Female with random urination

nuvola09 · Jan 15, 2014

A few months back I posted in the "new chin" section about an erratic 5 y/o female I bought from a deceptive breeder. She turned out to be very unfamiliar with human contact, and was kept pregnant most of her life in small breeding cages. The breeder admitted to rarely (if ever) handling her chins, and even spraying them with a plant sprayer if they ever did anything she didn't like. The female I purchased was partial to spraying me with urine whenever I tried to handle her, making it very hard to clean her cage, feed her, etc. She is so untrusting, she won't take a proper dust bath when it's presented to her.

I have finally integrated her with my 9 y/o female, and the process only took about 3 months (shorter than I expected, considering her behavior). She likes being with another chins, and they seem to get along quite well at this point. But the problem is still that she doesn't like or trust me.

When the 5 y/o was still in her own cage, I noticed it would begin to smell very quickly, making me think she was urinating either more frequently than she should, or all over the cage rather than in a designated spot. Now that she's in my large cage with platforms, I've noticed wet spots appearing on the solid bottom platforms.

My question is whether or not this might be simply a nervous reaction to my presence (I approach the cage whenever I need to, and often just to socialize with my 9 y/o, hoping the younger erratic one will take some cues), or possibly a medical issue, like a UTI or bladder problem. If so, I want to get her to a vet ASAP.

Let me clarify that she's is NOT spraying me. She seems to just be letting urine go at random times when she's standing normally, leaving the wet spots.

Thanks in advance for the input.

Godofgods · Jan 17, 2014

I have no idea about a possible medical issue or not. But when i took my first chin he, he was so stressed and paranoid that he would freak out if you so much as walked near his cage, must less try to interact with him. It took a long time for him to adjust. Now, out of my 5 chins, he is the friendliest of them all.

So it is possible that the new chin is still adjusting. Judging from what you said about her former life, this new one would be quite a shock to her.

akane · Jan 17, 2014

The breeding cage was probably so small and possibly with a wire floor that she just went wherever. I've seen it in dogs who were kept penned up their whole lives and you'll see it in rabbits who have never set foot on a solid bottom cage where they might step in their own mess. The dogs can be extremely hard to housebreak because they are used to not having the space for a bathroom in one area and sleeping in another. Crates don't work at all except to contain the mess. Unfortunately along with the dog. Sometimes the animals learn to have better bathroom habits and sometimes they just always pee where they happen to be standing when the need hits them.

nuvola09 · Jan 18, 2014

Thank you for the input. She was, indeed, in a wire bottom cage for all of her life, if I'm not mistaken.

The problem got worse. I came back after some time out of the house, and nearly everything was wet and the bedding needed to be changed immediately. I think she was peeing while running in the cage wheel, since the wheel is mesh (a saucer doesn't fit in this style cage) and I think she associated it with her old wire cage and peed while standing in it. The wheel is up high, and the urine was splattering down to the lower levels.

I separated them again, cleaned the large cage, and put the new female back in the smaller cage I got for her (non wire). She's reluctant to take a dust bath, but when she has, I've noticed she peed in that as well.

Other issue: it seems that my older female has bitten off the new female's whiskers. They don't fight and don't make any noises. Is this considered normal as two chins get to know each other and one is possibly just establishing dominance?

Godofgods · Jan 19, 2014

i believe the whisker thing is a dominance issue. But don't quote me on that. I know some ppl trim whiskers for introductions to avoid issues with fighting and dominance. So it would make sense to me.

Lynn & The Chins · Jan 19, 2014

All of my chins are potty trained. When Baby, my second chin, started peeing in places other than the potty pan, I just thought that he had become an indiscriminate pee-er.

A few months later, he died suddenly and unexpectedly. I had a necropsy done for my own peace of mind. The cause of death was a ruptured abscess on his pancreas, but the necropsy also showed "several large bladder stones", which the vet said could have caused him to leak urine. I would take her in for an exam.