Milky White Urine

[mhockin78]

Toby has had this thick milky white urine for a couple days. I noticed that his towels are covered in dried up looking spots of chalkiness, and the fur around his anus is coated in it. Should I be concerned??

 

[JBun]

Rabbits excrete excess calcium in their urine. If the pee was thick and pasty or gritty, then that would be a sign of bladder sludge and you should take your bun to the vet. But if it was just normal pee consistancy with the white color, that is normal. If you fed a veggie or something new that Is high in calcium, that may explain the sudden occurrence. You could try reducing the amount of high calcium veggies fed.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Uro_gen_diseases/generalities/Sludge.htm

 

[mhockin78]

Rabbits excrete excess calcium in their urine. If the pee was thick and pasty or gritty, then that would be a sign of bladder sludge and you should take your bun to the vet. But if it was just normal pee consistancy with the white color, that is normal. If you fed a veggie or something new that Is high in calcium, that may explain the sudden occurrence. You could try reducing the amount of high calcium veggies fed.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Uro_gen_diseases/generalities/Sludge.htm

So besides the obvious culprits: Kale, Spinach etc...what others are too high in calcium for delicate bun systems? I think his urine is just really thick and milky, I haven't noticed any grittiness to it. I hope :/

And thank you for the link, his urine looks just like the first picture when it's dried up!! Yay, he is ok phew...

 

[JBun]

Milky urine is ok, but if it is actually thick too, you may want to take a sample to your vet to have it checked. The urine shouldn't be thick at all when it is fresh. If you are concerned about calcium levels being too high, you can check this list for the levels in commonly fed veggies

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-5/calcium.html

 

[DixieDoodle]

i had this issue when i fed dixie alfalfa pellets instead of timothy by accident. make sure your feeling timothy.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Darn, all my suggestions were taken. Does sound like something high in calcium in the diet--why we changed to a timothy pellet.

 

[mhockin78]

I honestly can't figure out what happened, he gets unlimited tim hay, only a small ramekin of pellets per day (divvied up among 3 bunnies), mostly a greens diet and clean water daily. He is on medication, but that's nothing new, and he has been more confined since he has hip dysplasia and I'm sure he is in pain when he hops too much, but he is able to get out of his enclosure regularly...I'm at a loss.

 

[zombiesue]

Is he old?

I don't know if it's related, but my rabbit is old, and as long as I've had him (about two yearsish) he's been kinda sludgey. Experimenting with food (only feeding very, very low-calcium food and fewer pelets) didn't seem to help, although fewer pellets did bring his weight down which needed to happen lol.

He's never seemed bothered by it, and the problem comes and goes. I just make sure to take him into the vet regularly (esp. because he's old anyway). No stones or anything so far.