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Wee Tummy!

B

BeetleBabe

Young Bun
Hello,
We are having a problem with Mitis our netherland dwarf. Instead of going to the toilet, these days she is just weeing where ever she is and lying down in it?! So every day she is all matted up on here chest/stomach area with wee, which we are then having to deal with.

She has only started doing this the last couple of weeks - but everynight we get some to find she need a wash!

Im not that botherd that she isnt going in the tiolet area, but why must she lie in it?

Does anyone have any ieas as to why she is doing this or how we can stop it?

Im concerned that if nothing else it might ive her soars!!

Thanks
Victoria
 
They have seperate tiolet area in the cage with lots more shavings in. The rest of the cage has a fine layer of beding in with straw on top. We have put more shavings and that down recently to try and soak up this problem.

But its always been the same in the cage, nothing has changed in 2.5 years we have had her! (she never ben the best at goign to the loo, but she never used to lie in it!)
 
It's possible this is a sign that she's in pain, a couple of people on here have had similar problems I think. I'd get her checked out at the vet if I were you - even just to put your mind at rest.
 
The problem has occured since we changed to the new cage. It has a litter tray thing in the corner, which Evo uses fine, but she shuffles around a lot in the cage due to her legs, so i don't think she can pop herself in it ok. This in turn takes up the corner of the cage which used to be the toilet in the old cage, and I haven't been putting much shavings/cardboard mulch down on the floor as I was trying to encorage her to want to use the litter tray. She still shouldn't really be weeing in the area where she is lying - but I think I may have to remove the litter tray and just use the damp corner method they had in the old cage.
 
Sorry, she has a problem with her legs? I've probably missed the bit on that somewhere :) What causes that? Its possible she is not able to control her bladder and isn't making it to the tray. She could also have a bladder infection. It would be worth getting the vet just to check incase there is a medical reson behind it.

If thats all clear then cuting a section out of the side of the tray so she doesn't have to lift herself over the edge may help.

In the mean time you might want to trim the fur around the inside of her back legs and after cleaning (baby wipes work well for this) apply a thin layer of vasiline. This will protect the skin and prevent her getting urine scolds. You'll probably need to reclean her with the wipes and reapply a couple of times a day. If she gets sore then sudecream works well for this.

A good floor cover in this situation would be vetbed which is a sort of fluffy, fleecy, rug. Its designed deliberately to take any water (or urine) from the surface to underneath (where you can put a layer of litter or newspaper) this means the top where she is sitting always stays dry.

Hope that helps,
Tamsin
 
Violet was doing this recently and I thought she was marking her territory by deliberately missing her tray (as I didn't see her do it so didn't realise she was just going where she lay until the weekend), then she started to grind her teeth in pain and refused food. She has since been diagnosed, via x-ray with spondylosis ( http://www.hrschicago.org/rabbit3fr.html ) and possible arthritis.

Since being on the painkillers she has started moving around and using her litter tray again. So with Violet it was apparently causing her pain to jump into it (even though it has a cut out bit) so she went where she was.

Does Mitsi appear to be in pain?

There are other reasons for missing the litter tray - including bladder problems and uterine cancer (unspayed does). I should get her checked out by a vet as it sounds like it isn't territorial (usually they move away from the area after urinating if it is territorial).

Caz
 
I don't think she's in pain at all, she bombs round like a nutter, and leaps in and out of the high cage door no problem.

She is going over and weeing near the tray thing just not in it. I'll contact the maker of the cage and see if i can buy an extra tray and try cutting the front down and sanding it.

Vetbed has been on our shopping list for a while (they currently sleep on Hay), so I'll have to make sure we buy some.
 
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