Blood in Urine

[clean teeth]

Hello all,

Please forgive my directness, I am new to this site and am so glad I found it! We have a big problem I think. It's the week-end so no vet appt until Monday. Here's the question: Our New Zealand rabbit delivered one (quite large) dead kit 7 days ago. She then "delivered" 5 small red blobs - definitly not bllod clots- a few hours later. I suspect they may have been kits from a rebreeding since we could not palpate anything at the first two week interval. Anyway. today she has started passing bright red urine in her litter box. Not everywhere, just where she pees. When we checked her vent area we noticed the vulva is still quite enlarged and the area on either side ( where the testicles would be in a male) are full of what look like scabs and light pus. Gross I know, sorry, and it "has the infected smell". Grosser I know, but I don't know quite what to think.:cry2 She has kindled in the past with no problems. Any ideas??She has had her normaleven temperment and is eating anddrinking just fine. She is our 4-H rabbit and a great pet!

Thank you for any help you can offer!ray:

Vicki

 

[Maureen Las]

I think that you should find an emergency vet as she may still have kits or tissue inside which is causng an infection and/or a disease like vent disease.

I am going to contact our most knowledgeable person on this subject and hopefully pamnock will reply.

I personally do not think this is anything that can wait 2-3 days.

 

[Maureen Las]

Temporary transfer to the rabbitry
hopefully some of our members who are breeders have had similar experiences

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree with angieluv. It sounds like uterine infection, especially with the smell you mentioned. It could also be vent disease, because of what you described is on the sides of the vulva. I don't think the blood is coming from the bladder, but from the uterus/vagina in her case. The best thing that can be done is for her to be taken to a rabbit-savvy (or livestock-savvy) emergency vet ASAP.

Make sure nobody gives you oral penicillin or amoxicillin to give to her. Injectible is fine. I mention this because a less rabbit-experienced vet might give you these to treat infection. At this point, a vet that doesn't know much about rabbits is ok, since it is so urgent, but only if you can't find a rabbit one. She needs to expel any remaining kits/placenta, which can probably be induced by drugs, and be treated for what is likely a uterine infection OR vent disease. Vent disease is of the syphillis family and is treated with injectible penicillin. This could be taken care of by a non-rabbit vet if needed because a uterus is a uterus, and the hormones involved in inducing labor do not vary much between mammalian species (ie I would guess the med needed is pitocin, used to induce labor in humans). If the remaining material in the uterus cannot be expelled, she needs an emergency spay, for which a rabbit-savvy vet is more important.

I don't want to sound like it's ok to find any old vet, I just want to stress that any vet care is better than waiting at this point.

 

[tonyshuman]

Does it look like these pics of rabbit syphillis?
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=10391&forum_id=1
http://homepage.mac.com/exoticdvm/mammal/PhotoAlbum72.html (genital pic only, not facial pics as it doesn't seem to be manifesting on her face in your case)

 

[clean teeth]

There are no facial sores anywhere. I will try to get a picture and send it if I can. Thank you all for your help!

 

[clean teeth]

I'm going to try this with pictures...thanks for every ones help. I know they are blurry.

edited to realign photos.

 

[clean teeth]

Wow! Sorry those are so big!! Hope they will help. I'm sorry I've been so spastic with these posts. I'm new at this and kind of nervous!
Vicki

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

Those are actualy her scent glands. And you'll want to clean them out. It's not anything related to the pregnancy/birth. All rabbits have them It's not scabs or light pus, not sure what you'd call it?

Emily

 

[clean teeth]

Wow! thanks!!! Can I just use a q-tip and some water? I'm still curious where the blood is coming from though.:?

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree with Emily. That just looks like scent gland wax. It can be cleaned out with a bit of water or baby oil and a Q-tip. I wouldn't bother with that now, it's much more important that you make sure she doesn't have a uterine infection. I don't think she has syphillis, since the stuff you were worried about before is scent gland goo.

Now when you talk about "the infected smell", do you mean like rotting, or like bunny scent? And is she still passing blood? If she isn't passing blood anymore, doesn't appear to be in distress, AND the smell is more like bunny smell that rotten flesh smell, she MAY be ok. It would still be best to get her to a vet. If the smell isn't from her scent glands, she continues to pass blood, or she appears uncomfortable, she needs to go to the emergency vet to get her uterus checked out. There may be material in there left over from the births (dead kits, placenta, etc) that is rotting and could cause her a very dangerous infection. I would guess that the blood that was coming out was from the uterus and was either still placenta. That should no longer be coming out and if it is it's a problem.

 

[clean teeth]

You have all been such a great help! Thank you so much for coming to the rescue!
Vicki

 

[pamnock]

The scent glands look normal. The "blobs" - if they were quarter sized blob of tissue with a little fat on them were probably placentas. Undeveloped feti would have had a thin film covering them and you would have been able to make out some type of structures.

Is there any discharge from the uterus? The "red" urine may not have contained blood - it may have just been darkly pigmented.

I would still watch for signs of infection, and try to determine if there is actually a bloody discharge.

Pam

 

[clean teeth]

Thank you all again!

We'll clean the glands out today. The "blobs" were about 1" long and had distict "structure". No blood this morning in the urine. I don't think it was just pigment because it was very bright red in one concentrated spot. Other spots of urine were normal. We'll watch for it again today. How is it that these things always happen on the week-end??

Hmmmm...all my panic over the scent glands may be a good 4-H demostration speech for the girls!

vicki

 

[tonyshuman]

Yes, these things always seem to happen at bad times. Does she seem ok today? The blood does sound like blood rather than pigment for the reasons you described. Please keep a close eye on her for signs of infection today. It may be best to take her in to the vet on Monday even if she's fine over the weekend, just to get a check-up and be positive she's not retaining any placenta. Many vets will let you drop an animal off in the morning and they will examine it when they have a free moment between patients. This way you can get in to see a vet rather quickly without an appointment.