Coat Notes for a Breed Defined by Fur
Open with source, sex, colour, and a photo in natural light that shows the plush Rex texture honestly. Then keep the coat as a standing record item rather than an afterthought: log moult periods, patches where fur looks thin or broken, sore skin showing through, and how the coat responds to brushing. Because Rex fur lacks the longer protective guard hairs of a typical rabbit coat, it can wear and break more easily where it rubs, and dated notes separate a normal moult from progressive thinning.
Record whisker condition as well — Rex whiskers are characteristically short, fine and often curled, so a sitter should not read them as damage. Note where your rabbit grooms most, any over-grooming of a companion, and whether bedding or a rough surface coincides with a worn patch appearing. That surface link is easier to fix than the skin, and only the record reveals it.
Hocks and Flooring: The Rex Priority
Part the fur under each hind foot on a regular schedule and log what you find: fully furred, thinning, pink skin, callus, crack, or sore. Rex rabbits carry less padding of fur on the hocks than many breeds, so flooring deserves its own line in the record — what the resting surface is, how much time is spent on hard ground, and when you added mats or bedding in response to a thinning patch.
Note reluctance to move, shifting from foot to foot, or a change in hopping, and date any slip or fall. A sore that is open, bleeding, or making the rabbit lame is a vet visit, not a home experiment. Bring the hock timeline to appointments; a vet deciding how aggressively to treat will ask how long the skin has been changing, and 'a while' is a much weaker answer than your dated entries.
Hay, Droppings, Weight and Teeth
Weigh regularly and record the figure beside hay intake, measured pellets, greens and treats. Note droppings daily in brief — plentiful and round, smaller, fur-strung during a moult, or scarce. A Rex that stops eating, passes little or nothing, hunches, or grinds teeth needs urgent veterinary care, and your note of the last normal day anchors that call.
Keep the usual dental line: drooling, wet chin fur (check under the plush coat, where dampness hides), dropped hay, or selective soft-food eating, each dated for the vet. Log nail trims with extra care — Rex nails and feet should be inspected while you already have the hocks in view, and any ingrown or torn nail belongs in the record with how it healed.
Vet File, Grooming Routine and Handoffs
File vaccinations and prevention your vet advises, every appointment's findings, and recheck dates. Write the grooming routine down exactly as you practise it — frequency, the soft brush you use, and the instruction that Rex skin under thin fur deserves gentler handling than a standard-coated rabbit — so a sitter repeats your method rather than improvising a harsher one.
Add transport notes and the emergency clinic details to the front page. Gathered in KinsLe as a Pet Passport, your Rex rabbit's coat diary, hock timeline and vet history form a record that shows any new clinician precisely how that velvet coat and the feet beneath it have changed over time.