Looking for advice or suggestions.
We have a rabbit who has always been litter box trained. His habits have always been tidy with no problems. We do not know how he got his litter training because he was a rescue rabbit, but it’s never been an issue. For 6+ years there never have been any issues.
Long story short, our rabbit got an infection in his hind right leg in May. After several months of surgeries trying to remove the infection, we (us and the vet) decided the best option was to have the leg amputated.
During this trying-to-keep-the-leg period the rabbits litter box habits started adjusting (mostly August thru September). Some of this could have been for obvious reasons of a tender leg, or a leg in a cast, making the idea of getting in and out of the box less appealing. It could’ve also been just acting up out of annoyance with us or the situation. First, he started urinating while eating his hay (this is always been separate from his litter box). We adjusted it where he could only access his hay inside of his litter box and that fixed the issue.
After the amputation, this occurred about 3+ weeks ago, his pooping habit started to adjust. He became more a active doing this when he was eating his pellets. This has never been an activity he pooped with before. And (more than usual) while resting. However, he would still get in his litter whenever he had to urinate.
The last few days he seems to struggle keeping his back side upright while in the litter. This happened right after the amputation, obviously, but he had since mostly regained balance while in the litterbox. This seems like a little bit of a regression going on. Me and my husband have been talking about getting a bathmat and cutting it up and putting it in at the bottom of his litter box, to help him with grip keep his balance. This would mean more cleaning on our side, but if it makes it easier for our rabbit doing the extra work is fine.
This morning I woke up to urine on the bathroom tile. Nowhere near his litter box. Nowhere near his food. This is the first time our rabbit has ever done this. We also do keep two mats in the bathroom and there was a stain that looked like a urine stain on one of the mats. However when I try to blot it with a paper towel, nothing came up on the towel. It still obviously urine, but maybe it was just an extra wet rabbit bottom that left more wet impression on the mat versus him actively peeing on it.
Part of one of the discussions we had during the surgeries, and after the amputation, was maybe getting an over large cookie sheet and putting the litter in that. After waking up to this, I got one of our cookie sheets, lined it with a puppy pad, and put his litter pellets in it. His litter box is still there, but this is right next to it.
He just now hopped into the bathroom, ignoring his litter area altogether, and peed on one of the mats. I am seeking, hopefully people with experience of dealing with this type of situation, on what has worked for you or advice in retraining our rabbit litter habits.
We do have our 1 month post surgery visit with the vet next week, and if it is medical related, that will hopefully catch it, but don’t really get the vibe that it is medical.
Some additional information that may inform your responses: our rabbit is probably around seven years old, he is not neutered, but this is never been an issue for aggression or marking habits. He is a solo rabbit, at has been with us. The litter box that we have now is more of a commercial food holding pan that we made his box. It is probably 23”x 15” and has 3.75” lip. We use the sawdust pellets for litter. A rabbit is about the size of a medium cat. He is also semi-free room. He has the whole bathroom, which is a pretty large bathroom. And he has the connecting office next to it. Historically, we have kept his food/water fully in the bathroom, but since the start of the surgeries we’ve brought it right up to the edge of the door between the bathroom and the office, allowing the grip of the office carpet to help him keep his balance while he eats.
by DrexelPastry