Rabbit pee & poo everywhere!

My rabbit is 4 years old and she was spayed at 7 months old. She has always been perfectly litter trained and never done a drop outwith her tray.

In January this year she had a knock to the head which caused her to lose her balance; she couldn't walk for a week and would eat/drink very little. In this time she was staying at the vets. By the end of the week they said that if she was going to get better then she would do so at home. Within a week of being at home she seemed back to her old self, running around, eating etc.

Unfortunately, since then, she appears to have lost all control of her water works! She drops poo with every step and pees when she hops around. She does go in her litter tray but it seems pointless when she has just peed/pood all over the flat!

I initially took her to the vet who asked for a urine sample which I then provided. They advised that they had the results but didn't know what they meant as they are not familiar with rabbits, treating mainly cats and dogs - thanks for the heads up on that when i registered her there then!! They said they'd look into it and call me back.

8 weeks later i took her to a different vet as the problem is, if anything, getting worse. He has said that there are crystals in her urine so gave me baytril to inject for 5 days. Today is day 4 of the injections and she is peeing everywhere, more than usual!

Have any of you experienced similar with your rabbits? If so, what did you do/ what do you recommend I do?

Thanks!

Maybe have a word with the vets who hospitalised her after her shock on the head.. because it is great luck that she survived without damages.. and perhaps the fact that she - since that shock - pees and poos everywhere, may have a neurologic origin following her trauma.. but isfshe does not suffer or anything, and if this is because of the knock just leave her live her life, there is nothing you can do...

The vet that treated her after her head knock are the ones who then said that they don't know what the urine sample of a rabbit should be as they mainly treat dogs/cats. After several calls for an update I've given up on them and have gone to another vet.

ah ok, so if you have now got a savvy vet specialist in rabbits, just explain him what happened so he may make some tests, x-ray of the skull etc.. or at least give a medical advice on what he thinks, because to me it may be related to her knock on the dead and really she comes from far away as she could have had an AVC (Vascular Cerebral Accident) as well which is quite common in rabbits and may lead to disfunctioning of any organs...

when my bridge bun Goofball came back from the bone cancer surgery, same thing happened. She did have accident around the house.

So to deal w/ the problem, every 2 hr., I take her to her usual spot to pee, and most of them she'll do her business. So I took her of most of the problem w/ only a few rare occasional clean up for a 1 yr. period.

It sounds like it's partly neurological to me, poor little bun. If she's completely incontinent trying to litter train her will be pointless as she has no control over it.

The vet may be able to help with the urine crystals, a change of diet with less calcium will help a bit, and a course of antibiotics to clear up any infection that may be there.

That may help a bit but she may have permanent problems due to the blow to the head. This may be something you'll learn to live with, though it's not easy I know. Is she a housebun or an outdoor bun? If a housebun restricting her to a playpen will at least contain the area where she has accidents, that may help you a bit.

Good luck!

I would suggest that your Rabbit may benefit from a 28 day course of Fenbendazole (Panacur/Lapizole)
Whilst the recent problems may be a result of the head injury I would want to cover all bases and treat for Encephalitozoon Cuniculi (EC).

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/info-sheets/ecuniculi.htm

Did you actually witness the accident or did you just find her in a collapsed state? If the latter then what made the Vet diagnose an injury rather than a possible case of EC?

Has your Rabbit had any anti-inflammatory meds eg Metacam?
Was a blood profile taken?
Is she maintaining her weight?
Is she drinking alot?
Does she have any hind leg weakness?

In answer to the first question, she's a house bunny ... a very spoiled one at that!

She used to sleep under my bed where there are also some storage boxes. In the middle of the night, something startled her and she ran into one of the boxes. I woke with the noise it made and picked her up and cuddled her till i fell back asleep and in the morning she was fine, nothing out of the ordinary. When I came home from work that day she was under the bed and wasn't coming out when I called on her which she usually aways does if she's not meeting me at the door already. I left her a while thinking she was just sleeping but after an hour of her still not coming through i went under the bed and she tried to come to me but when she walked she just fell on to her face as if her left legs didn't work at all. Took her to the vet and thats when they kept her in for a few days. They didn't say what was actually wrong with her or if the knock had caused anything, they just said she'll recover at home. They gave me zantac syrup (0.5ml x2 per day) and Baytril (0.5ml x2 per day) to get her stomach working again as she'd stopped going to the toilet.

Cormat said:

In answer to the first question, she's a house bunny ... a very spoiled one at that!

Click to expand...

That's the answer I was hoping for!! Lucky bun.

I would advise the same med as jane because EC can cause this but i think it could be caused with her head being hurt . Did you see her hit her head ?