Blood in urine, very worried

[Rigby]

Hi everyone,

     We recently bought / rescued some bunnies(they were in very poor conditions) in Bangkok. We wanted to provide a better environment for them. I believe they are dwarf bunnies. “Mimi” is a female and “High Five Ghost” is a male. We were told they are about 1-2 months of age. They are not spayed or neutered.

     Anyway, over the last few days I’ve been noticing urine that looks like there’s blood in it. I’ve read that it’s normal but today we woke up to something a little more alarming. It looks like coagulated blood in the urine. We’re not sure though, as these are our first rabbits and we’re not as experienced as a lot of you here at binkybunny

     We took them to the vet the other day and the doctor said they were fine(general checkup). The problem is, we’re in Bangkok, Thailand and vet care is not the same back west but we took them to a place recommended by other westerners. They weren’t even able to figure out if our bunnies were male or female but the doc said they wouldn’t be able to see until 2-3 months of age. So I’m worried taking them to the vet again, here specifically, that we won’t get a clear answer or proper diagnosis.

     Our bunnies seem active. They run around, jump every now and then. They eat like little pigs and drink plenty of water. Wake us up from how active they are in the early morning. We have the air conditioner on most of the day, since it does get pretty hot here in Bkk. We have been feeding them Alfalfa hay as well as pellets(“Smart Heart” brand). The pellets say “veggies and cereals”, are red and green colored pellets and have a picture of carrots and corn on the bag. The alfalfa hay is “Alex” brand, American alfalfa.

     You can see the urine(or what we believe to be urine) in the pics attached. Somehow the urine(?) ended up outside the cage, don’t know how that happened.

     Please help. We’re at a loss and with poor vet care here in Bkk, we’re not sure what steps to take next.

[Roberta]

The vet is quite right about sexing, even they can get it wrong under 12 weeks and 1-2 months is very young… Bunnies generally should not be removed from their mothers till 8 weeks… Good on you for scooping up these babies they probably would not have survived without you… Buns will often back up all the way to the edge of the litter tray or cage and pee… My current foster babies could get pee several inches outside their cage with out any difficulty when they were little, the litter habits have improved considerably. I can’t see the pics if you are having trouble loading them click on the green reply button upper left of each post. At the bottom will be an attachment box, click on the arrow and it will expand giving you a browse box on the left. Select pic and upload… In the same area to the right you will see the option to delete or insert pics… Make sure you curser down in the text box then click insert. This should put your photo in without difficulty.

[Rigby]

Hi Roberta, thanks for that. Yes the general consensus seems to be that it’s difficult to tell the sex at their age.
They always seem to shoot pee outside their cage when nobody is looking  

Here, you can take a look at the pics via this link: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/x7f…BunnyUrinePics

Other than the urine thing and being removed from their mother at a young age, they seem to be doing ok but I’ve never had bunnies before so it’s just an uneducated guess. But they are eating a lot and drinking plenty of water, plus they are active most of the day(with plenty of rests in between activity).

Thanks again

[LBJ10]

I can’t see the pics. The URL you provided isn’t complete (…. in the middle), so I can’t even copy and paste it into the web browser. Without seeing the pictures, I’m going to say that it probably isn’t blood. The food you mentioned isn’t a very good food for bunnies. Pet shops will sell all kinds of things that are marketed toward bunnies, but really aren’t good for them. Pellets containing seeds, corn, cereals, and “candy” are not good. My guess is that what you’re seeing in the pee is coming from the pigments used in that food. You’re going to want to find a plain pellet to feed them. Even picking out all of the junk in their current pellets would be better than nothing. The alfalfa hay is good from growing bunnies, so you can keep feeding them that. You’ll want to switch to a grass hay when they get older.

Roberta is right about sexing very young rabbits. It can be very hard, even for vets and breeders. Boys and girls look very much alike down there when they are young and differences won’t become noticeable until they are over 12 weeks of age. So don’t be angry if the vet isn’t able to tell right now.

[Rigby]

Hello again,

I’m back with another question, same topic. My dwarf bunny’s urine is inconsistent. Meaning, while sometimes she pees a yellow, pale color pee or with no color at all, other times she’ll pee orange-ish red pee(which i keep thinking is blood! until it dries and appears orange-brown). Is inconsistency something to worry about? I haven’t changed her diet at all in the last 5-6 days. Thanks for any help you can provide.

[LBJ10]

Not really. Pee is going to vary in color, even from day to day. So I would go by whatever is normal for your rabbit.

[Bam]

Pee varies with the food you give your bunny. Dandelion greens will result in orange or even bright red pee. Rabbits can also spontaneously secret porfyrine in the urine and that will be a red color. It’s not a sign of ill health. Proper blood in the urine is a cause to seek a vet though.

Here’s an article on the subject of red or otherwise colored urine:

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-1/red-urine.html

[Rigby]

Thanks guys. Had a look at that article.

Her pee changes color 2-3 colors sometimes within one day so that bit got me thinking something may be wrong. Plus she only eats alfalfa hay right now, we stopped feeding her pellets about a week ago. She’s super active though and still eating and drinking a lot.

We recently lost the boy, very sad about that. Possibly due to the fact that he was taken away from his mother at such a young age because the lady selling them said they were 1 month old.

Anyway, any additional advice also appreciated. Thanks again.

[Author]

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