Peeing very little

[dewey]

I’ve been here before to chat about my rabbit Dewey’s health issues.  And here I go again.  He is 8 yrs of age.  He has chronic kidney disease, but has been doing fine since November.  Usually his health issue is GI Stasis or Head Tilt/ear. 

Yesterday, I noticed that he was breathing hard and in pain (face gets pointy).  He was laying in front of a small spot of pea (about 2-3 inches wide). He does not pee outside the box ever.  He refused a carrot.  Took him to the vet, we thought gas, but it wasn’t and his kidneys are functioning in normal range. Came home and immediately realized he didn’t do his usual pee on the way to the vet.  He did pee at home but a very small amount, despite getting fluids subcutaneously at the vet. He is eating, hopping, pooping just fine and otherwise is normal.  He is also not visibly straining to pee. Urine output since last night very small. 

Talked to vet this a.m. B/c everything else is good, I am to watch him and we will talk tomorrow.  

In my worrying state, I think he has a partial blockage.  Wondered if anyone has experienced these symptoms with their bunny and what was treatment?

[Sarita]

Did the vet check for bladder sludge? Did the vet do an x-ray?

[Toni]

I’m sorry Dewey isn’t feeling well. How was it that you could determine that it wasn’t gas? Was there an xray done? I don’t know much about the effects of kidney disease, I do know that my stasis/gassy prone bunny would always look like she’s in pain/discomfort and not eat when an episode would happen… just like you described. I had also noticed that she would “leak” urine sometimes if she was particularly uncomfortable during an episode, until it passed (her episodes would only last from a couple hours to never more than 24 hours, otherwise she was wisked off to the vet for fluids and motility drugs. Vet trips only happened twice in 9 years for stasis, but the gassy episodes happened a few times a year). Whenever she had a gas issue, she wouldn’t eat/drink at all, but would go right back to normal once she passed whatever was going on (usually after I gave her infant gas relief).

I can relate that a long time ago, my girl developed bladder stones. It looked like she had a urinary tract infection…. first vet treated her for that…. but it didn’t go away – I found a better vet and we took xrays and immediately saw the stones. We set her up for surgery… she passed one on her own (owwww!) before we even got her into surgery, then the other was removed (the stone was the size of a pea!). She WAS straining to pee though during this. Dewey’s symptoms are a bit baffling as they don’t point exactly to anything in particular (that I’m familiar with). Although… perhaps, he could have some very small sludge/stones that he would be able to pass (uncomfortably though, hence his look of discomfort) on his own. I’m wondering….. if he is eating just fine… maybe give him a good amount of veg that has a high water content (like lettuce) and see if that increases his urine? Maybe he’s just not drinking as much as usual. If he does have some blockage, it might help to flush him out. Good luck. I know what it is like to worry about your senior bunny.

[dewey]

Thanks for the response. The vet did an X-ray to check the gut and blood work to check the kidneys. Dewey does have bladder sludge and during that episode he was definitely straining to pee. He does not drink enough water and so we have to give him some subcutaneous fluids every three days. I do drench his veggies in water too.

O.k. its just a mystery. I email vet and ask what the bladder looked like from the X-ray. Usually they show me and we discuss the bladder sludge situation, but it was busy that day and I was an add-on appointment.

I did not see him when he peed outside the cage shortly before I found him breathing hard and in pain. Perhaps he passed a stone or is trying? Will email vet about these concerns.

Again Thanks!

[JackRabbit]

So he hasn’t hardly peed since he got sub-q fluids? If he wasn’t dehydrated but got fluids to help flush his bladder but hasn’t peed, I would wonder if he has a stone or something blocking him from peeing.

[Sarita]

You should have the vet show you how to express the bladder – if there is sludge this can help to “drain” the sludge – it’s not hard to do and you can do it on a towel or over the sink.

[dewey]

Here’s the update on Dewey and his not peeing much. No blockage apparent from x-ray. Also, although he does have bladder sludge, it is minimal from the X-ray. What we think is that recently switching his subQ fluids from two days to three days made him a bit dehydrated. His body is pretty sensitive. And I could kick myself for trying to get him back to the schedule of three days, but it is hard to get pet sitters to subQ at all and to do it every two days would be very difficult.

So, he lives! He plays, eats, poops, and is peeing more frequently with slightly bigger yield.

[Author]

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