Help w/ a wet bunny butt

[Hedi]

Cooper is a little over one year old. He was a rescue and I had him fixed w/in a week of getting him. He is a mini lop and he has very thick hair from his mid back to his butt. He is litter trained but it seems that everytime he urinates he gets himself all wet. My other male doesn’t have this problem so I’m kinda worried. He seems to stay kinda damp typically down there.  He isn’t like drenched down there but it seems for awhile after he urinates then he is wet for awhile. The vet says there is nothing wrong w/ him but I feel so bad for him. He can’t be up on the furniture and we have to watch where he goes because of his wet butt.

[Toki+Pumpkin+Elmo]

Poor Cooper. Does he clean himself down there? I’m just worried that it might not be “clean” down there. I guess it would be okay if he cleans himself.

[MooBunnay]

That seems a bit odd to me – I would also be concerned about him getting some type of urine scald where his but is wet. How big of an area is all wet? Is it just in one spot, or all over? Does it seem that the fur is soaked through all the way to the skin?

[RabbitPam]

My vet had told me to put a little bit of corn starch on the wet butt to get it dry. I’m not recommending it daily, just a temporary assist until you can get better advice on either trimming his fur there, helping him to clean himself, and possibly a second vet’s opinion.

Question: is he having a problem balancing to clean his rear end? Does he do it lying down or standing up? Maybe he didn’t get a lesson from birth parent when young and doesn’t quite do it right. Also wondering if he might have something else off somewhere else, which is making his behavior more delicate and his butt is the result. (Like when we don’t brush our hair well in the back if we have a sore arm and can’t reach up.)

Not intending to make you worry more – just pursue possibilities of other solutions. It will probably pass in time, like most bunny mysteries.

[Sarita]

Many times a wet butt is the result of a urinary tract infection. I wonder if that is what the problem is.

Also you can get a sanitary trim from your vet but really I wouldn’t rule out a UTI either.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Is he using a litterbox? You may want to put a layer of hay on top of the litter to help prevent the fur from soaking up the urine.

[Hedi]

Cooper actually had this wet butt issue before he was ever fixed. The last two visits to the vet she didn’t seem concerned. He does have quite a lot of hair down there (much worse than I have seen on other buns) so I am just wondering if he just cant avoid getting himself wet. He isn’t soaked down to the skin it just seems to be superficial. When he is upstairs w/ us he uses the litterbox in the dining room but if I pick him up or he jumps on something after using the box he leaves a small wet spot. He does use a litter box always unless he is out in their bedroom and then he likes to mark w/ urine in front of the other two buns’ cages. This has become routine w/ him. There is always hay on top of the newspaper in his litterbox. Pookie does a great job keeping him clean everywhere else. I swear he smelled before Pookie got ahold of him. So he is always clean every where else. It’s just so strange..

[babybunsmum]

my baby bun has pee-pee but a lot too.  mind you she’s being treated for a possible urinary infection right now (just finished a course of anti biotics)  whichcould be related.  but i definitely notice it more of a problem when she leaves puddles around and this is happening more often since having another bun in the house of course.  right before pinky came home she was accident free for a while & was much more clean.  i do notice that she doesn’t lift her bum when she pees at all and it’s really hard to tell she has left a puddle until she moves.  whereas pinky’s posture is very noticable when she pees and she always has clearance between her bum & the floor / litter.  anyways, when i took baby into the vets a couple of weeks ago the vet checked her skin & did not see any scald so thats good at least.  if you have ruled out possible health problems maybe you could pick him up while holding a bunched paper towel on his ‘area’ to soak any urine prior to letting him romp on your furniture?  i do this with baby & it works fine.  doesn’t clean up the yellowish color but at least it’s dry.  good luck!

[rabbitsmba]

Can I ask what oyu have in your litter bin? You mentioned newspaper covered with hay. Perhaps the issue is there is nothing in the bin to actually absorb the moisture and he ends up in a bit of a puddle? Try carefresh, yesterday’s news or woodstove pellets.

[bunnytowne]

hmm I noticed with Laith he would have a dirty butt so I got him a litterbox with a grate on top at Petsmart solved the problem kept him up and off his business and he stayed clean and dry after that.

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