Urinary incontinence when pooping

[Adam]

My spayed 5.5 year old american rabbit Snuggles has been suffering from this for a month or two now. Not constant, but frequent. I will find small amounts of urine in various places, most of the time accompanied by poop, sometimes firmer, sometimes very loose.  I have to clean her bottom often, and today a couple spots were very dark, like almost black.

She otherwise behaves normally. For a while I probably fed her too many vegetables with what’s considered high calcium, but it had never been a problem for the entire time I’ve had her.

I’ve read what there is online about incontinence causes and such, but I’m hoping someone can tell me what it likely is based on this info and any other requested. My vet won’t enforce masks and so I feel it’s not safe there for me or for the bunny (high case rate here and rising).

I’ve cut back for a few days the amount of non-hay food in general (which besides veggies was pretty sparse), restricted the chewing log, and lowered veggie intake. I don’t know if it just takes time or what. But I’m worried. Someone give me some advice or help, please :/

[Bam]

Urinary incontinence can be due to a UTI. I think that would be the most common cause. Another possible cause is e cuniculi which can affect the kidneys, but it generally manifests as more ample amounts of urine (puddles).

The loose dark stools in combo with a bit of incontinence makes me think of gastric irritation/ulceration. There could however be other reasons, such as a diet too low in fiber. Its very good that she gets more hay now, but it can take quite some time (weeks) for the tummy to adjust to more fibre. You should weigh her to ensure she doesn’t lose weight, which can happen when a bun is shifted on to a more hay based diet, before the microorganisms in the gut have adjusted so the nutrients in the hay can be absorbed by the body (this is what bunny gut microbes do, convert cellulose to starch, for example). Rapid weight loss is harmful for a bunny’s liver and must be prevented.

Many vets now will not allow humans to accompany the animals into the clinic, but send someone out to collect the bun in its carrier from the parking lot, in order to keep everybody as safe as possible.

[Adam]

She always got a lot of hay, but I’m hoping to improve the ratio to veg. And the last hay we had was this weird stringy stuff, that I don’t know if it was 3rd cut or something, no florets or flowers or anything, just stringy and thin and really flexible and tangled such that it made a huge mess as the buns pulled it from the bowl or hay feeder. I fear that whatever that stuff was was not good for her either.

She might be overweight, the vet said she could feel her bones so she didn’t think it was an issue, but imo she’s a bit on the plump side. I will watch her weight.

She has had at least symptoms of UTI several times, but usually it is accompanied by a short bout of stasis. Treated for it once. Treated for stasis after her first husbun died as well. In case that helps. I think maybe she’s prone to it, maybe due to weight, maybe due to mega colon or just other genetics. I try to keep her environment and litter clean.

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