Heya folks,

Bonnie, once again, is probably going to have to go to the vet. I noticed bare, red patches right on her hocks on both feet but she won’t let me get a good look at them. She has a nice thick fleece blanket in the bottom of the playpen and another in the bottom of her cage, along with a chewed up phone book she plays with, and a slight bare spot on the plastic bottom because she likes to lay in it. She has a ceramic tile in one corner for hotter days to lay on and she’s often there if not in her cardboard house. I also recently clipped her nails and I think I almost definitely left them too long. I’m still getting the hang of it and I need another person with me because she has some strong opinions about it. I think the issue is she is a litter box layer. I try to clean the litter box of soiled litter every 1-2 days, removing the pee soaked stuff and the poo, but leaving anything that stil looks dry. She tends to sit and lay in the litter box and I’m not sure how to discourage it.

Maybe this is something she’s always had and I’m only just noticing because she’s splooting and flopping more. I must’ve pulled an inch of urine soaked newspaper out of the cage she’d been living in since December when I finally adopted her in April, so to say her living conditions weren’t ideal is a bit of an understatement. Is there anything I can change about her environment to help keep this from happening again? Is there a way to discourage her from sitting in the litter box. She’s a Californian and approximately 6.5 lbs. the vet has said she’s a healthy weight and she just got rid of the ear mites she had.

Thanks!