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MissBinky

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Right now, I am facing having to rehome Annabel any day. I have been pushing it off for a long time now but I'm at a point where I just can't any more.

As many of you know, I had to rehome my other bunnies a few months ago due to my severe allergies which were causing health problems. I rehomed them all with the exception of Annabel, in the hopes that having only one would allow me to control my allergies enough to be able to keep her until we move.

Now the problem is, my allergies are severe enough that I cannot go for the shots or anything like that. I am taking multiple meds for them and I am on strong asthma meds and I have prednisone on me at all times to try and control my attacks. Things were going ok at the begining but now we're back to where we started...

Annabel Smells.Horrendous.:grumpy:I clean out the cage daily but before I can get to the next cleaning, the smell of ammonia is terrible. She constantly has soft poop and she's recently started getting bouts of diarrhea. I have taken her to the vets and they found nothing and was told it was a dietary issue. I have removed all fresh foods for a time to see if it changed anything and it didn't though it lessened the problem. So basically, the pellet is a problem. However, I am unable to get anything else at this point because i cannot order online. The choices in the pet shops here are horrible and the current pellet is the best I've found so far :?

Basically, I know that that is the source. But would anyone have any tips, tricks, ideas, etc. that might help contain, mask, the odour or something? I cannot keep control of the allergies and asthma anymore :?If I can't do it soon I will have no other choice but to rehome her :cry1:
 
I believe someone uses a drop of vanilla in the water to help with the urine smell.

Did they do a fecal test on her to rule out any problems like coccidia? Also, is worms a possibility? They don't always show up. Also, do you have bene-bac there? If she is not getting enough fibre or something, maybe that might help her gut cope with it? Can you cut out some of the pellets and give her more hay?

I use non clumping cat wood pellet litter and thats great for the urine smell.

Sorry if thats of no help, but I just thought I would suggest them in case they did help.
 
Yep, we had the fecal done. I was sure they'd find something but nothing :(Well I guess in a way it's a good thing, but was hoping for something easy to treat if you know what I mean. :?Vet said it wasn't worms because I asked.I don't remember the reasoning for it really, I was just so discouraged at that point.

I've been doing the vanilla thing but this is happening even with the vanilla :(

Yep, I've had the bene-bac (though it's called something else) and it's done nothing for her. It does help when she has bouts of diarrhea but it hasn't really helped with anything else honestly.

As for thecat litter,the less cat litter I have in the house, the better as I am really allergic. For the cats, it's much easier cause I can line it with a bag, grab the bag, replace itand voila. :?

Thanks Flashy, your ideas are good ones, they just haven't beenworking in this situation :(


 
No that's cool, I figured you might have tried all the obvious things.

Is there anyone that can order feed for you and then either order it to your house or order it to their house and ship it on to you?

I have a feeling Randy might have some interesting ideas to weigh in on this one. I know EC can give a strong smelling urine smell when the spores are shedding.

I'm also inclined to wonder if it is worth worming her anyway? Any chance she is eating something in your house somewhere that could be bothering her? Like when she is on free time?
 
No, she's not eating anything that she's not supposed to. The food change probably really upset her and I've been trying my best to resolve it but it's just been crazy. Doing all that with the feed is pretty pointless right now because we are moving and my worry is that if we move, that food won't be available in Greece anyway so we'll be back where we started. And even if I keep her outside, I don't want her smelling like that as she'd attract so many flies, etc. and even outside I couldn't keep control my asthma enough with the way things are right now. It also doesn't help that she isn't spayed and I suspect that she is spraying which is most likely adding on to the problem. The thing is right now, my allergies are so bad that Mario isn't really for the idea of putting so much money on a pet that I won't get to keep in the end. :(I'm trying to figure some way to figure it out so that it's not like this but I don't even know what I should be doing anymore myself.

Anyway, sorry for my babbling
 
Have you cleaned her scent glands? Could you get some good food sent from Greece for her? Could Mario's family help?

I would be inclined to think spaying might help, also, although the gut problem would remain unless you can get that sorted.

I hope someone has some ideas that you haven't tried, that you can use :)
 
Her scent glands are clean so it's not that though I wish it had been that simple. Gah :?

I had thought of the food being sent from Greece but since we don't know where we'll be, and we're mostly looking into the islands (he doesn't know anyone from there) it doesn't really work out because the pet shops are smaller and not everything is available. I had wanted to check what was available there first instead of asking his parents right away so if we could avoid the trouble with the feed we would. The other thing is Mario suspects that Annabel would be facing quarantine laws because the pet passport would be different for her and we both agreed that if that were true then we wouldn't take her. So I guess that has put him off wanting to put any moremoney on her (we do take her to the vets when she needs but I mean for the future stuff).
 
I don't know what your living situation is like, but have you thought about setting her up in a nice little shed outside? For one rabbit, it wouldn't have to be large, and you could insulate it and everything. It would be like her having her own house, and you could go out and play with her, and then not have to worry about the allergens in the house.
 
Oh I definitely thought of it. I certainly would if I could! That was the plan actually, to keep her until we moved and hopefully we'd be able to put her outside. However, here we are in the basement of a duplex and no access to the yard at all. I have an emergency exit but it's way too small and way too dark so it doesn't work. :(
 
What are you using for her litter pan? Do you use something like woody pet or equine fresh which will soak up not only the urine but the odor?

I wish I had more suggestions...and are you sure its her and not the combination of her and the urine, etc. from the kitty you're fostering? In other words - did you have the problem before you were fostering?


 
I'm using Yesterday's News which is the only litter I can use. (Ok, with the exception of Care Fresh but it's just more expensive.) Anything made withwood will send me directly to the hospital at this point. I thought of putting baking soda with the Yesterday's News but I didn't know if that could cause problems and if that wouldn't just make a whole other mess?

As for the problem, nah, Annabel's always been a smelly bunny. She's always smelled more than the others because she'll sleep in her litterpan or dig it up or play in her pee, pee in her bowls, etc etc. The kitten is in a completely separate and closed off area so there is no link between the him and the problem. I've been trying for the longest time to deal with Annabel's messy habits. Lol. I've have to mesh up the entire outer bottom of the condo because she'd send her poops and food flying everywhere. But ok, at least that wasn't setting off attacks. This is just something I really don't know how to deal with anymore. I've tried different types of flooring, tried putting mesh/plastic over her litterpan, etc. and nothing helps. :?

She always was a munster :p
 
MissBinky wrote:
I'm using Yesterday's News which is the only litter I can use. (Ok, with the exception of Care Fresh but it's just more expensive.) Anything made withwood will send me directly to the hospital at this point. I thought of putting baking soda with the Yesterday's News but I didn't know if that could cause problems and if that wouldn't just make a whole other mess?

As for the problem, nah, Annabel's always been a smelly bunny. She's always smelled more than the others because she'll sleep in her litterpan or dig it up or play in her pee, pee in her bowls, etc etc. The kitten is in a completely separate and closed off area so there is no link between the him and the problem. I've been trying for the longest time to deal with Annabel's messy habits. Lol. I've have to mesh up the entire outer bottom of the condo because she'd send her poops and food flying everywhere. But ok, at least that wasn't setting off attacks. This is just something I really don't know how to deal with anymore. I've tried different types of flooring, tried putting mesh/plastic over her litterpan, etc. and nothing helps. :?

She always was a munster :p
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I have just read through this thread and all the wonderful suggestions have seemed to you to not be enough to remedy the situation.
My gut feeling is that you don't plan on taking her no matter what is suggested for probably good reason, however maybe you should focus on rehoming her rather than asking for more suggestions.

I think that your mind is already made up
 
If I were like that, I'd have rehomed her. I wouldn't have even bothered to ask anyone for their opinions as I wouldn't even have cared for it and I certainly wouldn't have asked for advice to remedy a situation that i wasn't looking to remedy.

But since you seem to have decided for me what it is that I want then why the hell not. I don't see why I bother trying with this stupid place anymore.


The ideas were never said to be not good enough. They were excellent ideas. Only problem is they were all tried and nothing has worked so far. This thread was to try and get NEWER ideas, things I hadn't thought of, things I didn't know of. YOU KNOW, MANY PEOPLE' MANY EXPERIENCES, MANY IDEAS, LETS HELP EACH OTHER OUT INSTEAD OF MAKE PEOPLE FEEL LIKE **** TYPE OF THING.
 
AngieLuv I can't understand you saying something like that :shock: If you had read me and Sophie's conversation on MSN i knwo you would think differnlty. Sophie is not like that. SHe is heartbroken having to give up yet another bun for something that is not her fault.

She would keep her for the world, but it is affectiting her health. There is nothing else she can do.


 
O geez.. this has to be hard. You said she sits in her crocks and pans? This may or may not work. I had a friend with an indoor bun and he'd do the same so she got a J-Feeder (attaches to the side of the pen) for the feed, bottle for the water and had a litter box that they could go into but it had sort of a liner that they didn't sit in the litter- it just all dropped down. It might help some with the smell. If Vanilla doesn't work try decaff tea- put one bag in the water bottle and let it steap.
 
One thing I would try (if her poops are still soft and runny) is to pull all pellets for 2 days and put her on strictly hay and water. She may only be able to tolerate pellets in much smaller qualtities... with a heavy hay/grass based diet.

I'd see if a strict hay diet "firms things up" a bit. Then slowly reintroduce the pellets in small amounts.

As far as her sitting in her litter box, can you make a wire riser that holds her up over the litter? I've seen rabbits that adapt to them quite well (and I've seen bunnies that won't use them at all..) but it might be worth a shot...
 
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