Hutch Burn?

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Rabbit Talk Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
H

hismatthew

Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2011
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Location
United States
Ok, so here's the scenerio: we have 4 does with litters on a concrete pad with nest box tunnels for the kits. The poop is scooped out daily. The problem: we had one doe with bare spots on her hind legs and redness. She was looking pretty rough. We removed her from the colony to put her in a cage where any wetness can fall through. The other does are wet on the back too but not quite so bad. I am concerned this is going to get bad.

Suggestions please.
 
Lots and lots of absorbent bedding? hay/straw/shavings/woodpellets? rabbits should NEVER be wet from pee. It takes very little time for that to make their skin a mess. You have to come up with a way to keep them dry. what is no the concrete now?
 
We were using straw but it just trapped the poop and then the flies followed. So we discontinued that idea and were just trying to keep things scraped up. I was thinking about some wood shavings or something that we could deep litter. Thoughts...
 
Wood shavings - aspen perferred, but pine is okay - will absorb a lot of moisture. Scraping up the poop does not help with the urine. Try the shavings with straw added regularly for a deep litter system. Maybe hang up some fly strips if they are a problem and improve ventilation. adding some shelves or boxes for lounging off the floor should help too.
 
Concrete by itself is going to cause sores and they will be laying on wet concrete when they pee. You need to cover it with some type of absorbent bedding. Shavings are the cheapest. I use a layer of pine pellets topped by a layer of shavings because the pellets are highly absorbent but about like walking and laying on gravel. In winter we added some straw which was mostly eaten or broken down by spring when it's all scraped out and we start over with new layers of bedding.

Straw is horrible bedding really. It doesn't absorb any moisture and it actually insulates against evaporation keeping things wetter than if you used no bedding and leading to pests and mold issues. It's only use is to soften an area or insulate heat and then it should always be used over something extra absorbent like pine pellets or on wire so urine and droppings fall through and cleaned frequently.
 
This condition is usually seen in rabbits with incontinence problems.
Urine continually leaks from the vagina, and the area becomes urine-soaked.
Another factor is sanitation, wet dirty floors may be a contributing cause.
Generally it is best to cull rabbits with hutch burn, especially if they are
dribbling urine. If the cause is strictly wet floors and or dirty cages,
then antibiotic salve and ointments are beneficial, but the condition
will return unless cage sanitation is improved. From Rabbit Production [Pg 220]
Ottersatin. :eek:ldtimer:
 
Thanks everyone. We are trying to get them to use a makeshift litter box. We are using corn cob bits that seem to absorb really well. They still poop out side but I think they are peeing in it more. If that doesn't end up solving the problem in the long run, we might just try the deep litter after all with a weekly/bi-monthly clean out. Thanks for your input. The mama with the bad burn has been caged with some bunnies for now and seems to be doing better too. The other girls are drier too.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top