Why is my rabbit's toenail rotten, thick, crumbly, and painful?

Ouch, poor Thumper! His nail may have caught on something and gotten torn. This is very painful, and the remaining quick and nail bed can be susceptible to infection. Thumper may be chewing at his foot for either reason. I recommend having him seen by a vet, to make sure his foot otherwise seems ok, ensure there is no infection developing, and get him put on appropriate pain medication. You can have his nails trimmed at that time as well - nails often get torn if they are getting too long, so your vet can help trim those down if you haven't been trimming them yourself. Hope this helps!

Hi and thanks for your request. This presentation could be due to a deep infection of the nails affecting the nail bed and going deeper. Fungal and bacterial infections are both possible. Please take Norman immediately to your local veterinarian as this suspicion needs to be confirmed asap and appropriate treatment given (anti-fungal meds or antibiotics). In the meantime, disinfection can be provided with hibiscrub solution with water 1:5 twice daily. If he tolerates that, please submerge the paw inside the solution.

You should take Hops to the vet as this is likely to get infected, she will need a course of antibiotics as well as pain killers for a few days, the tip of the broken nail will need to be checked as well, in some cases it is necessary to remove the nail in order to prevent any complications.

The most common reason for a young rabbit to be limping would be generalized musculoskeletal pain from something traumatic. Certainly as you said nail length can contribute or a wound on the affected limb. However, if you have eliminated these as possibilities, I would say that the next logical assumption is there is a bony or soft tissue injury affecting your bunny. She would probably benefit from a physical exam to see if an area can be isolated, and possibly if warranted, some x-rays could be obtained. Anti-inflammatory and pain medications are also available for rabbits and might provide some significant relief. In the mean time until you can get him in, I would just try to limit his mobility and confine him to a smaller area. Hope this is helpful.

Sounds like there has either been some sort of traumatic incident, or there is some type of inflammatory / infectious process affecting the nail bed. Blackness at the nail bed that you are describing could potentially be pooled blood, or a sign of dying tissue. Tissue could die as a result of a crushing injury or from one of the above mentioned processes. I would recommend having Bella examined by a veterinarian to assess the area and make an appropriate treatment plan. Hope this makes sense.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This may be due to an infection for example. For this reason, I recommend that you have your bunny evaluated by a veterinarian who can examine this and determine what it may be so that therapy can be recommended more specifically. Best of luck!

Ouch that looks very painful, and the rest of Hugo's nails look extremely overgrown. I would bring him to a vet ASAP so he can be sedated and the nails trimmed back/the affected bad nail trimmed or removed and medication given to help with pain and prevent infection.