Why do our bunnies pee on their legs?

[Buzz]

Our bunnies have always peed on their feet and left pee prints on the carpet near their litter places. Unfortunately the places they have decided to use as the bathroom are inaccessible for a big enough litter box, and one rabbit is blind so he can’t deal with any drastic changes to his area (getting him pee in one place is like trying to scale Everest, so we don’t want to so anything to discourage him). Therefore they can’t have litter boxes. We put newspaper down and cover that with hay instead.

 However, in the last few months as the youngsters are beginning to reach adulthood, we have noticed the pee they used to get on their paws extends up the inside of the whole leg now. This means that picking up either bunny means one of your hands (and your clothes) are going to get wet. It’s only on the outside of their fur and they usually clean it off after a bit so no urine scald (except the blind one, who is overweight, has problems cleaning his butt and has to be on a special diet). We have taken to cleaning their butts constantly so that we don’t have to deal with smelling bad all the time.

The adult bunny always seems to have wet paws and a wet tail. None of them ever have wet or poopy bottoms, they just seem to sit in their pee and don’t do much to clean themselves up afterwards.

How do you guys keep your bunnies’ feet clean? Or is this not a normal problem?

[Sarita]

It sounds to me like they don’t have a proper litter box with proper litter.

[Beka27]

Yes, they need some kind of litter tray, even if it’s a very low tray. The plastic puppy pad trays come to mind, but rather than a puppy pad, a thin layer of some absorbent litter. Newspaper is not going to absorb the urine.

You mention “youngsters” and your blind bunny. How many rabbits do you have? Are they all housed together, and what kind of cages/pens? If you don’t have space for a litterbox, especially for the young, healthy bunnies, I think you may want to re-evaluate their housing and set it up in a way that they can successfully use a litterbox.

[Buzz]

Hi, thanks for your help. We have two house bunnies (one of whom is blind) and one outside bunny (the adult). Unfortunately they have chosen their own places to pee and one is behind the TV, the other is in the corner of the room by the door. If we put anything more prominent than a few pieces of newspaper, the door will move it out of the way every time it is opened. There is no space behind the TV for newspaper and the blind bunny gets upset whenever we change anything to do with his area. The one who lives outside stresses out when he is kept inside for a long period of time (I guess he is used to being outside). I’m going back to the UK temporarily soon but when I return I intend to do a bit of work to try and make him into a house bunny. In my new house when I return I will try and make them choose easier areas…for now I will try out a puppy pad with some more absorbent litter on the top. Better a messy floor than wet bunny legs…

[jerseygirl]

It could be partly the weight with the blind bunny also. It might make it harder to posture correctly to pee. Also if they get sludge or stones in bladder the pee might shoot out at odd angle. So working in weightloss should definitely help.
You (or your bunny) might not like my suggestion but I think giving blind bun a pen for now would be a good idea. It could be a nice generous size and he could still come out of course. But giving him a defined, smaller space may actually help his sense if security in the long run. And improve the pee problem. If he/she has a pen now, when you move, setting up the pen exactly the same in the new place would help bunny orientate in the new surrounds. It will be getting used to new smells and sounds but it’s living quarters will feel the same.

Another thing is their age. If approaching adulthood they could be spraying urine a bit and that’s why it’s up the legs(???)

The most effective thing you can try has already been suggested. More absorbent litter. Even towels or really absorbent fabric such as things used for beds of incontinent people might be worth a look. Even “sham wow” lol! I’ve considered these before. Jersey, my 1st rabbit has terrible litter habits and pees on the floor all the time. But she’s not normally soaked in pee unless they run back thru it. She pees then hops off. It makes me wonder if yours linger in there litter area (maybe to eat hay?) after peeing. So absolutely more absorbent litter would be the key in that case.

[Buzz]

I’m interested in the fact that it could be the spraying – they are all neutered. I think each bunny’s situation has to be taken into account differently – the blind one is overweight, until he loses weight he’s not going to be able to clean himself properly. The one that’s outside has improved since I moved his poo pile. Watson however is my bunny. I have just inspected his legs and found that his feet are pretty clean and dry – the real problem is the inside of his left leg, which is soaked with pee. There’s scald there. Tonight I will just have to clean his leg, but tomorrow I will see if I can get some Yesterday’s News or compressed pine pellets. Hopefully that solves the issue. I’m not sure why his feet are clean and his leg is not though – with the other bunnies their feet and their tails are dirty.

 I’ll pass on the idea about the blind bunny pen to his owners. Thanks!

[jerseygirl]

From what you describe, Watson could be peeing to the side or dribbling urine. It might be worth a check up. For the scald I think you can apply a barrier cream to help protect the skIn in the meantime.

[Buzz]

Well, I bought some wood stove pellets this morning and so far so good! Watson’s legs are clean. We have added a handful mixed into the hay for the blind bunny to see if he can get used to them. But for a few days his butt has been clean – I’m wondering if he might be losing some weight. Let’s see how it goes. I’m going to be checking Watson’s legs a lot in case he has a medical problem as you suggested. Thanks for your help!

[Author]

Messages