, one drop once, twice or three a week may be enough. There is no rule here; best is that you have to see the effect on your rabbit, increase or decrease the frequency, by observing his habits, eating, moving etc. In one case, the rabbit showed regular relapses. When this happened, ketoprofen was given as long as needed (determined by observation of the rabbit). Usually one or two injections were enough.

Other NSAID analgesic drugs for use in rabbits are described here.

Acknowledgement

Thanks are due to Frau E. Besomi and Akira Yamanouchi, VEIN (Veterinary Exotic Information Network), for their permission to use their pictures.

Further information:

Williams JM, Zhang J, Kang H, Ummadi V, Homandberg GA. The effects of hyaluronic acid on fibronectin fragment mediated cartilage chondrolysis in skeletally mature rabbits. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2003 Jan;11(1):44-9. 

e-mail: info@medirabbit.com