wetting the couch!

Question
QUESTION: I have a very cute and friendly 18 month old miniature flop ear bunny. She is generally very well behaved but has a nasty habit of jumping up on the couch and urinating. She is otherwise completely house trained. Is there a reason for this isolated couch wetting?

ANSWER: Hi,

she's either overmarking somebody's scent, or she wants a litterbox there.

What or who sits there normally?  Another pet or person?  Is she fixed?

Write back with replies to my questions, and I can give you a more accurate answer.

Lee

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Both my myself and my partner sit on the couch and we don't have any other pets. She isn't fixed. There is a smaller couch seat but we rarely if ever sit there and she doesn't seem that interested in peeing on it.

Answer
UPDATE

Hi, just make sure you bring treats and food along so that you or the vet techs can give her her normal food right away after surgery.  They should not let you take her until you (if you are there) or they see her both eating and drinking again.

Also she will need 3-5 days of metacam (pain meds) that you'll need to give her (just put the right dose amount on her food pellets).  Plus lots of extra pets and TLC - make sure you pet her and explain to her what this was all about.

Lee

END UPDATE  

Hi,

she's overmarking others' scents, probably yours.  It's largely a hormonally-driven behavior.  It most likely would be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, if you had her spayed.

The bigger reason to get her spayed is that you will double her lifespan with you.  Unfixed females tend to die around 5-6 years old from uterine cancer.  Fixed females can live 10-12 years or more, 10-12 being a rough normal age for a fixed, indoor house rabbit.  And she won't have to be in pain from the cancer.

The key is finding a good rabbit vet who does surgeries on rabbits all the time, and has a very high success rate.  Not all vets are good rabbit vets.  If you need to start lookign for one, start here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.

They should know you don't fast a rabbit before surgery.  Also that they require both post op antibiotics (to prevent infections) and post-op pain meds for several days, so that pain is kept down enough for bunny to be able to move (and thus, keep eating).

Lee