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Having some difficulties

uniqueanneek

Alpha Buck
I haven't posted on the forum for a while as recently my life has changed quite a lot. Some of you may recall that i back in July my boyfriend and I split, and as we lived together this meant a big change in more ways than one.

Since then I temporarily moved back to my parents after finishing uni, and took Rocky with me. Being a free range indoor bun he had to sleep in my room with me as it wasn't possible to give him his own room (and they had dogs). Since then I have moved into a new flat where I rent a room. My flatmate was happy for me to bring Rocky with me on the basis that he lived in my room.

So this is what I've been doing. It's been ok when he's free range he's not a problem. However, some of you may remember that he has kidney cysts and suffers from infections every few weeks, making him temporarily incontinent. It is starting to prove very difficult to look after him, as he's free range in my bedroom (not good for the incontinence), I end up having to shut him in his cage when his cysts flare up both at night and when I'm at work so that he doesn't wee all over the carpet and my bed. But I feel awful about doing that because he's such a good bun,, and used to his freedom, and normally litter trained. It has also meant that he chews on the bars and I have had to start sleeping with ear plugs.

I have tried so hard to be able to keep him, but recently I think my flat mate (who owns the flat) is starting to get concerned about his carpets (not that Rocky is flooding them mind), but he is happy having him other than that.

On top of this there is the fact that I worry he is a bit lonely as I work 7 days a week now (doing two jobs) - not like when I was a student and he was used to having me around a lot.

I hate typing this, but a part of me is wondering if it would be more fair to him if I rehomed him? I really don't want to, especially as he has his cyst condition - I would worry frantically about him and not know how he was being looked after. I think possibly fostering would be an option, as he would still be mine.

I just need some advice and what everyone thinks the best way for me to deal with this is - any better home setup situations? He really only can live in my room (when I first got him i lived in my own flat and he had his own room and run of the house when we were home). It really upsets me that things out of my control have put me in this situation.

thanks for reading guys :(
 
how much room do you have in your room? Is there any where that you could pen off for him? Could you lay down some lino for him to be on when he's having one of his episodes? A 4ft dog crete with multiple levels in it or possibly two wired together would be a better solution than a cage as it would give him more room. Could he go in the kitchen which normally has hard floors?
 
how much room do you have in your room? Is there any where that you could pen off for him? Could you lay down some lino for him to be on when he's having one of his episodes?

It's not huge, his cage seems to take up quite a bit of space, but luckily I don't have much stuff with me. If i was to pen off a section, it still wouldn't be as big as I'd like him to have if he was to be in it most of the time. He currently has lino in his cage when he has an episode, but because he can't control his urinating he ends up doing it next to his hayrack etc and then sitting in it whilst he eats, which isn't good when I'm at work. It also means that I have to make sure his fur and everything is clean.

ETA no, unfortunately the kitchen is very small, it wouldn't be possible to put him in there.
 
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Although it's not the life he's used to, I think it's a much better life than he would have if you were to rehome him.
As you've said, you know best how to deal with his condition.
 
I don't think rehoming him is the answer. There are so many rabbits needing homes as you already know, if it just means that he has to have less space than he is used to, I would think this is better than rehoming him...especially as he also has medical issues. Have you considered a nic cube cage? That way you can build upwards if you don't have so much floor space. You can use lino as the base.
 
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