Kokho's smelly pee!

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MomOfBuns

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Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada
Kokho was sneezing and was on drops of Baytril for a week to get rid of the sneezing before it compounded into a huge issue. He is back to his old self, rearranging his litter box and so on. He has been off the Baytril for almost a week and his pee smells so strong. It's almost like I haven't cleaned his litter in ages - I clean all their cages every 2 days.
Even last night, the smell is so pungent that I could even smell it upstairs. Before I changed them all out, I smelled over their cages and his was the only one that was EXTREMELY smelly (ammonia-like). I changed them all out and gave clean litter and hay, water - the whole works and before we went to bed, Kokho had peed and I could smell it again. I did the over-the-cage smell test to see if it was just him or the others, but it was just him.

Now I'm getting paranoid that it might be the workings of a UTI. I lost one bunny, Deigl, to that in May. I would rather not lose another one. It's just so hard.

Kokho drinks his water fine. He drinks from a bottle on the side of his cage because he absolutely refuses to drink from a bowl, even when he's running around in the run-room. He just tips it over - as I'm watching. He is such the little devil.
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He eats his hay before eating his pellets and has had green veggies (loves them too).

I'm at a loss. I'm hoping I can prevent this, if it's anything, before something drastic happens. I know how quick a rabbit can turn for the worst.


Any suggestions - greatly appreciated!!!
 
Hi there,

I believe Baytril can mess around with a rabbit's natural bacterial balance sometimes. While I am not sure if this is related to Baytril- it seems possible that he may have an over or under abundance of bacteria in his system.

If the smell is THAT strong, I would be worried. What was the diagnosis with his sneezing- what was it caused by?

I do remember strong urine smell can be a sign of kidney or liver problems. To be safe, I would consider doing a complete bloodwork panel on this rabbit, especially if you are afraid due to the loss of a previous bunny. Better to be safe!
 
I agree with dsquenel re. doing the blood work. A rabbit in kidney failure can have bad breath but if there is a build up of ammonia in the urine that isn't normal either.

Never heard of baytril affecting the smell of urine..but UTI will change the odor of urine although I was not aware that it would increase the ammonia content.
 
We didn't really do diagnosing as far as performing tests. He was sneezing excessively so I took him to the vet before it became a huge problem. His chest was clear and no discharge from nose or eyes. Gave Baytril almost as a preventative measure. 2 drops a day for7 days. He hated it. But, as I was saying, he got back to his normal self. But this pee smelling issue, is just strange.

He has been neutered about 8 months now, too. The more I'm hearing, the more I'm worrying, so off to the vet he goes. Poor Kokho.:bunnynurse:
 
So, I took Kokho to the vet today and because his pee was so smelly, she wanted to do a urinalaysis (?spelling) to see if it was the makings of a UTI. She is keeping him overnight because he hasn't peed on his own yet and she has already given him 200ml of sub-Q fluids. He is litter-trained, so he will probably hold it until it's absolutely necessary. So I brought him some food and his water bottle tonight and he has to stay over night, but he doesn't seem stressed about it, so neither am I. Yet. I will hear more tomorrow. If he has to go on medication, she is going to show me how to do injections where Kokho is extremely opposed to medication orally.

So no news yet. I will keep you posted.
 
Thanks for the update! Sounds like you and vet are doing the right things. Have you discussed what the next step is if it turns out to not be a UTI?
 
No we haven't discussed what the next step would be if it's not a UTI. He's still at the vets office. He still hasn't peed. They are going to extract it with a needle at noon if he hasn't peed by then. By 2pm today Atlantic time, it will be 24 hours since he've peed. Poor guy. That can't be good. Will hear more later and will keep you updated.
 
So here is the verdict:

I got Kokho from the vets around 3:30 Friday afternoon and he is healthy as a horse. No infection. They had to extract the pee from him with a needle and after that he peed on his own. Silly bunny

My vet, Dr. MacKay,don't get to see many rabbits where the owner will let them do random testing, but as long as she figures out what his issue is, she can pretty much do what she has to. Dr. MacKay is amazing. He was there over 24 hours, had a urinalaysis done, and she did an ultrasound of his belly, bladder and major organs and still no problems. No stones, no sludge - Nothing. All that for just over $60.

Did I mention that I love my Vet?!!!!

She consulted the other rabbit-savvy vet and she said it sounds like his hormones changed with age and this is what happens at different stages - their pee changes smell. Dr. MacKay is not totally convinced that it's that yet.

I have recently changed all their food over to Martins less-active pellets because the other food didn't have the better nutritional value, but Kokho didn't put on any excess weight with it and now that he's been on the Martins pellets for over a week, we think it might be the change in pellets. So, we are switching just him back to the Bulk Barn rabbit pellets. Once that's done and he's fully on just that brand for about a week, we'll see, or rather, smell how that goes and if it's still the same, maybe give him a round of antibiotics just to be on the safe side.

He is Mommy's little Troublemaker lately. He has a new litter box tonight and he hasn't gotten out of it since I put it in with new litter and hay. He is quite the character.

I will still keep you updated on any new developments.


 
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