Urine Scald Worries

[Deleted User]

As I’ve woed about before on here, Bombur takes all his hay from the hay rack and leaves the rack empty, then pees on the hay and sits in it, sometimes for hours until I get home. It is getting so bad lately that his butt is permanently wet, very matted, and smells atrocious. I’ve tried cleaning his butt with warm water, but that doesn’t seem to work. I can’t really cut the matting off myself because it is in such a delicate area near his genitals. I’ve sprayed his fur on his butt with animal safe odor blocking spray. Nothing is working. I’m absolutely panicked that he’s going to get urine scald if I can’t fix this. He’s still eating, peeing, pooping, drinking, and overall behaving normally. Could he actually have a UTI or something? Here’s an imgur link to what his butt fur looks like. He has a mop butt that absorbs literally every drop of water. https://imgur.com/JjLPneC

[sarahthegemini]

Bless him, that does look a bit messy. Have you thought about getting a vet to do a sanitary shave? Might be easier to manage til you can find a solution.

[Muchelle]

Poor silly thing A sanitary shave can be of help to avoid the build up of dirt, bacteria and stuff, but it’s important to understand why he’s persevering in this behaviour. I’m sorry I’m so tired and I can’t remember if he’s having other troubles at the moment or not, so can you please remind me what’s up with him? Is he using his litterbox normally otherwise?

I think the best plan would be vet -> shave -> examination for UTI -> at home management with regular checks of the area and drying off if he slacks in cleaning.

You could try to put the hay only in his litter box to see if he stays there. For example you could fill 1/4 of the box with hay and the rest with litter material and see what happens.

Sorry for rambling

[Deleted User]

He’s fine otherwise. He’s going through a rather large molt right now, but aside from that he’s fine. He still uses his litter box fine and the litter boxes outside of his cage just fine too. This has only been happening for about 2 weeks now. We’ve tried the hay in his litter box and he’ll sit and pee only on the hay, and then he’ll eat it. I was thinking about scheduling a shave for next week because it’s just getting so bad, and I don’t want him to get sick. My vet is only available on the weekends, and I just noticed how bad it was this morning when he came on my chest for cuddles. I was like oh lord you smell.

[Muchelle]

First of all, I’m glad there’s nothing wrong other than this issue!
An emergency sanitary shave can be done also by trained vet nurses, so if it’s very bad you could phone in and ask if there’s anyone able to do that while you wait for an appointment to check for the UTI examination.

Hmm… just had a wild thought, have you checked his paws for pododermatitis? Maybe he has some paw discomfort?

[Deleted User]

Yes actually! That was my biggest worry when this all started. There’s nothing I can see on his front or back paws, but he does get really thick tufts of fur on his back paws, so I feel like I can’t be too sure. I called my vet, and they were pretty concerned, as Bombur has had a slew of other issues in his 10 months on earth. I was able to get him in for this Tuesday. They’re going to run some tests and do a sanitary shave. The nurse did think a UTI is the most likely culprit. I just did a clean of his cage (again) and noticed that the urine is brownish in color, kinda like the color of root beer or cream soda. So thank goodness he’s getting in sooner.

[Muchelle]

Last question! Is he drinking consistently? If he has a bottle, is the dripper working correctly? (wild hypothesis, I know. I’ll be quiet ^__^” )

[Deleted User]

Muchelle: honestly anything helps so never stay quiet on my threads ?

I’ve actually noticed his been drinking a lot lately. About a month and a half ago we upgrade his water bowl to a rather large one, and for a few weeks now he drinks two bowls full a day. My other bun, Asriel, drinks a little less than a whole bowl. But Bombur drinks two of them a day which is probably about 2-2.5 cups. And this is fairly recent too.

I was actually thinking of switching him to a bottle though because there’s so much fur in his water dish from the molt. I have to clean it out twice a day because it’s so bad.

[Muchelle]

Omg I can’t stay quiet on this one please switch him asap. My bun had to have 3 emergency procedures cause he ingested water and hair from his bowl (+ he was licking himself a lot even if I groomed him). He’s on permanent bottle at all molt times right now. He was majorly unlucky so I’m by no means saying this has to happen, but know it can happen, sadly.

My thought was that maybe he wasn’t drinking enough and so he could be drinking his pee for that reason, but evidently that’s not it :/

[Deleted User]

I know exactly what you mean, and that’s what I’m terrified of! He’s already had Stasis once and enterotoxemia another time, which the doctor didn’t think he was going to live, but magically pulled through. So as you can see, I’m petrified of him and GI issues, and basically getting sick in general. He’s my problem child ? whereas Asriel has never been sick a day in his life. Weird how some bunnies are more prone to sickness despite how much we do to prevent it. Bombur used to have a water bottle, and I’ve been trying to find it amongst all my boxes. We moved a few months ago and we’re still finding surprises. Ha. But I’ve been digging all day, so hopefully I can find it.

I just hope it’s a routine UTI and nothing more serious like a bladder infection or some kind of tumor.

[Muchelle]

He’s the soul twin of my Kuro then, cause he’s seen more trouble in his 3 1/2 years of life than most buns, according to the vet. He even ended up on a published article about stomach surgery after miracle-recovering from the whole furball ordeal =__=

Yup, let’s hope for a simple UTI with no other stuff! (or maybe he just likes to drink his urine… we can’t kink shame!)

[Deleted User]

Hahaha yup twins! How’s he doing now?

Thanks for the advice and suggestions! I’ll keep this updated when I take him on Tuesday.

[Muchelle]

Saying this with my fingers crossed, holding my left boob and touching iron (yup, italian here, nothing to see), but he’s been alright after that! Even the little ear seems not to bother him! So I hope we can merrily hop along this road for a good 6 years more

Yup! Hopefully good news!

[Q8bunny]

WHAT??!!! ??? Muchelle, you kill me…

A&B Has he ever drunk from a bottle before? Because if not, you will need to show him how with a bit of banana smear or something

[Author]

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