Strange Behavior

[Nugget The Rex]

I adopted a 2 year old unspayed female rex rabbit back in July. I had litter box trained her myself but recently she has been having “accidents” all over the place. When she urinates, which now seems to be frequently, she is doing this strange thing where she starts trying to lick it up. I’m not talking about sniffing or a few licks, she furiously tries licking up her urine. If I try to get her to stop or put her in her litter box she just goes and does it again. 

Also, I am pretty sure the family I adopted her from rarely ever let her out of her cage except when they would bring her to the vet. Ever since I got her she has had problems with sore hocks. The fur under her back paws and now the tips of her front paws is pretty much gone. I had brought her to the vet a couple weeks ago and have been using some sort of medicine to soak her feet. She is constantly licking herself which does not help them heal. Her paws are very pink and I noticed today the bottom paws are bleeding. I am not sure what to do at this point. 

[Azerane]

Hi there

Changes in urine habits can be an indication of urinary tract infection, so it may be worth getting her checked out for that in case she requires antibiotics to clear it up. Otherwise it is quite unusual behaviour, peeing outside the box when previously trained isn’t uncommon with rabbits that aren’t spayed or neutered, but I’m not sure that’s the case here. Increase in frequency of pee can also be an indication of a health problem too. Has her water intake increased? Do you feed leafy greens? Do you provide water in a bottle or a bowl? If it’s a bottle, it may not be working properly so she’s only getting small amounts of fluid and so is drinking her urine to compensate. Try replacing it or offering water in a bowl if you don’t already.

In terms of her sore hocks, it’s very common with rex rabbits. What sort of flooring do you have in her cage? Wire, timber, carpet, fleece? Even carpet can be quite harsh on hocks as it is quite abrasive. I would recommend padding areas of her cage with folded fleece blankets, maybe even some vet bed if you can get a hold of some. Soft memory foam mats under fleece will also help to soften flooring.

Unfortunately her peeing on the floor and likely getting some on her hocks will not be helping her sores either and she may end up with urine scald, although at least she isn’t sitting in it long term

[Bam]

As Azerane is saying, this peeing outside the box/licking her pee could be a sign of illness. I’m thinking some reproductive tract disorder. The reason I suspect this, is that it’s very, very common in unspayed adult female rabbits. It’s basically a hormone-driven process. Uterine cancer is common in middle-aged unspayed does (3-4 years of age count as middle-aged here). Cancer doesn’t start “just like that though”, so what you are seeing now could be the start of the process. And that’s great, because having her spayed will resolve the problem.

ou might need to wrap her feet, this is done in a special way. Dana Krempel suggest this. http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sorehocks.html

You need to get her seen by a vet first though, since she has open wounds. Until that’s possible, you can use plain neosporin cream, not the type that has a pain killer, just the plain one. Memory foam is good for sore hocks. Diaper rash cream can be used to soften and soothe.

[Nugget The Rex]

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Azerane, 

Thank-you for your response! To answer your follow up questions:

• Yes, she seems to be drinking her water ALL the time now (as well as licking up her urine..)
• Yes, I feed her dark leafy greens twice a day (usually collard greens)
• She has both bottles and bowls to drink from (I had to buy the kind of bowl that attaches to things since she would constantly knock over the others I put out for her)
• When I first brought her home I was using the shredded paper bedding in her cage (she has a two tier cage with, I believe, plastic trays on the bottoms that can be taken out to clean) but soon after changed to pee pads because it is much easier to clean up and less messy (I would love to put fleece blankets in her cage and on the wood flooring of my house but she chews holes through them and has recently been urinating on everything) My bedroom flooring at home and at school is carpeted and she has a little plush pet house she likes to lay in 

I am not going to lie..I am a bit of a neat freak so I tend to clean her cage multiple times a day (although I do leave some of her droppings because of the whole territorial thing) but I agree urine scalding and the excessive licking is not helping her poor feet to heal 

[Nugget The Rex]

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Bam, 

Thank-you for your response. I was afraid I would be told that. I had wanted to get her spayed when I first got her but the first vet I took her to was strongly against it because she was very overweight at the time and he felt the risk of surgery was too much. I took her to another vet not too long ago and they told me the opposite that although she is still a bit overweight (she has lost at least 5 pounds since I adopted her) and there are much higher risks for putting rabbits under she still wants me to go back to get Nugget spayed.

Unfortunately though I do not have the funds at the moment to get her spayed. May I ask what normal spay costs are? I realize reputable and cautious vets will charge more but I was still surprised when the vet I went to gave me an estimate of around $600 to get Nugget fixed. 

Thank-you for your suggestions. I will try calling the vet later today to see what they have to say about her urinating and sore hocks.

[Azerane]

Hmm, then not a water intake issue at all. Bam’s concerns are good ones, I would be looking for that and/or infection.

In terms of her sore hocks, I think changing or adding to her bedding may be beneficial. Pee pads don’t have a great deal of cushioning. I would add other bedding options for her in the cage, even if she pees on the different bedding and you need to clean it frequently, hock sores can become very serious and it’s better to get on top of them. So maybe fold up a fleece blanket in one corner as a resting spot, or even get a soft mat for underneath the pee pads. If you can get vet bed, that can be really beneficial as it’s designed for the pee to soak through so that the animals using it don’t get wet sitting on it. You might be able to use pee pads underneath the vet bed.

A normal spay should not cost $600. I think my vet charges $200 for spays, and $150 for neuters. Anything in the range of about $150-$300 is pretty normal I believe, but I wouldn’t pay $600. I would ring around for cost estimates and to ask questions to check which vets are rabbit savvy.

[Nugget The Rex]

I am trying to upload a picture of her urine (today it has been discolored in some spots) but it is saying “The maximum file size allowed is 500 kb” no matter how many times i resize it 

[Nugget The Rex]

I have been having to put her in her cage at night now, to stop her from peeing all over my carpeted floor at school. She is keeping me up by the constant licking. Has anyone else had problems with this?

[Nugget The Rex]

I took Nugget to the vet last Friday and she had to have a few different medical exams done as well as have blood drawn. She has been put on antibiotics and painkillers for her sore hocks. She hadn’t been eating much and ended up losing too much weight so I had been instructed to feed her mushy food packets through a syringe to get her weight back up. Although her mood has seemed to improve she is still smelly urinating all over the place and licking her paws to the point of them bleeding. The vet seemed to know what he was doing but now I am not so sure. The blood results came back and he said everything seems normal. I have already had to ask my parents for help in paying over $300 for the visit last week. The vet wants me to take Nugget back in again on Friday. He said something over the phone about laser surgery for her paws.. That doesn’t sound too comforting. Suggestions?

[Gwennie and the Buffster]

$600 for a spay? Is there anyone in your area who does it for cheaper? Some shelters around here offer discounted rates for low income pet owners (around $100 for any alteration) as an animal care incentive, but I’m not sure if that’s the case worldwide…

I’m sorry you’re in this situation; it sounds like a nightmare. The strong smelling urine sounds like an infection to me, but I’m no expert, and if the blood results came back normal, that seems unlikely. I know it might be difficult financially for you right now, but I’d consider getting a second opinion from another rabbit savvy vet. If your vet is charging $600 for a spay, that’s a bit of a red flag for me to be honest. I’d hate for you to be seeing a vet who’s more interested in making you pay for tests than helping your rabbit. This isn’t the case with 99% of vets of course, but one of my friends did once work as a nurse for a clinic where the vets would laugh about overcharging for unnecessary tests when they were out of client’s earshot. I want to make absolutely clear that this is the ONLY case in which I’ve EVER heard of this happening, and the place where she worked was eventually shut down, so if your vet is known to be reputable, absolutely disregard what I’m saying! The last thing I want is to scare you out of doing anything that needs to be done for Nugget. I would still get a second opinion though. Fresh eyes might notice something that your regular vet didn’t.

Kia Kaha <3

[honeybunnym]

Hi there,

I’m sorry that Nugget is having such a hard time!

I just wanted to make a small suggestion about the spaying. I have run into the same issue in my area. I called multiple vets, and they all informed me that only one place in my area will work with rabbits. I called and they wanted 450 for each neuter. I have two buns to neuter, so that would be a 900 dollar fee, which I cannot pay. So I went online and looked for low-cost spay and neuter.
There were none in my town, but a humane alliance 20 min away spays and neuters rabbits for 50 dollars. They will help anyone in the county, and they did not ask anything about our income.They also provide services afterward for a highly reduced fee if something goes wrong with the neuter. I do have to wait 2 weeks for my appointments, since they fill up so fast. They did say that this is normal turnaround for a humane society, so keep in mind you may have to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment if you use a low-cost service.
I really hope Nugget gets better soon!

[Nugget The Rex]

Took Nugget to another vet appointment earlier today. They weighed her again and did some more tests including taking a urine sample. She has lost a significant amount of weight even though I have been feeding her much more. The vet is concerned she may have pyometra.. Test results will hopefully be in within the next couple of days. Things aren’t looking too great at the moment but we’re keeping our heads up and will continue spending precious time together <3

[Bam]

If there are rabbit shelters/rescues in your area you could ask who does their spays. They could perhaps know of places less pricey than 600 dollars.

Could they have meant cold laser treatment for her feet? Cold laser can help wounds heal. It’s not surgery.

[Author]

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