Need help coping with rabbit smell

[Borya02]

I don’t want this post to scare anyone off from having a rabbit. I think my situation is very rare, and might have nothing to do with my rabbit at all – this might be a medical issue in my own body causing this problem. Rabbits are great, and so many of them need loving homes.

Hey folks. I have had my bun for close to 5 years. I love her a lot. I do not know if this problem is her or me, which makes it extra frustrating. She is spayed by the way, and has been for about 4 years.

Here’s what happens. Every single season when the temperature changes (I live in a desert so these are extreme changes – e.g. a summer of 100+F temps, and suddenly it’s 80F outside), all of a sudden, it smells horrendous. The smell is coming from my rabbit, specifically the litter pan. I can’t describe how bad it is. I’m talking hot rotting garbage left out in the sun for days. It nauseates me and keeps me unable to eat. At times when it’s really bad (like now), my only option is to lock myself in my room, as the smell is not in there. It’s very depressing. I can’t cook, I can’t use my kitchen. I can’t move around because my room is so small. I lose weight because I am too nauseated to eat. Saddest for her, she is then isolated as I can’t be anywhere near her. None of this is exaggeration, it really is this bad. This usually goes on for a few weeks, then suddenly it stops.

I have 2 full sized air purifiers with carbon filters running by her enclosure on full speed 24/7. I clean her litter pan every morning. I vacuum her enclosure. I light pet odor eliminator candles. I open the door and windows and this seems to be the only thing that truly helps – but I can’t have them open 24/7, and the moment i close then, within about 10 minutes it is that bad again.

Right now I’ve barely left my room in 5 days. It’s driving me insane. Over the past two years dealing with this, I’ve seen a neurologist, who referred me to an ENT, who had me get an MRI to identify potential causes of over-sensitivity to smell. They did find inflammation in my nasal passages which could likely be causing it. Additionally, my neurologist has me on migraine medication now to try and help suppress my sense of smell. He also indicates that season changes could trigger inflammation. That said – the smells I’m smelling are not phantom smells, they are real – and I’m still not sure if this is my own inflammation issues, or if the rabbit just smells more for some reason when the season/temperature changes (or a combination of both – I get oversensitive to smell, and the rabbit just smells 🙁 )

I am desperate for any advice on ideas, or how to reduce the smell, as life becomes unlivable, as I’m prisoner to this room. Lots of the ‘advice’ for smell reduction I don’t believe is safe for rabbits (baking soda, certain cleaning products, essential oils, etc.) so I avoid those.

Does anyone know of any reason a rabbit would smell worse when the temperature changes? It always happens when the temperature changes.

• Diet: she eats hay, timothy pellets, and fresh greens. She has a good diet. I do not feed her sugary treats or any treats really, as vet advised against it.
• She is spayed.
• Litter pan changed daily
• I have a grated litter pan and use wood stove pellets (feline pine) atop a pee pad
• She has a very large enclosure and I clean it regularly – vacuum daily and deep clean weekly. None of this seems to help!

Any ideas appreciated.

[DanaNM]

This is very unusual!

Cleaning once a day is usually plenty, but have you tried spot cleaning twice a day to see if that helps?  Can you tell whether it’s her poop or pee that smells more strongly to you?

Also have you checked her scent glands? Sometimes they become clogged and need to be cleaned occasionally. I usually check my rabbits’ when I do nail trims.

Have you been able to get the opinion of another person (who will be honest) to try to figure out if she is just extra smelly or if your nose is extra sensitive?

Regarding seasonal changes, I haven’t noticed this with my own rabbits, but season changes CAN trigger hormonal changes, which do relate to smells. Hormonal smelling poop usually smells more onion-y (almost like human body odor). That said, it’s usually not that strong… like you would have to be close to the poop to smell it.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Borya02]

I think it is her urine that is causing the odor. In the past I have gone to changing her pan twice a day, but within an hour or so it is back to smelling just as bad. There is really no one I can bring in my home to ask about the smell as my family lives so far away. Yes, the smell is so intense it nauseates me. It is really difficult to live like this.

 

Good idea about the glands. Though I’m not sure it will be possible for me to check them. She doesn’t like being handled, and I’m scared she’d get hurt tbh.

 

Interesting to learn that seasonal changes can trigger hormonal changes. She has been spayed so I’m assuming those wouldn’t be as pronounced in her.

[Wick & Fable]

I know you have air purifiers, but what about dehumidifiers? Temperature changes often relate to changes in weather, which impacts humidity of things.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Borya02]

Huh. I never even thought about a dehumidifier. That’s an excellent idea, thanks! The humidity is typically very low in my home, so I wonder if there’s a sort of reverse one that humidifies the environment.

[LBJ10]

Have you had COVID? I’m just wondering if your sense of smell was altered and perhaps that is why her urine smells so bad to you.

If it isn’t that, have you thought about having her checked for a UTI? Sometimes bacteria can be pretty smelly.

[DanaNM]

That’s surprising that it smells again so quickly. And really good points about COVID or a potential UTI.

One thing I’ve noticed with my rabbits is that when I switched pellet brands their urine stopped smelling pretty substantially. Not sure if it would be available in your area, but I feed Sherwood pellets (a lot of reviews also mention less urine smell).

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Borya02]

Thanks guys. I have not had COVID. After dealing with this on and off for two years, I finally managed to get an MRI and meet an ENT who specializes in smell and taste disorders. I was exposed to some pretty bad wildfire smoke a couple of years ago and it appears to have caused some damage to my nasal lining, and trigger some inflammatory response (at least this is what the MRI and nasal endoscopy showed). The ENT believes this is the cause of the overactive smell. Before the wildfires I never noticed smells. Slowly over the past two years I have eliminated pretty much any source of strong odor from my home, but I have never managed to figure out how to overcome the rabbit urine. It is so overpowering to me , I can’t even put it into words. 🙁  I feel bad for her (my rabbit) because it’s not her fault.

Last fall when things got bad again, I got scared thinking she had a UTI. I had no way to get her to a vet, but the vet Rxd antibiotics for her anyway over the phone, as a precaution. I threw out her old litter pan and swapped everything when I started her on the antiobiotics and when I finished. It did nothing to help and the urine continued to smell just as bad. I think the smell is just probably regular rabbit urin smell, I’m just smelling it too much or something.

 

I reached out to a smell and taste disorders organization and they are going to try and give some ideas. I am currently locked in my room again because the smell of her odor is just so pungent it is nauseating.

[Borya02]

It’s a great idea on the pellets by the way. I’ll look into those. I’ve been feeding her the same pellets for 3 years they are called Sweet Meadow Farm all timothy pellets. She hasn’t had any switch in diet that’s coincided with this. Sometimes this problem isn’t there at all and I don’t notice the urine smell for weeks/months.

One thing that might be helpful to others – I can not remember now if I read it on here (probably!) but I read some people have reported that cilantro can lead to rabbit urine being more potent 🙂 (Did one of you guys tell me that? I swear I read it on here!) Kind of makes sense as cilantro itself is such a potent herb. I stopped giving her cilantro but it didn’t help, unfortunately.

[BZOO]

Normally, I would not recommend this, but this seems to be a very different situation.  Might be worth a try until you can get this figured out.

Marshalls Goodby body and waste odor eliminator.  You add it to the water.

I tried it a great many years ago when my mom was complaining about my ferret.  (But she never did anything about her NASTY cigarette smoke!!)😜. It seemed to help a little, but I’m weird and liked her natural scent.

Again, maybe just something to help for now.  It has mixed reviews, some say that their critters didn’t drink well, so that be something to watch.

Also read clean fresh grass, lots of chlorophyll, can help as well.

[Borya02]

Wow. Thank you for telling me about this product. I will have to do some research and make sure this is safe for rabbits. I can barely leave my room for weeks right now.

I’d be too scared to give her grass due to RHDV (the rabbit hemorrhagic disease viruses.) I believe there are outbreaks in my area, and there are tons of stray animals around here (cats, dogs walking around, which I believe can carry the virus). Plus, I can’t think of anywhere around here I see clean fresh grass lol it’s mostly dead and ugly. If it weren’t for RHDV, I would surely try that. Thank you for the tip.

[BZOO]

Can you get grass seeds and grow your own indoors?

[Borya02]

That’s an interesting idea actually, I might do that, if anything just because I know she does love grass. I looked into that water additive and I’m not sure it would work. I read comments on there saying it makes the water taste like bleach. 🙁 I felt bad thinking of making her water taste bad. That stuff (the body and waste odor eliminator) is a brilliant idea though and I’m so grateful you told me about it. I wish there was some product like that which had no taste, or tasted amazing to them or something.

Growing grass indoors is a seriously brilliant idea, regardless of the smell issue. Wish I’d thought of this years ago. I used to purchase her fresh grass from the pet store (they grew it there) and she always went mad for it. Thank you for this idea.

[DanaNM]

This reminded me, that in some circles of rabbit care (not so much in the house rabbit community) people claim that adding a small amount of apple cider vinegar to their rabbit’s water helps with smell.

I can’t verify if this works or not… and normally I wouldn’t advocate for adding things to a bun’s water, but in your situation it might be worth a shot. If you google “apple cider vinegar in rabbits water” it you’ll find lots of discussion about it. Just be sure to also offer fresh water to make sure she drinks enough (in case she doesn’t like it), and change the water often so it doesn’t mold.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[talesOfTybalt]

I was just going to back up @DanaNM’s point on the ACV in the water – Freya pees a LOT and the smell is quite strong even now but when she hit puberty the smell would be suffocating as I would try to sleep. It was suggested to me on here to try a bit of ACV in the water and it did help so might be worth a try!

[Borya02]

Hey guys, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see any replies to this until now. Sorry for my late reply. Will absolutely try this out. Thank you. Any other advice I am all ears.

[Borya02]

@talesOfTybalt – did your rabbit Freya seem put off by the water after you did this? I wonder how overpowering the taste is to them. How much did you put in? Just a few drops?

[talesOfTybalt]

Sorry I’ve only just seen this reply! Freya is a heavy water drinker so I don’t think she noticed the change. In a full bowl of water I’d do a few drops 🙂

Have you otherwise noticed it get any better or worse from the advice everyone else has given?

 

[Borya02]

Thanks so much for letting me know how much apple cider vinegar you used. I will try this immediately.

 

Unfortunately, no, nothing has helped. I bought some nose plugs. but it’s not feasible to wear them all the time. To make matters worse, she has decided to start peeing all over the place. Started with her grass mats, now in random corners, or if I let her out. It is only making the situation much worse. I don’t know how to get her to stop. If I give her a grass mat, she pees all over it within 2 days and I have to throw it away. I can’t give them anymore but now she is peeing in random places as well. She seems to seek out areas that are comfortable and pees on them. I had some gloves on the ground and she peed on them when I let her out to run and i had to throw them away.

[BZOO]

Perhaps have her checked for a bladder infection??

[Borya02]

yes, i am taking her to the vet this week, i was worrying about that too. i hope she is OK. wish i knew how better to handle this. 🙁

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