Does anyone know how contagious UTI's are in buns?

 

Such as -- if one of my buns developed a UTI (all bonded and living together) could all 3 have caught the same thing and possibly be the problem of loss of litter habits?  

 

My concern stems from another thread where the bun was not straining to pee but rather one of the only issues was loss of litter habits.... so what is the rest of the BB communities thoughts on this possibility since all THREE of my bonded buns have been having the same problem? 

Not sure if they are contagious but I will say when one of my buns loses their litter habits, it makes the other one more prone to peeing in the same area. Powder has perfect litter habits... until Stickers starts to lose hers, then they both go wherever they want to. Pain in the neck part of having bonded bunnies. :s

Thanks for the response, Stickerbunny! I checked with my vet and she informed me that it's not contagious so I don't think that's the issue -- my only worry is that one may have a UTI and lose his litter habits and therefore set in the motion you explained, of the others losing theirs.

But from my discussion with my vet (she said we could bring in a urine sample if we wanted) it seems more of a behavioral problem rather than health. She said she's personally never seen a UTI case with a bun under 2 years old but that obviously doesn't make it impossible.

Ha... yes, rabbits under 2 can have UTIs. See it all the time at the humane society. I'd ask for a test for it anyway, and if its negative, then move on to the behaviour theory. Which, in that case, gotta start from the basics, and smaller play areas. With a billion litter boxes, heh.

I always believe in ruling out all the medical possibilites before moving on behavioural. It may cost more money, but it's pretty pointless to put all the effort into working on behaviour if it turns out your bun is just uncomfortable/in pain and all your work was for nothing.

Completely true -- does anyone have any idea how much it typically costs for a urine sample test for a bun??? Without the appt since she said we could just drop a sample off and have it tested.

Varies by area. My vet uses an outside lab and samples cost anywhere from $50-$100 to have tested. Vets with in house labs will be a little cheaper, but if the area is an expensive vet area, the cost will go up.

Cupcake went to the vet for a UTI the other day and it was about $160....