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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Bunny suddenly smells and digs

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    • charlie
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        I’ve have had my bunny since last February or March, she is about 4 years old and unspayed. For the past few weeks, she has smelled absolutely disgusting. Even a few minutes after I’ve changed her litter (yesterday’s news) I can smell her. I have never had a problem with smelling her before and I used tomb able to go close to a week before changing her litter and still not smell her. I changed her food about a month ago that is the only thing that has changed. Also for the past few weeks she has been digging her litter box. My apartment is tiny so I have always slept with earplugs so she doesn’t keep me up at night but this is so loud nothing can tune it out. She doesn’t knock very much of it out of the litter box but just shovels it around making a lot of noise. She does it EVERY MORNING AND AND EVERY NIGHT. I can’t sleep. It only started a few weeks ago and before that had never done it before. It is not because she thinks her litter needs to be changed because she will do this moments after I’ve changed it as well as a few days after I’ve changed it. It’s non stop. Please help. I’ve gotten to the point where I won’t have anyone over because she smells so bad and I am exhausted from her making so much noise.


      • Bam
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          I think you need to take her to a vet, the smell suggests an infection. If she’s unspayed, I’d suspect something to do with the uterus/reproductive system. Possibly pyometra, which means there’s pus in the uterus that can leak out and has a disgusting odour. The digging may very well be her way of dealing with pain.


        • LittlePuffyTail
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            Ditto Bam. Vet ASAP.


          • charlie
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              Just booked appointment. Is there any possibility and the food change could have caused the smell? Cause I really don’t think she’s in any pain. Apart from digging for 45mins to and hour every evening and morning her behaviour hasn’t changed. Still eating and drinking as usual still running around as usual still knockin over my things and being a pain in general lol. She can’t be seen until next Monday as we only have one vet in my city that sees rabbits.


            • LittlePuffyTail
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                I’m glad you made an appointment. Being prey animals, bunnies are very good at hiding their pain. Bunnies can be in tremendous amounts of pain (broken bones, cancer, etc) and still be eating normally.

                Let us know what the vet says.


              • charlie
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                  The vet just called, they had a cancelation so I’m ditching studying for my midterm to have franklin looked at today instead of next Monday.


                • BB & Tiny
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                    I have often wondered about this. Josephine’s urine reeks compared to BB’s, it has since day one we brought her home. She doesn’t dig though, only occasionally at the blanket on the couch.

                    I will ask the vet when I take her to have her nails trimmed.

                    Best wishes on your visit !


                  • Bam
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                      Best wishes on your visit from me too! We’d very much appreciate a report.

                      BunLuv, digging is a natural bunny behavior and some bunnies dig a lot, others not. With charlie’s bunny, it’s not so much the digging per se that’s worrying but the change in behavior to a frantic digging in combo with a strong, disgusting smell that’s also new.


                    • charlie
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                        I wouldn’t call it a frantic digging, more like just shovelling her litter around making noise… So I had franklin at the vet today and they didn’t say anything about her uterus but took a urine sample and sent it off for urinalysis. She’s not concerned and is leaning more towards the possibility of it being hormones but I don’t know why she would be havin hormonal changes seeing as I don’t have any other rabbits. I’ve been waiting till I have the time and money to spay her so we’ll see if that has an effect if it is hormones.


                      • vanessa
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                          Bunnies sometimes show their pain and stress by overdoing what they would normally do. Excess, digging, drinking, scratching, chewing, etc. They take their normal behavior, and channel their frustration over being in pain – into it. Spay surgeries can sure be expensive. My local vet would have charged $450. I called around and found a clinic 90 minutes away that charged $50. Try calling around for a low-cost spay clinic. Your local house rabbit society may be able to advise you on your spay options. She may be hormonal and going through a false pregnancy? My female Guin had smelly urine and dug ferociously until I had her spayed. It doens’t always take the presence of other rabbits to prompt a hormone change. Sometimes the body just does what the body does. I’m really interested to hear what the vet said about the urinalysis.


                        • vanessa
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                            P.S. I have 4 bunnies – there is no way I was going to pay $450 per bun. I paid $50 for the neuter surgeries, and $75 for the spay.


                          • charlie
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                              Urinalysis came back today and everything is fine, Franklin’s a very healthy lady. The vet thinks it is either due to a hormonal change or the food change. I’m more inclined to think it was the food as nothing has changed around here to give her any hormone swings. I’m going to switch back to her old food and see how it goes, if nothing changes I’ll assume it’s hormones, saving for a spay anyway. This came out of a comment from another forum “Rabbit digestion is primarily dependent on moving large quantities of low-value food. When they receive to much high value food it disrupts everything. The natural balance of bacteria in the cecum is changed, they stop eating their cecotropes, the cecotropes are not the same as the normal rabbit droppings, they are sticky and yucky. Cecotropes that fueled by high value foods are pretty much everything you describe in your question.” Sounds reasonable to me. The vet thinks she’s screwing around with her litter cause she hates the smell as much as I do so for now I’m spending double or triple on litter until we hopefully get over this phase.


                            • BB & Tiny
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                                Well that is good news !

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                            Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Bunny suddenly smells and digs