Hi Everyone! I'm looking for some advice/thoughts on my rabbit who has been drinking excessively (~30-40 oz daily) and having many accidents for the past couple months (up to 4/5 a day). He recently went to the vet and we were told he has anemia based on his bloodwork (attached) but that it is not related to his drinking issue. They think his excessive drinking/peeing is due to behavioral issues since he is not neutered. Also, in the past two months, he lost weight; he was 5.5 lbs, and is now 4.7 lbs. I'm very anxious about him all the time and since I'm a first time rabbit owner, I'd love some additional perspectives!
I'm going to go into a lot of (probably irrelevant) detail in case anything in his situation relates, so I'll separate my post into sections.
LIKELY IRRELEVANT BACKGROUND INFO:
I adopted my rabbit mid July and was told he is about 3 years old. His previous owner fed him 1-2 cups of pellets a day with seeds and dried veggies and he did not eat hay at all. He also had poopy butt and weepy eyes. The previous owner said he did not have those issues with her but I think she just didn't notice. We took him to a (supposedly rabbit savvy) vet to solve these issues and were told it likely had to do with his teeth, and that we needed to do a CT scan. A few days later he went into stasis so we took him to an emergency vet (that accepted rabbits but did not have a exotics specialist) but they didn't find anything wrong with him. But by the time we got home he was eating critical care on his own and moving around again, thankfully. The next day, I was calling a rabbit savvy vet to compare estimates for dental work and they said I should take him in that day due to his stasis episode. The vet said he likely just had gas the night before, his teeth were fine, and did a lacrimal flush. So three vets in one week! It was a stressful time but I am glad to have gotten a chance to go to the best rabbit vet in my area (it was fully booked out for months so I was only able to go since it was an emergency appointment). He made a quick recovery from his stasis episode and seemed to be doing ok for a while.
Here are changes we implemented in his diet:
1) I tried a million types of hay but finally got him to eat haystacks and now he eats hay! Probably not as much as most rabbits but we're working on it.
2) I immediately separated the "junk" from his original pellets and slowly transitioned him to Science Selective Adult (1/4 cup a day). The vet recommended to switch him to the House version but now she's saying keep him on Adult due to his anemia. His poopy butt resolved shortly after his pellets were changed out.
3) We started giving him about 3/4 cup fresh veggies every day (usually cilantro, green leaf lettuce, and basil).
MORE RELEVANT INFO:
Towards mid-August, he started drinking a lot more water than the first few weeks we had him. Before, he would barely finish his bowl every day (~4 oz) and he started drinking at least 20 oz per day. It was hard to tell exactly how much because his water bottle leaked and sometimes he would splash his bowl. He seemed to be more interested in his bottle so we started taking it out during the day and just refilling the bowl so we could see if it was just because he wanted to play with the bottle. But he would still be emptying bowl after bowl. Then he started having accidents outside his litter box. He peed like 5 times in various places in the same day and he had never peed outside his litter box before. So I called the vet that day and she said just to monitor him for now. We started taking notes on his water intake and he kept peeing in certain places so we tried to prevent him going to those areas. Basically we tried to differentiate between actual accidents and him just peeing where he felt like peeing.
In September his drinking seemed to calm down a bit and his accidents too so I thought he was fine. Then in October he started drinking 30-40 oz of water and peeing 4/5 times outside his litterbox every day both inside his pen and outside of it. He also started leaving little pee spots where ever he sat for a little while. So we made an appointment at the vet but had to wait a week. So in the meantime, I started giving him Sherwood Urinary tablets (4-5 a day) and the tablet instructions said to stop pellets and veggies so we mostly just gave him hay for a few days. We also gave him two additional litter boxes inside his pen in a couple of his favorite spots and started putting pee pads everywhere to help with the clean up.
As I said at the beginning of the post, the vet doesn't think he has any kidney/urinary issues and thinks he is just marking his territory. He had a urine test, blood test, and X-ray done (the x-ray did not show his kidneys though). But I suspect there is more to it since the change in drinking was so fast (within a few days) and because of the little pee spots he was leaving. Also its worrisome that kidney issues can go undetected for a while.. He's fine in terms of eating/pooping (some of his poops seemed a bit large and wet last week but nothing crazy) and he's always been a lazy fellow - as seen in the picture I've included. He also seems to be doing a lot better now with peeing with his three litterbox system so maybe the Sherwood tablets are doing something.
The vet prescribed Vetri DMG for his anemia and she said she would be sending iron supplements. She also said to try feeding him oat hay and alfalfa. I asked if she recommends a follow up after making the diet changes and am waiting on an answer.
MY THOUGHTS:
- Drinking more could have been from boredom, heat, shedding, eating more fiber, hunger since we limited pellets, or just from becoming more comfortable with us.
- Drinking more could be because of illness, possibly something with the kidneys or liver.
- Accidents could just be a result of the excessive drinking or could be due to some infection or bladder weakness.
- Excessive thirst and anemia are connected to EC.
- The anemia could just be from us taking away his pellets and veggies for a few days.
Thank you to everyone who made it through my lengthy post
Let me know what you guys think, hopefully I'm just being my usual anxious self and he is completely fine!
Here is the bun in question being his floppy self:
I'm going to go into a lot of (probably irrelevant) detail in case anything in his situation relates, so I'll separate my post into sections.
LIKELY IRRELEVANT BACKGROUND INFO:
I adopted my rabbit mid July and was told he is about 3 years old. His previous owner fed him 1-2 cups of pellets a day with seeds and dried veggies and he did not eat hay at all. He also had poopy butt and weepy eyes. The previous owner said he did not have those issues with her but I think she just didn't notice. We took him to a (supposedly rabbit savvy) vet to solve these issues and were told it likely had to do with his teeth, and that we needed to do a CT scan. A few days later he went into stasis so we took him to an emergency vet (that accepted rabbits but did not have a exotics specialist) but they didn't find anything wrong with him. But by the time we got home he was eating critical care on his own and moving around again, thankfully. The next day, I was calling a rabbit savvy vet to compare estimates for dental work and they said I should take him in that day due to his stasis episode. The vet said he likely just had gas the night before, his teeth were fine, and did a lacrimal flush. So three vets in one week! It was a stressful time but I am glad to have gotten a chance to go to the best rabbit vet in my area (it was fully booked out for months so I was only able to go since it was an emergency appointment). He made a quick recovery from his stasis episode and seemed to be doing ok for a while.
Here are changes we implemented in his diet:
1) I tried a million types of hay but finally got him to eat haystacks and now he eats hay! Probably not as much as most rabbits but we're working on it.
2) I immediately separated the "junk" from his original pellets and slowly transitioned him to Science Selective Adult (1/4 cup a day). The vet recommended to switch him to the House version but now she's saying keep him on Adult due to his anemia. His poopy butt resolved shortly after his pellets were changed out.
3) We started giving him about 3/4 cup fresh veggies every day (usually cilantro, green leaf lettuce, and basil).
MORE RELEVANT INFO:
Towards mid-August, he started drinking a lot more water than the first few weeks we had him. Before, he would barely finish his bowl every day (~4 oz) and he started drinking at least 20 oz per day. It was hard to tell exactly how much because his water bottle leaked and sometimes he would splash his bowl. He seemed to be more interested in his bottle so we started taking it out during the day and just refilling the bowl so we could see if it was just because he wanted to play with the bottle. But he would still be emptying bowl after bowl. Then he started having accidents outside his litter box. He peed like 5 times in various places in the same day and he had never peed outside his litter box before. So I called the vet that day and she said just to monitor him for now. We started taking notes on his water intake and he kept peeing in certain places so we tried to prevent him going to those areas. Basically we tried to differentiate between actual accidents and him just peeing where he felt like peeing.
In September his drinking seemed to calm down a bit and his accidents too so I thought he was fine. Then in October he started drinking 30-40 oz of water and peeing 4/5 times outside his litterbox every day both inside his pen and outside of it. He also started leaving little pee spots where ever he sat for a little while. So we made an appointment at the vet but had to wait a week. So in the meantime, I started giving him Sherwood Urinary tablets (4-5 a day) and the tablet instructions said to stop pellets and veggies so we mostly just gave him hay for a few days. We also gave him two additional litter boxes inside his pen in a couple of his favorite spots and started putting pee pads everywhere to help with the clean up.
As I said at the beginning of the post, the vet doesn't think he has any kidney/urinary issues and thinks he is just marking his territory. He had a urine test, blood test, and X-ray done (the x-ray did not show his kidneys though). But I suspect there is more to it since the change in drinking was so fast (within a few days) and because of the little pee spots he was leaving. Also its worrisome that kidney issues can go undetected for a while.. He's fine in terms of eating/pooping (some of his poops seemed a bit large and wet last week but nothing crazy) and he's always been a lazy fellow - as seen in the picture I've included. He also seems to be doing a lot better now with peeing with his three litterbox system so maybe the Sherwood tablets are doing something.
The vet prescribed Vetri DMG for his anemia and she said she would be sending iron supplements. She also said to try feeding him oat hay and alfalfa. I asked if she recommends a follow up after making the diet changes and am waiting on an answer.
MY THOUGHTS:
- Drinking more could have been from boredom, heat, shedding, eating more fiber, hunger since we limited pellets, or just from becoming more comfortable with us.
- Drinking more could be because of illness, possibly something with the kidneys or liver.
- Accidents could just be a result of the excessive drinking or could be due to some infection or bladder weakness.
- Excessive thirst and anemia are connected to EC.
- The anemia could just be from us taking away his pellets and veggies for a few days.
Thank you to everyone who made it through my lengthy post
Let me know what you guys think, hopefully I'm just being my usual anxious self and he is completely fine!Here is the bun in question being his floppy self:
