Possible bladder problem.

[Rippy]

Hello

In another topic where I was asking questions about my intact female bunny I mentioned that she drinks about 300-350ml/day and I was told that this might be a sign that she has kidney problems. But because she has a small water bottle 250ml I change it daily to make sure she does not run out and the numbers I gave where a bit high. Still for the past 4 days I have taken note of how much she drinks and it still is a bit over the top.

Pika is a 7 month old Holland Lop 1.7kg (3.7 pounds). She receives about 40g (1.4 Oz) of Oxbow Bunny Basics “T”, quite a bit of fresh greens, occasional bit of carrot or banana as a treat and she is constantly eating hay (loads).

This is how much she drank in the past 4 days:

-260ml

-285ml

-230ml

– Today its looking like 230-250ml.

This increased drinking started with her puberty and her crazy marking so I thought it was normal, since she constantly sprays. What I noticed today has me a bit worried. When she went to her toilet (my bed at night ) she peed on the shower curtain and as I cleaned it (wasn’t much of it) I noticed that it had higher viscosity as normal, looking more like saliva but not sludge – might just be an anomaly. She is a very active bunny – happy and binky if she manages to save enough energy after showing my male bunny who is boss here .

I did some reading on bladder stones;

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-5/bladder-disease.html

And there are some signs that would apply to her; loss of litter habits, hopping in and out of the litter pan,  wetness around the genital area. But as far as I know everything can be the cause of her bunny “puberty” and she mostly keeps dry now as I have turned a large part of her cage into a litter box. She is due to be spayed in 2 weeks but I will mention this to my vet.

Does this higher water consumption point to a problem even if she does constantly eat hay and marks ?

 

PS: Bonus pic

[Sarita]

Water consumption does not always indicate kidney or bladder problems. Some rabbits just consume more water than others and the behaviors you mention sound like puberty to me.

However, since you are taking her in for her spay in 2 weeks it would not hurt to mention this to the vet and do the bloodwork just to be safe.

[Beka27]

Also, do you know for a fact she is indeed DRINKING all that water? Is your water bottle positioned in an area where you know it is not leaking? Our water bottle is suspended over the litterbox, so at first glance, I might not realize if the litter absorbed water or urine.

[KatnipCrzy]

I would recommend calling your vet and finding out if bloodwork needs to be done before the day of surgery or if it can be done the day of surgery at the clinic.  I would highly recommend doing bloodwork to make sure that everything is normal.

I thought Griffin was drinking a lot when he was young- but he is about twice the adult weight of my other bunnies.  So I did not know if it was normal or if he was drinking excessively.  So to be on the safe side I had bloodwork done- and confirmed his kidney (or other values) were normal.  I just could not do the neuter with the suspicion in the back of my mind that MAYBE something was wrong- I would have blamed myself if something happened to him.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I agree with the others about the bloodwork. I hope all is well with your adorable bunny!

ps. Thanks for the cute pic!

[Rippy]

Thank you for the information. It does put me at ease a bit but I will get her checked up before the surgery. Beka there is some drip for sure because its not the highest quality water bottle

[Author]

Messages