Pees Everywhere!

[sammyrider48]

Hello, I really need some help and ask that you read the whole thing first.
I have a 1 year, 3 month old neutered boy holland lop (he was neutered at 6 mos) and got two unspayed girls in August. He has been pretty good litter box wise his whole life except right before neutering. He has recently begun peeing and pooping EVERYWHERE in his enclosure. He poops and pees everywhere except his litter box and will actually sit inside his litter box most of the day. His bottom is constantly soaked with pee now and I try not to give him too many bum baths because I'm afraid that it may be bad for him. To be clear, each bunny is in a separate enclosure far enough a part that they definitely can't reach each other. The girls will be spayed in 2 months and have hit puberty, but are no where near exhibiting this kind of behavior although they have the expected level of accidents for unfixed females (1 actually prefers to keep things clean). My questions are, what can I do to stop this and how can I take care of him while he's going through this? I can't give him his own room either since I don't have enough space and they all have very large enclosures in a very large ventilated room. Thank you!

 

[KingBunny]

Sudden changes in use of the litter box or output might be early signs of illness.
I'm not saying it is, but might be worth a vet visit.
Rabbits are prey animals which naturally hide any illness as a way to prevent being singled out by predators.

 

[JBun]

He could have a UTI, particularly if you are seeing symptoms like dribbling small spots of urine on the floor, urine has spots of red in it or is a brownish color, has thickened creamy or pasty gritty urine, has a consistently urine soaked bottom, is straining when urinating, is having unusual uncharacteristic pee accidents when nothing has changed in his life/environment and he is normally good with using the litter box (eg. litter box changes, changes in the rabbits area/home, new pets/people in the home, new noises, new stressors, etc).

Some other possible health causes can be e. cuniculi, kidney issues, arthritis, spinal issues, tumor, rabbit syphilis. If you can't figure out it being linked to a behavioral issue from changes in his environment, then I would suspect it being a health related cause and would suggest having your rabbit checked by an experienced rabbit vet.

Medirabbit (urinary incontinence in rabbits)

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/urinary.html
http://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Urinary_tract_infection
https://rabbit.org/vet-listings/
In instances like this, until you are able to figure out and resolve the issue of the urine soaked bottom, it is necessary to bath to try and keep the bottom clean to prevent urine scald, even though normally bathing is not recommended. Leaving urine on the skin can lead to skin irritation, fur loss, and possibly infection, so it's important to try and keep the skin as clean as possible. Having the fur on the bottom clipped shorter(easiest done by your vet) can help facilitate this as well as helping the fur on the bottom dry faster. Here's some info on butt baths for rabbits that need it due to unresolved/ongoing health issues.

http://www.disabledrabbits.com/baths--cleaning.html
If your rabbit isn't a chewer and his set up will allow for this, it can be helpful to keep disposable pee pads spread on his floor area, and change them out as needed, until you are able to get this worked out. It will hopefully help keep his bum from getting so urine soaked. I have an old bun that can't make it to the litter box anymore and so pees everywhere. So I keep her floor covered with pee pads and this helps keep her bum mostly dry. Though this won't work for buns that are chewers as it will pose a risk from accidental ingestion of the pee pad material.

 

[sammyrider48]

Thank you for the information! I'll get him an appointment asap

 

[Roo1234]

He might want a nice place to sit, I have a rabbit that wouldn't use his litter box and just sat in it but once I gave him a box to sit in with a blanket he used his litter box (with a few exceptions)