PUPD in a pair of young bunnies

RE: PUPD in a pair of young bunnies

Liz Barton — Sun, 20 May 2018 23:59:53 GMT

[quote user="Julie Innes"]Were they well before you took them on?[/quote]

Hi Julie - very fit and well, but their weight has declined a bit since admission, despite eating well and passing plenty of faeces. I was going to scan their kidneys as the next step. We can't really rehome them as they are; the small animal staff inform me they regularly soak their unit in urine!

RE: PUPD in a pair of young bunnies

Julie Innes — Thu, 17 May 2018 09:02:35 GMT

Were they well before you took them on? Only reason I ask is that we treated a pet shop bunny which had severe diarrhoea as a baby. She survived and I ended up taking her on, as the pet shop were reluctant to sell her on. She always drank gallons, and I often wondered if her kidneys had been affected, but she lived to a ripe old age.

RE: PUPD in a pair of young bunnies

Liz Barton — Wed, 16 May 2018 18:19:46 GMT

They’re both small 1.5kg

i did wonder about ref ranges our lab used so thanks for the reassurance. Didn’t draw enough blood for a haem.

the bunnies are both noticeably PUPD with a very wet unit from the urine.

RE: PUPD in a pair of young bunnies

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 16 May 2018 16:09:54 GMT

1000ml is a perfectly normal intake for a pair of 3kg rabbits, but abnormal for 1kg netherland dwarfs so worth working out intake per kg bodyweight (up to 200ml/kg could be considered normal under current weather conditions). USG is normal. Do you have a PCV to help assess hydration a bit further? Nothing on the bloods would really concern me, the albumin and ALT are both normal with reference ranges I tend to use. HR again depends on size, the rates you have are normal for a medium-large rabbit.

A management change would make sense given both are similar and common causes of increased water intake are an increase in hay intake, reduction in overall appetite or hot conditions.

Liver disease (coccidiosis being main differential), dental pain, cystitis or enteritis would be the more common medical causes but I would rule out physiological water intake first!

Marie