New Mom Problem

[AnnapolisBunnyFun]

My Doe gave birth to a litter 5 weeks ago. She as completely litter trained prior to giving birth. Recently she has been peeing and pooping out of the litter box and I notice her genitals are swollen and often soaking wet and she doesn’t attempt to clean herself. It appears she is still breastfeeding and the babies are happy and healthy. What could this be?

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Is the nest box in the spot where her bathroom used to be? That could explain it
At five weeks you should be able to change the nest box to something else

 

[eco2pia]

hmm. it sounds to me like she is in some distress. I am not sure if she is having an incontinence problem which is causing urine scald to her genitals, or if she has an infection.

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do for the first option other than keep her housing as clean and dry as possible, and hope that the problem corrects itself with time. For the second problem you would need a vet I think, and potentially antibiotics.

How long has this been going on? If it has been almost the whole 5 weeks, it is less likely to be an infection--that would have either gotten worse or cleared up by now. If it just started then it is possible to be an infection, though the timing is a little odd.

 

[AnnapolisBunnyFun]

hmm. it sounds to me like she is in some distress. I am not sure if she is having an incontinence problem which is causing urine scald to her genitals, or if she has an infection.

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do for the first option other than keep her housing as clean and dry as possible, and hope that the problem corrects itself with time. For the second problem you would need a vet I think, and potentially antibiotics.

How long has this been going on? If it has been almost the whole 5 weeks, it is less likely to be an infection--that would have either gotten worse or cleared up by now. If it just started then it is possible to be an infection, though the timing is a little odd.

Thank you for your reply. I began to notice something was different soon after she gave birth but I’d say it has gotten worse and changed a little. She is using the litter box less and less. The litter box is not the nest box and I did take the nest box out. I searched images of urine scald and she isn’t losing fur yet so I’m hopeful it’s not going to get as bad as some of those pictures. I usually keep her in a wire bottom enclosure and just before she gave birth I moved her into a much larger space that has a solid tile floor. Could this be causing the irritation/inflammation?

She doesn’t seem angry and is even friendlier since giving birth. She doesn’t love me to pick her up by her abdomen (but I attribute that to nursing) but is happy being held otherwise, I note this bc I don’t think she is in pain.

 

[eco2pia]

She may have experienced some pain urinating and decided the litter box was biting her--I have seen it happen with cats. Also the solid floor, coupled with lack of litter box use, could absolutely be causing the problem.

I had a buck who insisted on sitting in a wet spot and scalded the heck out of himself, I only use wire flooring partly for this reason, but this buck (like gross boys sometimes do) liked to pee on his resting board and any other thing he could hit, then he would sit on the puddle soaking up the scent. (Eew)

I would try to get her back to using a litter box, and bed the whole floor with something that will absorb the pee for now--basically give her a whole cage that is a litter box, or I would put her back on the wire. If you go with the whole cage as litter box, then you must clean it constantly until she heals up.

After she heals I would work on getting her back to using a box. Get a new, different shaped box, and wait for her to pick a corner so the scary biting box is not there anymore.