Pees on Himself...

[Ristarwen]

So, one of my boys occasionally pees on himself. I don't know how and I don't know if it's a real issue or not... He's got a large yellow stain on his tummy, though.

And when I was looking at this today, I also noticed that he has some sort of a pimple on his urethral cone. It's just a little whitehead...but I'm not sure what could cause it or if it's going to cause a bigger problem or is the result of a bigger problem that I'm not seeing.

When I saw this, I did a hair-ring check, but everything was normal. What could this be? Am I being overly anxious over a zit?

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

Baby had a dribbling problem, as well as being an indiscriminate pee-er, not always using the litter pan like Mr. Whiskers.

After his sudden, unexpected death, I had a necropsy performed. During his necropsy, it was discovered that in addition to the tumor on his pancrease that had abscessed and burst, he had multiple, large bladder stones, which was probably the cause of his urinary issues.

It is believed that a diet too rich in alfalfa can cause these stones. I had supplemented Baby with alfalfa hay in addition to timothy to try to "fatten him up", so I have always wondered whether or not I hastened his death. Dr. Fitzgerald told me to stop beating myself up over it, but it's still in the back of my mind.

Personally, knowing what I do, if another one of my chins started having urinary issues, I would see about having x-rays or some other imaging done of his bladder.

Good luck to you...

 

[Ristarwen]

He hasn't been on an alfalfa diet since he was really young, though... I switched them by the time they were four months old to Oxbow, before that they were on the bulk stuff from our local petstore, then I put them on Sunseed Sunaturals (with all the "goodies" picked out) for less than two weeks before I saw the error of my ways,and they've been on oxbow ever since...about four months now?

And it doesn't seem that he has a dribbling problem. It's just every once in a while, he'll give his belly a good splash. It really happens very rarely.

I'm more concerned about the pimple. Will it go away on its own? Should I be concerned over it?

 

[Stackie]

Some chins are known to be lazy pee-ers and will actually sit in a puddle of pee for awhile, staining their undersides. I have a few of these, and of course it's mostly my whites. My black velvet is bad about it too, though.

There's not much you can do if it is just a lazy pee-er problem. Make sure you clean the cage regularly. As long as you don't show your chins, you can add a bit of corn starch to their dust bath. People claim it helps take the stains out and makes them whiter.

I'm not sure what the pimple could be. May sound gross, but could you get a clear picture of it and post it here? That may help us with figuring out what it is.