They can last between 20 mins to a couple of hours before he just goes back to normal.

He arches his back upwards and sometimes lifts his front paws and has yelped twice doing this.

I have been trying to get a video of it for the vet but he has stopped since this morning.

All came back normal so this is a real mystery. Heat seems to help him, he loves to cuddle and will jump up and lay on my chest, lay with his feet stretched out teeth purring and licking my face until he goes to sleep.

If it was a UTI would he strain all the time or just have periods of it?

The X-rays and radiograph only showed it in his spine mildly and most of the day he moves absolutely fine and jumps around to the point that makes you think he was 5 years younger 😅

The emergency vet even questioned if we were sure he was 10 and did we adopt him as he had never seen such a well looked after rabbit and thought he was much younger.

He has the run of the living room and has a large cage and run to sleep in at night. I slept downstairs with him last night to monitor him as best I could. He strained a few times. One time I saw the straining he had pee’d outside his litter tray (which is highly unusual) so I wonder if it was an urgency thing and he couldn’t make it so possible UTI? He only yelped once yesterday morning thankfully. (1st time since we took him 8th Oct when this started and he yelled the house down).

His usual vet is away for 2 weeks but I am going to take him into the practise to see if the other vet has any ideas today.

Thank you all for your input we really appreciate it!

He has screamed a couple of times in his life sadly. The first when he managed to tangle his gut when he was little (2.5) and they had to remove some of it. Then a few months after that (though nothing seemed to be wrong – emergency vet checked him out then normal vet). Then in Feb this year which they put down to arthritis as everything else was normal and finally 2 weeks ago which again they put down to his arthritis but this time it was accompanied by straining.

He has had xray, radiograph, blood test and urine test and nothing has come up. I live alone and he is my only pet and nothing seemed to have scared him so I definitely think it is pain related sadly,

It happens early in the morning then from about 9pm at night he will strain then try and lick the affected area. It is definitely worse today though.

He is totally normal, bounding out his cage down a special wooden ramp and standing on his hind legs when he hears me coming to greet me and eating/drinking fine. I have been checking his poo and pee for blood over the last 2 weeks and thankfully nothing.

The only think I have noticed today is that he is peeing out of his litter tray more and more today and when having cuddles on me some urine leaked out which is unheard of. His abdomen also feels a little off to me and lumpier than usual but isn’t hard like a gas episode or distended like with bloat.

I have an appointment at 6.45pm tonight I am hoping this vet might have some more ideas.

Hi everyone,

we are back from the vets and he called our usual vet as well to describe the video. She still thinks it is arthritis pain potentially when he tries to consume a cecotrope. They have upped his metacam to 0.4ml twice a day.

No tumours or growths showed on any radiographs or X-rays and all looked normal. He is pooing and weeing fine still and doesn’t strain 85% of the time. Hopefully it is just a pain management issue due to his age.

Sadly the vet is still stumped.

he is now on 1.2ml baytril and 0.8ml metacam twice daily.

We noticed a small red spot on his penis when cleaning urine from his tail and the vet exposed his penis and said it look bruised.

Here are some pictures but I am not sure if this is normal especially the red blood vessels. If wiped gently with a moist cloth no blood is actually there.

here are some photos. The less fierce one was yesterday and the other one was taken this morning.

Description: Images of rabbit genetalia

https://imgshare.io/image/NcNI9w
https://imgshare.io/image/NcNyR8

(Images reviewed and approved by Wick – Description added)

Thank you Wick. Our vet specialises in rabbits and she mentioned it looked bruised.

I suspected a uti at the beginning of Oct but they were unsure but are treating it as such now in case that is what has caused this.

She thinks it might be bruised by him tugging on it in discomfort.

I will keep pursuing and see if I can find a second opinion. Thank you for taking the time to answer us, we really appreciate it!

It is really bizarre as 95% of the time he is fine then we get an episode every other night and he may yell out.

I am worried about calcium related illness though nothing showed on the X-ray and he only seems to struggle to wee around 9pm then it subsides. It is really bizarre.

He only seems to tolerate parsley and basil but I have come to learn these are very high in calcium and our water at the new house is really hard and you can sometimes see calcium deposits so wondering about this.

we are going to severely cut down on the herbs and try and introduce low calcium veg and use filtered water only.

Does anyone have any suggestions on good low calcium veg? I have looked at a lot of lists but they all seem to have different opinions. So far romaine lettuce seems like a good choice.