Urolithiasis in rabbits

Re: Urolithiasis in rabbits

HMC — Wed, 29 May 2013 09:34:30 GMT

I assume they're getting plenty of exercise as they're house rabbits, but that's worth verifying. (to encourage full urination).

Supreme's VetCarePlus Urinary Tract Health has 0.5% calcium (which is >0.1% lower than most other dry foods).

Burgess Excel for mature rabbits has very high levels of vitamin D (which I must get round to asking them about), which might be inappropriate in this situation.

Re: Urolithiasis in rabbits

Mark Hedberg — Wed, 29 May 2013 08:47:09 GMT

[quote user="Braden Collins"]At the risk of stepping into Tom Lonsdales camp here, I feel rabbit concentrate diets are to blame for a lot of their health problems. Good quality hay and grass seems to be the best food for rabbits IMHO. I would recommend a diets based on this alone. If the owners want to "give the rabbit a treat", I will sometimes recommend some coarse green veges such as bok choi, but not making up more than 10% of the diet.

[/quote]

Only if you advocate feeding RMB to rabbits! Joking aside, I believe a leading cause of obesity in rabbits is caused by owners overfeeding concentrate and giving minimal roughage. Concentrate is tasty stuff for a rabbit, i don't blame the rabbit for eating loads of it if given ad libitum, but too much is too much.

Of course the rabbit 'doesn't like hay' - they've gorged themselves silly on the kibble!

Re: Urolithiasis in rabbits

Braden Collins — Wed, 29 May 2013 02:29:29 GMT

At the risk of stepping into Tom Lonsdales camp here, I feel rabbit concentrate diets are to blame for a lot of their health problems. Good quality hay and grass seems to be the best food for rabbits IMHO. I would recommend a diets based on this alone. If the owners want to "give the rabbit a treat", I will sometimes recommend some coarse green veges such as bok choi, but not making up more than 10% of the diet.

Re: Urolithiasis in rabbits

Lynn Broom — Tue, 28 May 2013 20:00:42 GMT

I had a client with 10-12 rabbits of which 3 developed urolithiasis and needed surgery. At the time she was feeding a lot of parsley not realising it was high in calcium. We 'googled' all the high calcium foods and she eliminated them from their diet & reduced the amount of concentrate pellets as well - my understanding is that very low levels of pellets can be fed and bunnies still stay healthy if get quality hay and other veg. One later had a recurrence of cystitis with thick urine but this resolved with flushing with a urinary catheter & further surgery was not required. Since then they've all been fine (several years). Is it possible your owner is still feeding some other high calcium containing food ? (e.g. alfalfa based concentrate, selective feeding of mix diet, vitamin and mineral supplement, lots of dandelions etc.). I agree that next step (if diet not to blame) is for culture and bloods. Could it be that the crystals in your bunnies are not calcium based - not sure if tha'ts a consideration in rabbits ?