Anaemic rabbit with weight loss

Re: Anaemic rabbit with weight loss

mariette asselbergs — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 16:29:31 GMT

How old is the rabbit, indoor or outdoor, diet?

I would think of hepatic coccidiosis if with other rabbits in an outdoor pen.

Mariette

Re: Anaemic rabbit with weight loss

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 20:34:42 GMT

The PCV of 13% would definitely concern me - this rabbit is likely close to decompensating even though the loss may be chronic.

Does the liver feel enlarged/irregular. What was the glucose? Definitely need to work up where the rabbit is losing the blood as the regeneration and low PCV suggests loss rather than anaemia of chronic Dz. Liver value abnormalities possibly suggestive of trauma/neoplasia/lobe torsion but may be a red herring as not very specific. Rads and U/S plus testing faeces for occult blood would help as a starting point. If you can get BP as well that will help guide your fluid approach as you need to be careful about over-diluting and also promoting oedema with crystalloids in a hypoproteinaemic rabbit as they do like to get pulmonary oedema. Transfusion is possible but donor volume often precludes using commercial collection kits and we have to compromise with using heparinised syringe collection and infusion.

Marie

Re: Anaemic rabbit with weight loss

HMC — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 17:25:58 GMT

If it were a stress-thing, eg due to dental dz, then I would not suspect the anaemia to be regenerative. A diagnosis of a regenerative anaemia should limit the differential list considerably, eg haematuria, lead-toxicity from old paint... (off the top of my head). I found a few decent paragraphs on this in a journal and can look it up if you want and if it is a regenerative anaemia.

Re: Anaemic rabbit with weight loss

HMC — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 17:22:35 GMT

What age is the rabbit and what is the reticulocyte count? would be worth checking the urine for haematuria (I had a case of that recently) as a cause of the anaemia.

Re: Anaemic rabbit with weight loss

Nicola Lawlor — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 22:22:03 GMT

I'd be taking a proper look at the teeth and mouth to be totally certain about dental issues here - they are not always obvious (to me anyway!) with a glance down and auroscope in the mouth. If there is any possibility of dental issues then a GA to examine may be indicated. I honestly don't know though if dental issues can produce that level of anaemia over time?