Hammer has white urine!!

[BunnyLiz]

Hammer has white pee on his phone book. Im asuming its urine anyway, its dry and looks chalky now.  His urine doesnt look abnormal in his litter box, but the horse pellets could absorb that up without notice probably.  Im fairly sure it isnt a huge worry unless it continues right? And its calcium related? To much calcium right? But isnt sludge is it? Urine scald maybe? Nothing new in his diet though. He is almost switched over to oxbow basic t, gets a little of each alfalfa, timothy and orchard.  He doesnt get much alfalfa, just a tiny bit each day till the huge bag is gone, and orchard is nothing new to him.  No new veggies and same amount as usual.  Do you guys think its just a fluke thing? Just watch and then worry if it doesnt fix itself? Thank goodnees its Friday!!!!!!!  At least I have the weekend to watch him.

[jerseygirl]

It often looks that whitish colour once it’s dried and yes, you prob don’t see it much in the litter. It’s normal for them to excrete some calcium in their urine. When there’s a prob with excess calcium, it is more like the thicker white substance, bladder sludge. Jersey get’s that a bit but it’s a tiny amount and not that often.

[bunnytowne]

Sounds normal. Bladder sludge is real real thick and sandy.     If you ever notice it real thick and sandy it is probably from a too high in calcium vegie you gave bun.  But he sounds normal.  It does turn white after it sets.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Rabbits absorb and use calcium differently then almost all animals. They still need it in their diet for their bones; But they actually absorb all dietary calcium and then excrete excess calcium-rather then what most other species do-only absorbing the calcium they need.

Calcium excreted in urine looks white. If often dries white but you may want to cut back on calcium rich foods to prevent sludge. Urine scald is actually when an incontinent rabbit urinates on their legs or bottom and has a skin reaction to it (it’s highly acidic and of course isn’t good to have on the skin)

Hope this helps!

[BunnyLiz]

Yea ive seen regular old dried up urine from pre litter trained days, and this looks totally different. It only soaked through one page in the phone book and i could just poke the dry puddle and it would crack and peel off the paper. Very very chalky. I looked on my veggies list and it didnt list any of this veggie cycle as high in calcium. Green leaf, red leaf, romaine, parsley, cilantro and mustard greens. There wasnt any more this morning. But now i guess ill stay away for what veggies are rich in calcium, since Hammer might have issues with those.

[Sarita]

Many vets are starting to think that calcium content in diet and bladder sludge are not related. On one of my lists one of the members was at a vet’s conference and sat in on a lecture where there was quite a bit of discussion on bladder sludge and diet and most vets felt that diet had no affect on the condition and the vet mentioned on the blood tests she had done on chronic sludgy rabbits had lower blood calcium…

Sludge may be due more to inactivity and decrease of water. Most of my sludge rabbits were older and less active.

Here’s an article from Dana Krempels too that she mentions this:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/urinary.html

[Beka27]

oh that’s interesting Sarita!

Liz, how is Sir Hams-a-lot aside from that… he’s acting, eating and drinking normally?

[Sarita]

Another very good article on this.

http://www.rabbit.org/health/urolith.html

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

That’s very good to know!!

[BunnyLiz]

Thanks Sarita! Ill definitely read through those. Found out that mustard greens are somewhat high in calcium, which he gets a lot of, so ill lessen that. And so does turnip greens, not sure that was in his veggie cycle then or not, but ill cut that down some too just in case.

Lol Beka i like that name! He definitely just got himself a new nickname. But yea everything seems to be normal, aside from the one case of that white stuff of course. He did bite me yesterday for no reason i know, but im sure thats not related to anything since the white urine was a few days ago. Of course you can never completely rule anything out with buns!

[Sarita]

This is from Carrot Cafe which further explains about calcium and vegetables:

What vegetables are high in calcium?

Many people worry about the calcium levels of different vegetables causing bladder and kidney problems in rabbits. In Calcium Metabolism in Rabbits Dr. Leah Postman explains it thusly:

“The other potentially significant source of calcium in rabbits’ diets is fresh greens. Although many people worry about the greens noted for high calcium content — kale, spinach, collards — I do not. All fresh greens are about 70% to 85% water, which greatly dilutes all nutrients. To eliminate the potential to misrepresent nutrient content due to variability in water content, it is essential to compare calcium content on a dry matter basis, which is how the nutrient requirements are expressed on labels and in tables. For example, kale, which many recommend avoiding by virtue of its calcium content, has 1.6% calcium on a dry weight basis. In other words, dehydrated kale has roughly three times the NRC recommended calcium content. However, the fresh bunch of kale is mostly water, so the calcium content drops dramatically, to 0.24% when fed fresh. If you were to feed a medium-sized (5 pound) bunny 1/4 cup (about 60 grams) of a pellet meeting NRC recommendations, he would consume about 0.30 grams of calcium. To obtain a similar quantity of calcium from kale, the bun would have to eat over 4 ounces (130 grams) of kale. That is a sizable pile of kale — about as much as you could stuff in a half gallon milk carton. Similarly, dandelion greens, have a calcium level of 1.6% on a dry matter basis. But since our bunnies eat them fresh, they are only getting 0.20% calcium. Again, we see that even for greens with a relatively high calcium content, the calcium level of the leaves the bun is munching is actually quite low.”

Pellets are a much higher source of calcium in the diet of the rabbit, and if calcium is an issue then cutting back on pellets will have much more of an impact than cutting back on vegetables.

http://www.carrotcafe.com/f/veggies.html

[BunnyLiz]

Okay thanks again! Im so thankful for this site, I want the best for my babies and sometimes im just lost lol. You guys are life savers! Seriously.

Hammer gets 1/3 a cup of pellets a day now, so ill cut down to 1/4 (he is about 5lbs. but still a young adult). See how that goes. He much prefers his greens anyway. Who knows, maybe he will even eat more hay with less pellets!

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