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› FORUM › DIET & CARE › My rabbit STINKS!!! I need help!!!
I am desperate. My female holland lop stinks so bad. She hasn’t been spayed yet due to a uti and had to have her appointment rescheduled to next month. She is 8 months and is really dirty. She pees all over her cage. I have a c&c cage with coroplast at the bottom and she keeps making a mess everywhere. I have tried all kinds of litter boxes and now I use a cat litter box with yesterday’s news and hay but she will not pee in it. I have tried dipping her bottom in warm water to clean the urine off but she still smells and it’s a musky odor. It’s making my entire house stink and I’m at my wits end. I change the litter on a daily basis and clean the cage three times a day and I even use diluted vinegar but she just keeps on peeing. I have recently bought a deodorizer and it has worked wonders on her brother but she is just messy and smelly. I need help. She even pees when she’s out of the cage for free time!!!
She’s marking due to hormonal behavior, once she’s spayed the smell will lessen a lot. What sort of litter are you using? Do you have any blankets etc on the cage bottom?
Oh wow. I’ve never had a bun with a UTI, but I don’t imagine that’s helping your situation. I think it would be impossible to litter train her or expect her to use the litterbox at all under these circumstances. You need to focus on getting her well, and then getting her spayed. I doubt she can control her urine right now.
urine scald is a real possibility and a very uncomfortable life for a rabbit: http://www.disabledrabbits.com/urine-scald.html
While she’s ill, I’m not so sure how much time out she needs–I don’t know how large her cage is. But maybe limit her exercise to an xpen on an easily cleaned surface so you can watch carefully and make sure to clean immediately. I’d recommend you layer any area she inhabits with puppy training pads and throw them out when they’re soiled to help keep her dry.
Also, you might crack a window to help with the smell. I put apple cider vinegar in their water to keep their pee from smelling so bad, and I swear it works. You should discuss it with your vet before trying it because she’s sick.
Other people might have better suggestions. Good luck with your poor rabbit.
You mentioned in an earlier thread that she had bladder stones – is that resolved? If not, resolving that will help as I imagine the problem is with that and the fact that you have 2 other rabbits as well doesn’t help as far as marking territory.
Ah, yes, a UTI will probably add to the smell of the urine also – it can make even human pee smell pretty bad when a person has one. And nm see you use yesterdays news litter – have you tried feline pine? It’s better at masking scents. ![]()
Also I want to mention that bladder stones are extremely painful for your rabbit.
We treated the uti and it has been gone for a week now it’s thankfully not bladder stones we went ahead and did the X-ray and she is clear. Her cage is 2×3 and it’s 2 floors so she has more than enough space to roam around in there. She uses yesterday’s news litter and has 5 hours of free time outside of her cage and I also have another litter out of her cage so she can use it and she keeps going outside of the box. The smell isn’t pee it’s musky it smells so awful and I sometimes get the same smell off her brother who is already fixed.
A musky smell may be her anal glands needing cleaning.
I checked her scent glands and she doesn’t have anything in them. But I did notice that over night she developed another round of urine scald. I don’t understand why this keeps happening. Her hind legs were soaked in urine. I don’t know how to get her to pee in the litter box. I even tried minimizing the space she is in and she just will not use the box! I already cleaned her skin thoroughly and applied ointment. I’ll call the vet again first thing in the morning and see what he says. I’ll keep y’all updated
Ah, the musky smell. My two still do that at times, when they get excited, or are marking, or have a disagreement. I assume your two aren’t bonded since she isn’t spayed, so hopefully when she is spayed it’ll lower it .. when my two were bonding they did it ALL THE TIME and yuck it smelled something awful.
I have 2 Holland lops that used to smell. Vet said I could use (lightly) unscented baby wipes. They definitely help with the “dirty bunny” smell and worked great for soft poops stuck in fur when we first got them (they had coccidian – yuck!). I always tried to follow with a damp paper towel too. As to not peeing in the litterbox, my little girl went through that. Followed advice I saw (I believe here) and wiped up pee with paper towels and put the pee soaked paper towels in the litterbox until she got the message that the litterbox is where the pee goes. She would even pee on her grass mats, blankets, anything in her cage but wouldn’t go in the litterbox. I took everything out of her cage except the litterbox and hay feeder — it took 3 days and lots of “why are you putting pee soaked paper towels in my bed” looks but now she only pees in the litterbox. I think you’re supposed to put the pee paper towels under the litter but I didn’t see that until after I had already filled the top of the litterbox with the paper towels! Good luck!
WHY DIDNT I THINK OF THISSSSSS our rabbits are so similar!!! She pees on everything! I’ll try this tonight and see how it goes! I made an appointment with the vet but he’s not in for another week and someone is covering for him
I have no idea who this other vet is. The bunnies were together until the female started to show signs of aggression towards him. That was at about 4 months and they haven’t had any contact since. I have them separated. She’s okay with the cats and the dogs but she will probably kill her brother if he goes anywhere near her. I’m really not looking forward to bonding them. Once this all blows over I’ll be having her spayed.
› FORUM › DIET & CARE › My rabbit STINKS!!! I need help!!!
