Urinary incontinence in a female rabbit

Re: Urinary incontinence in a female rabbit

Busybee — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:17:26 GMT

Have got the rabbit in at the moment cos the owner is on holiday and didn't want to leave the neighbour with the responsibility of medicating it.

The owner is very reluctant to spend much money. First day (yesterday) we just observed the rabbit. She seemed to just urinate where she was sitting but there were also drops of urine around the kennel. She is perfectly able to move around and groom at least close to her back end. She is eating well and drinking very well.My colleague put her on Baytril and Urilin.We were concerned she was drinking too much so today we've been measuring. Between 9am and 5pm she drank around 200ml (normal is 50-150ml/kg/day) so is looking like she may be polydipsic. Our 'Rabbit Book' suggests reasons for PD in rabbits are anorexia, food deprivation, diabetes or renal dysfunction. 5min vet consult also mentioned possible pyometra (!), liver disease or neoplasia. We'd love to get a urine sample but now she's not urinating as much! (medication effect?!) I guess that's good, but would still like to rule out the nasties!

Re: Urinary incontinence in a female rabbit

Busybee — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:31:46 GMT

Thanks for your reply! I believe funds are an issue so will probably go for a course of Panacur again, alongside Propalin and Metacam, but will offer rads as well.

What would be the reason for the incontinence only happening three times a year?

Re: Urinary incontinence in a female rabbit

Mark Rowland — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 16:13:37 GMT

Paired titre always better, there is delayed seroconversion (6w)

If the rabbit is on treatment for ec, it will stop shedding so a urine pcr is more likley negative

I would always test first but there is some weight in the 28d course especially if funds prevent the workup

The question is does that clear the parasite. Also what is the potential for re infestation from shed organism.

Sadly there are still lots of questions. One of the biggest being the reason many rabbits carry the organism but are clinically silent vs those that develop disease.

Stress probably plays a part.

Re: Urinary incontinence in a female rabbit

Rob Loxley — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:03:22 GMT

[quote user="Mark Rowland"]ec titre[/quote]

A few questions:

Single or paired titre?
IgG?
Is urine PCR for active shedding of E. cuniculi generally available / useful?
Is treating with fenben for 28 days an alternative to serological testing?

Re: Urinary incontinence in a female rabbit

Mark Rowland — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:34:23 GMT

Hello

You can try propalin at a scaled dog dose. I would also be after bloods on this guy for a profile and ec titre as well as rads to rule out sludge.

metacam is useful in these cases as they often require med/long term anti inflamms.

Ideally bloods/rads first, then poss propalin alongside metacam

Goodluck