Bladder issue experience anyone?(RIP)

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murph72

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My one and a half year old Holland lop doe, Sweet Pea, has been feeling not so well lately. I figured she was mad at me because I moved her cage. I felt it was for the best for several reasons, but she seemed miffed. She slowed down her eating, but then last night stopped eating her treats of Cheerios...which is very uncharacteristic. I did get her to eat two slices of banana and it was late so I waited to see how she looked today.

This morning she had a sludge-like substance on her bottom. It did not appear to be diarrhea. It is kind of yellow in appearance and sludgy looking (sorry, that's the best adjective I could use to describe it...it was just thick looking, wet, and looked pastey). I could not get into the vet until tomorrow morning since the only "pocket pet" vet that is within a safe driving distance of me was not in today. I force fed her a mixture of benebac, pedialyte, and critical care which she took very well. She also ate her banana slice tonight. I am pretty experienced with GI issues, so I think I can get her GI system back in track if we can get the underlying issue that caused the problems fixed.

I was hoping someone else might have experienced this before. I have a vet that loves to just give Baytril for everything and anything. He will, however, take my advice...so I like to go in prepared if possible.

Has anyone had this in a bun before? If so, what was the prescribed treatment? And, did it work?
 
Do you feed your bun pellets? What kind of veggies does she eat?

One of my rabbits had bladder sludge last year. The vet prescribedtri-sulfa (Bactrim)and gave her sub q fluids.I stopped giving her pellets and the issue cleared up.
 
She never was real fond of the pellets. I feed Manna Pro and she eats them, but not that much. She's more fond of her Timothy hay...and, of course, the Cheerios she gets every night. I give her fresh clover and grass, but she doesn't always eat it. In fact, when I put her out in the run she isn't much on grazing. She'd prefer to lay in it rather than eat it. She'll eat apples, but the kind my bunnies prefer are kind of over for the season so it's been awhile since she had any.

Did the bladder sludge look like what I described? I know, it wasn't the best description, but I had never seen something like that before on any of my buns and I've had quite a few buns over the years. I just can't think of what else it might be...unless it is a uterus infection. Which also might be a possibility.
 
There are a few members of this forum who have treated their rabbits for bladder sludge (under a vets supervision) . Here are some articles for you to read but I am sure that some our members will be relating pesonal experiences which will be helpful. It is great that you already have a vet appt.

Scroll down the page for articles on bladder sludge
this condition can be genetic and/or dietary related. it is unknown but genetics seem to play a huge part in it.

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12052&forum_id=10
 
Unfortunately I don't have a great update. Sweet Pea's vet feels she likely has an abscess in her uterus that is now infected the uterus. What he feels I was seeing was adischargeof infected fluid from the uterus rather than bladder sludge.

He has offered to attempt to spay her at no cost. In my area, spays are not often even attempted. Dr. Berg would like to learn more about rabbits, and I sincerely applaud that. Rather than have her euthanized, he is going to try to remove her uterus. I am not overly optimistic that Sweet Pea will pull through the surgery. I made Dr. Berg promise that if he felt she would suffer that he would not let her wake after the surgery.

If you can offer up a prayer for Sweet Pea and Dr. Berg's success, it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Oh I am so sorry !!
Irealize your dilemna and hope all goes well although I do understand what you are saying

:pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray::pray:


Please let us know what happens and I wish the best
"Hugs"

Maureen
 
Thinking of you and SweetPea.

Please update us when you can.

x
 
Add one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to a gallon of water and use that for filling her water bottle. ACV (apple cider vinegar) helps the bunny to pass all of the bladder sludge.
 
This article may help your vet a bit: http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Uro_gen_diseases/castration/ovario.PDF

Good luck with the spay. It shouldn't be too difficult if he has done cats, but here are a few things to remember:

1) Make sure she has pain medicine for after the surgery to take home. Metacam (meloxicam) is commonly prescribed, but something narcotic may be helpful due to the large amount of pain she could be in. Tramadol or buprenorphine (buprenex) can help a lot. The amount of pain can be so great that they don't eat which really hurts their outlook.

2)Don't remove food from her until 1-2 hours before the surgery, as rabbits cannot vomit due to anesthesia, and a main factor in how well they recover is how quickly the GI tract gets moving again. The longer you withhold food before surgery, the longer it will take to get her GI tract going, and her inability to vomit makes witholding food unnecessary until 1-2hrs before.

3) Hydration is very important with most pain medications, and it will be more important for her to be re-hydrated after surgery than anything else.

4) Post-op antibiotics are commonly prescribed to other pets to prevent infection of the wound, but with a rabbit's sensitive GI tract, they can do more harm than good. I don't recommend them at all. However, since the vet suspects a uterine infection (typically called pyometra), he may want to prescribe something to make sure the infection is totally cleared from the body. A broad-spectrum antibiotic like Baytril may be good to use, but if you're given any antibiotic, make sure she's also on a probiotic like BeneBac or ProBios (the first one is available at most pet stores, the second at many farm stores). Also, penicillin and amoxicillin are totally unsuitable antibiotics to give orally to a rabbit, they can only be injected.

5) Don't let her out of a small area for 2-3 days after surgery. Don't let her jump for 7-10 days after surgery. Check on the suture (preferably done with surgical glue) daily for redness, swelling, or oozing. You can clean it daily with betadine if you're worried about infection.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for all the advice. I'm hoping she pulls through the surgery OK. The vet said he'd call this afternoon....so I'm of course sitting on top of the phone waiting. Still no word, but hopefully that is a good sign that it didn't look hopeless when he first opened her up. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

I do have worries with medications as I know my vet's office only likes to give Baytril. He is very open to suggestions, however, so I'm sure he could be persuaded to use one medicine over another...so thanks for the tips.

I do have Benebac. Sweetpea was actually on a critical care, benebac, pedialyte mixture yesterday and this morning because she was not eating enough on her own. I am sure it was due to the pain she was experiencing, but I wanted to ensure her GI tract wasn't also getting irreverisibly messed up because of her lack of a desire to eat. She was actually really good with the force feedings. She made a better patient than many of my other buns have in the past.

He admittedly hasn't done too many spays on bunnies, but he's done plenty of cats. He and I were primarily concerned because she's going into the surgery already feeling pretty crummy. I just wish I would have found this sooner. It's a shame bunnies are so good at hiding their symptoms. I just thought she was being moody because she was mad at me for changing her cage location.
 
Sweet Pea was euthanized. The vet found that the problem in her uterus was a mummified baby that her body probably tried to absorb, but did not. Instead she developed a bad infection. The uterus had already ruptured by the time they went in to do surgery. With the infection throughout her abdomen, the doctor thought it would be best to let her go. :tears2: My sweet baby girl is now binkying in heaven. Her pain is thankfully over.
 
I'm so sorry. It sounds like you did completely the best thing for her.

Binky Free Sweet Pea.
 
we're so sorry for your loss of Sweet Pea. It's never easy to let go of our fur babies, but, sometimes its for the best as hard as that is. She doesn't hurt and she knew love and happiness--not all bunnies get that. Charlene came to us as a rescue from an abandoned house. The vet did a well check and thought she had the same thing. We scheduled her for a spay, but when they went in, she'd already had that done--turned out to be a huge stone in her bladder. After that she was much better. Just a huge stroke of luck for us. Binky free at the bridge little girl and rest in peace. You are loved and missed.:bunnyangel2:
 
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