Dripping Pee

[Snowballbun]

I have a 6 month old female rabbit, unspayed. There are a few things I was wondering about.

1. When I take her out sometimes, her bottom is wet. Her white fur is stained yellowish brownish (which I'm pretty sure is from urine.) So when I hold her against my white shirt, she doesn't pee on me, but I don't know if urine leaks out, because I end up with yellow spots on my shirt.

2. Today I put her on my bed while getting ready in the morning. I have a sheet to cover on the top. She won't go to the bathroom on my bed but she goes poop and pee sometimes in her pen. When she was running around on my bed, she had drops of urine all over the bed that I had to wipe up. She didn't just pee in one spot, but it just seemed to drip out. I noticed that in her pen sometimes I would find drops of wet spots.

What does this mean? Does it mean she has bladder issues, is she spraying, or I'm not sure?

 

[kirbyultra]

The slight dripping seems like a urinary tract infection and she's having difficulty urinating so it comes out in little spots...

Let me ask the infirmary mods to take a look at this...

 

[Maureen Las]

I would definitely have a rabbit knowledgeable vet check this out for a possible urinary tract infection.
Unspayed young femalesDO mark everywhere but it would not be 'dripping" as you describe.
She needs to see a vet

 

[Snowballbun]

How do they check for an infection? And also, when they mark, is it a spray? Or how does that work? Because in her cage she does go next to her litterbox sometimes or on her towel in addition to her litterbox.

June 7th I am supposed to go in for a recheck from her having her syphilis (so shes been through a lot of meds and antibiotics before she was diagnosed as well) and get pre anesthesia bloodwork for her spay on June 18th. If I take her in, should it be before this, because it's been going on for a while?

 

[Maureen Las]

I would take her in before June 7th.

they can get a urine sample and check for bacteria or they may treat on just the description of the symptoms.

 

[Maureen Las]

Male rabbits can spray just like cats . marking walls and actually some females spray also . i have been hit in the face with rabbit urine at the shelter ( LOL)
They also tend to mark so she could be marking next to the litter box but
dribbling ir dripping is not normal
poor little girl sounds like she has been through a lot for such a youngbun

 

[Snowballbun]

Yeah I don't know what to do. I have had to medicate her so many times, and I am worried about having to give her pain meds for her spay because she hates it so much. In fact, for a while now, she has been pretty mean when I try and take her out of her cage, such as batting and sometimes biting me and grunting. She is a very sweet bunny otherwise when I have her out, so I am worried it's from having to medicate her so much.

 

[Maureen Las]

I understand that a rabbit can become frightened when they need to have procedures done repetitively; I have been in that position with my rabbits and I always feel bad that i am frightening them , however, you need to address something like a urinary tract infection quickly so it will not worsen and possibly cause kidney damage.

With time and patience most rabbits will learn to trust again after they are well.

 

[Snowballbun]

So I took her to the vet yesterday, and he was thinking it could be hormonal since she is like 6 months and I'm getting her fixed. Her area didn't look irritated and I haven't seen blood in her urine. But we couldn't get a urine sample at the vet. He gave me a syringe to take home to see if I could get some from her litterbox and she peed right away when I got home so I drove back to give them the sample.

Today, they called and said there is no blood in her urine, but there are some more white blood cells than usual. They said this could be common but since she's having the pee issues that they want to go ahead and give her Baytril antibiotics, which she's been on before.

She peed once on the way home from the vet, right away when I put her in her pen when I got home, and then about 2 mins after I left my mom said. Why do they get UTI's??

Now I have to put her through medicating her again when I'm trying to work with her on not being so traumatized on having to medicate her before. Then June 18 when she gets spayed I will have to medicate her more.

 

[Frankthetank]

I think this is very ridiculous and the person who sold you the rabbit should give you some free stuff!:biggrin:

 

[kirbyultra]

Wait, so the vet knows the bun has has Baytril before and STILL gave her the same antibiotic?

I'm no expert but isn't white blood cell presence in the urine indicative of UTI?

 

[Maureen Las]

The vet checked for blood in her urine but did not do a urine culture. Usually if there are white blood cells in the urine then a urine culture would grow bacteria .
When urine is cultured it takes time for the bacteria to grow.

I also am wondering about another round of baytril ?
can you talk to the vet and and ask about a culture

White blood cells would be a component of a bladder infection but bacteria should also be present.

 

[Snowballbun]

Yea, she's been on Baytril twice before since Feb. And I mentioned that when I talked to them on the phone, but the tech or who I spoke with said whichever kind of bacteria wasn't that bad so that's the kind it would respond to. I don't know about that though especially since she might be immune to it by now? I thought more white blood cells meant some kind of infection too.

Yea I guess the vet said that there can be white blood cells but since her pee habits have changed. When I went in, he didn't want to originally throw her on meds (cuz she has been on them b4) cuz he thought it might have been hormonal.

 

[Maureen Las]

Maye you can just do the baytril for a few days and if the problem remains the same then call him and let him know.

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree. If there's no improvement within 4 or so days of the Baytril, the urine should be cultured to determine if a different antibiotic will be more effective.

 

[Snowballbun]

How do I know if things are improving? If she's not dribbling as much? It's really hard to tell if it's just bad litterbox habits because she's not fixed yet, or she's peeing on her towel because of her infection.

 

[Pipp]

She shouldn't be dribbling at all, her behind should be dry.

And with the exception of 'marking' zones, she should be peeing sizable volumes in just one spot.

Don't worry about post spay pain meds, if you use the usually flavored Metacam, it's considered quite the treat. It tastes great.

Ask the vet if this will work: to test her urine, get some bubble wrap, wash it as best you can in hot water, let it dry and then put it down in her litter box. When she pees in it it will collect in the indentations. Scoop it up with a sterile syringe tube and put it in a clean/sterilized pill bottle and run it up to the vet so s/he can take a look at his/her leisure.

It may not be an option if she's already taking antibiotics, I'm not sure about that part.

If she's peeing to 'mark', it will be in spots she considers disputed territory, especially where any other animals are and sometimes humans (like the bed) and it will be deliberately peeing (and usually pooping) and not dribbling. Poops often goes hand in hand with marking.

What antibiotic was she on for the syphilis? And for how long?

What litter are you using again? It needs to be changed a lot and kept very dry.


sas :clover:

 

[Snowballbun]

Okay, yea cuz her bottom's been wet quite a bit lately.
She does pee a lot on her towel in her cage, but she also goes in the litterbox a lot so I'm not sure what that means. She's been going frequently though.

Thanks for the reassurance on the pain meds. She has been sort of handling the antibiotics well so far... It seems a little better than last time I had to medicate her as far as receiving it. I'm also giving her Benebac on a banana or apple.

She was on Baytril for a supposed eye infection in Feb which turned out to be a symptom of syphilis. She was on Baytril again in March with a different vet who wanted to try antibiotics first to see if that helped becuz he said it could be a few things and syphilis could be one. By this time I was pretty sure it was syphilis especially from you guys so I wish he would have just started the treatment for that instead of trying Baytril. He gave her a bit of a stronger dose than the other vet I believe. He said that he wanted to try this because the treatment for syphilis was a lot stronger. Both rounds were just the standard I believe 10 days.

When he saw the Baytril didn't help as much as he liked from what he said, then he said we would start treatment for syphilis. She got three shots of Penicilin....I believe there were 2 different kinds mixed. The shots were 1 week apart. Her syphilis seems to have gone away. Does it leave scars? She has a dark spot on her privates and the vet said it looks like a scar but it is not an active lesion.

She is on .46 ml I think Baytril twice a day rt now
for the UTI. I am really nervous it's not going to work since this is her third time on it.

I am using a recycled paper litter called Cell sorb..I think it is very similar to Yesterday's News. How often should I change it? And why do you need to keep it very dry?
I am just asking a lot of questions trying to learn And I really appreciate your responses.

That is a good idea for the bubble wrap thing. Should I bring another sample in to see if it is helping? They charged 40 for a urinalysis unfortunately.

 

[Maureen Las]

Before you get a sample call them and have someone ask the vet if he would culture a urine sample... tell them that you do not think that she is responding to the antbiotics.

.