Peeing outside of litter box and dirty butt

[Kristen]

I have a female Holland lop who has been very good about peeing in her litter box in the past. A few months ago, I put a cardboard box in her hutch and made them kind of like another place to hide and something for her to chew on. I had to stop doing that after a few months because she wouldn’t stop peeing in them. But now, she keeps peeing in that same place and I noticed the other night how dirty her butt and bottom are. I typically don’t pick her up because she hates it so much. I tried putting another litter box in the place she keeps peeing and she threw all of the litter out of it. I tried cleaning her butt with a wet paper towel and combing the area well but that didn’t seem to help much. So two questions, how do I keep her from peeing anywhere other than her litter box or how do I clean her?

[mimimomo]

This same situation literally just happened to me! Complete with female Holland lop who used to have good litter box habits

 By the time I checked her butt, my bunny had little mats and tangles all around her butt and on her back feet. I didn’t feel comfortable trying to cut them out myself and wasn’t sure if a shave would be necessary, so I took her to the vet. They clipped out a few mats but wanted to avoid shaving her because having fur protects against urine scald. They suggested I brush her butt regularly to prevent it from getting worse and encourage the remaining mats to grow out. It’s slowly working, but you can imagine how much she likes that…

As far as getting her to go in her litter box again, I don’t have a ton of suggestions. I do know that my bunnies tend to pee on the cage floor when the litter box and/or cage is dirty, so I’ve been trying to keep everything cleaner than usual and that’s been helping some. But in the meantime, I’ve been lining their cage with a towel – it absorbs the liquid so no one can sit in a pee puddle The towel has helped a lot, since Mimi’s butt doesn’t get wet anymore. It’s still a little yellow, but she doesn’t seem to mind and as her fur grows out it should slowly be replaced by clean fur.

Good luck!

[Author]

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