Peeing

[BH90]

I have two dwarf lops; both 7 years old and have been house trained from babies. They live outside in the garden during the summer and come into the house in the winter. When we lived in a flat; they were house rabbits.

The cage is opened every night for them to have the run of the house which they love. Other than the odd poop; there’s never been any issue.

One of my girls has recently had a deep ulcer on her eye and has gone through quite traumatic trips to the vets as they debride it. This has been going on since end of November.

In the last fortnight, she has taken to getting out of her cage, and peeing on the floor. Not spraying, a full pee and pooing.

I’m at a complete loss as to what to do! This has never been an issue before and I don’t know what would be causing it. She is obviously happy to pee in the cage as she in there for 21 hours of the day! How can I get her back to peeing in her cage again!? 

Both have been neutered. Help! This is so frustrating!!

[Suduko]

Hay ther BH90!

It sounds like your bunny is saying this my territory. Spayed and neutered rabbits will leave a mountain of cocoa puffs or pee on the floor to get their message across. Sounds like you need to retrain her.

What you can to retrain her is, try is setting up a pen or get some storage cubes to make a pen and place her litter box inside the pen. If your getting her a new litter box to put outside her cage, take some of her poop and place in the new box. Getting a large litter to put outside her cage may help the issue.

As you notice her litter box habits have improved, you can expand the pen further and move her litter box in that direction where the pen has expanded. With time this may retrain her and stop the behavior.

I hope I’ve helped you.

Sue

[Suduko]

I did forget to mention, have a hay rack where you place the litter box or place hay side the litter box. That may her tempt her to go inside of it and to her business.

Good luck

[Asriel and Bombur]

If she’s never had any issues before at 7 years old I don’t think its behavioral. I’d have the vet take a look at her. Often times when buns go to the bathroom outside of their litter box, there’s usually an underlying issue.

[Bam]

i think this is somehow connected to the eye ulcer, and I’d ask the vet about it the next time you go. They could do blood tests to see if there’s something else going on. If you get the all clear from the vet, retraining will be the thing to try. But as A&B says, she’s a 7 year old bun, and any any “dramatic” change in behavior in a but that age is an observandum.

How is her eye doing?

[Suduko]

You’re absolutely right.

Bunnies with illnesses will do their business outside their box. Bunny parents who aware of a previous or a reoccurring issue with their pet will make a appointment with their vet.  So I made the assumption that this is being look after.

When my bunny was sick with abscesses what I explained was a trick that I did. 

[Bam]

Sudoku, I think you gave good advice. All the things you mention could be of help. It won’t hurt to try and encourage her and make it easier for her to get her good litterbox habits back. Serving hay within reach from the litterbox can really encourage a bun to do their business in the box, I see that with my bun Vilde who wasn’t fully littertrained when I got him.

I did notice with my bun Bam that when he had a bit of gas/ a tummy upset (he was prone to intermittent soft cecotropes), he could pee outside of the box. It didn’t happen often, and it always resolved itself when his tummy was back in shape again.

So this could perhaps be due to discomfort from the eye ulcer, or something else could be going on. Rabbits are so good at hiding pain and illness that us hooms must be super-observant.

Bh90, if your bun has been to the vet several times for the eye ulcer, they must know her pretty well. I think you could call them with your concerns. It could be about something as trivial as inadequate pain relief.

Iwould also start to weigh her regularly and write down her weight. Unexplained weight loss can be an important clue to a bun’s health and because of the natural fluffiness of a rabbit, weight loss is not easy to see with the naked eye unless it’s dramatic. I weigh my bun once a week in a bowl on normal digital kitchen scales and write his weight in my wall calendar.

[Suduko]

Thanks Bam.

This all takes me back in time. When my bunnies had illnesses. I would fuss over them even more and had some sleepless nights.

A male of mine had GI stasis due to an underlying condition. He was just a little guy and a fighter. I would hold him properly when it came to syringe feeding time but for a ill little bunny he was strong. Most of the time the critical care was all over me.?

[bunnybunnycatcat]

I’ve definitely had that with my buns and is usually one of the first signs of illness – especially if they pee outside their litter box and get it on themselves and don’t clean it up off their hind legs. Urine scalding can be painful…

Because my buns hide their illnesses so well, I feel like any sign of uncleanliness (which is very much unlike a rabbit) raises alarm bells. If they’re in pain or discomfort, making their way to the litterbox, or moving at all, is a last priority.

Either that or there’s the presence of another animal they want to mark their territory from.

[Author]

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