Best Litter Pan Recommendation?

[aleexmarie]

My bun has an issue with eating everything, carpet, litter, (my) bedding, shoes, wires, her cage ..EVERYTHING. This led her to have a diarrhea issue. Originally, she had an open litter pan, and I used the CareFresh brand bedding as litter. Since she ate this too, I switched to a wire litter pan so not only could she not eat the litter, but I figured that would also help prevent the diarrhea from sticking to her fur. She’s been diarrhea free for at least 4-5 months now, however, I’m afraid getting another open litter pan will just cause her to eat whatever litter I use again, or cause the poop to stick to her fur again. Similarly, I’m afraid continuing to use the wire one, or even the wire style plastic ones, will cause sore hocks. Does anyone have a solution? 

Also, related question, could cages with a plastic bottom cause sore hocks as well?

Side note – she doesn’t use her litter box excessively, and she’s on carpet, not hard surfaces most of the time. Similarly, she does voluntarily spend time in her cage, and doesn’t show any signs that the cage/litter box irritate her. 

[jerseygirl]

Welcome aleexmarie. : )

With the wire topped litter pan, did her poops become more normal form, or still sticky but falling through so not becoming stuck to her fur.
Does she eat hay? When she wasn’t able to eat the litter any longer, did she increase eating hay at all?
If she doesn’t spend a lot of time on her litterbox, I don’t think you need worry about her hocks. Be careful with carpet though. Some are quite abrasive and can lead to sore hocks. IMO, hard surfaces are not that much of an issue if the rabbits hocks are in good condition to begin with. Just keeping the nails short so they place their weight evenly on their feet helps prevents sore developing also.

After looking at your profile info, I see your rabbit is 6yrs old. Do I have that right?
Im just wondering if this is all more recent, that perhaps she has some dental issues leading to the poopy-butt problem. Has she ever had her molars checked while sedated?

[aleexmarie]

Thank you so much for your reply!

So all the wire pan did at the time of her issue was help less of the poop become stuck to her fur. Yes, she does eat hay, and her doctor and I were able to isolate that as the problem. Since their diet is supposed to be 80%, I had to start limiting her dry food intake in order for her to start eating more hay, which seemed to solve the issue. We also ran a few tests in order to be sure it wasn’t anything serious, but came to the conclusion it was a lack of hay and maybe she chewed on something that upset her stomach. 

As far as the hocks go, I’m glad to hear that, because I really wanted to keep the wired litter pan for sanitary purposes. Thank you! She spends most of her time on carpet, however soon we will be transitioning to tile. I do plan on getting a rug or something similar however so I do not limit her to strictly hard surfaces. In regard to the nails, she does have them trimmed bi-weekly, and we haven’t had any issues with those so far.

Thank you so much for your help

[Author]

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