Rabbits' urine varies in color from clear to yellow to brown to
bright red. This is usually not a cause for alarm unless there
are additional signs such as sitting and straining to urinate,
loss of appetite or temperature. When you see red urine, don't
panic. Just keep your eyes open for other signs that might
indicate a problem. If in doubt, you can have your veterinarian test to
see whether there is blood in the urine.
Never let a veterinarian give your rabbit amoxicillin. It is a
pink liquid antibiotic that smells like bubble gum. Amoxicillin is very
dangerous for rabbits, and has killed many more than it has
helped. Any penicillin-based drug can be dangerous for your
rabbit, so try to find a veterinarian who is knowledgeable
about rabbit-safe antibiotics, and who is familiar with the
safer drugs such as Chloramphenicol, Tetracycline, sulfa-drugs
based like Septra or TMS, or enrofloxins such as Baytril or
Cipro.
These are very bad for your rabbit and other pets. The
aromatic hydrocarbons produced from softwood beddings can cause
both respiratory and liver damage in rabbits and other small
animals. Use organic litter in the litter box and put
newspaper in the cage tray.
The House Rabbit Society has had over 1000 rabbits spayed or
neutered with approximately .1% mortality due to anesthesia.
On the other hand, the risk of reproductive cancer (which is
fatal) for an unspayed female rabbit stands at approximately
85%, which makes spaying a necessity. For male rabbits, the
benefits are primarily behavioral (eliminating spraying and
hormone-related aggression), but are just as important. A
knowledgeable rabbit veterinarian can spay or neuter your
rabbit with very little risk to a healthy rabbit.
Rabbits' teeth can be misaligned. This condition is known as
malocclusion, which means that a rabbit's constantly-growing
teeth are not wearing down properly. If the misalignment is
bad, the teeth will need to be clipped periodically so that the
rabbit can eat. Your veterinarian can do this for you, or can
show you how to do it at home. Usually malocclusion just
strikes the front teeth, but occasionally, the back teeth can
also be misaligned. One indication of this is a wet chin that
is caused by drooling. If this is the case, your rabbit will
need his molars trimmed by a veterinarian on a regular basis.
Rabbits shed their hair every three months. Every second
shedding is light, followed three months later by a heavy
shedding. This is an important factor in rabbit deaths. You
need to brush and comb your rabbit to get the hair off of them
when they start to shed. Rabbits groom themselves like cats
and will ingest all of the loose hair, which they cannot vomit
as can cats. For this reason, besides regular grooming, they
must have constant access to fresh hay every day, as the fiber
helps the hair pass through the digestive system. You can also
give your rabbit cat hairball preparations such as Petromalt or
Laxatone once a week when not shedding and daily during their
molt. Finally, daily exercise is another important factor in
the prevention of hairballs.
Make sure your rabbit is in good health prior to elective
surgeries. Food and water should not be removed from a rabbit
the evening before surgery! Any change in diet can upset a
rabbit's sensitive digestive tract and cause problems in post-
operative recovery.
One of the reasons some veterinarians recommend
removing animals' food before surgery is the possibility that
they may vomit. Rabbits cannot throw up, thus this is not a
concern. Additionally, some veterinarians are concerned about spaying
rabbits with a full cecum. Unfortunately, the cecum would take
3-4 days of fasting to empty out, and by that time, the rabbit
would be dead. So please, do not fast your rabbit before
surgery!
After surgery, make sure the rabbit's cage is clean,
and check her incision site daily for swelling or discharge.
Do everything you can to get your rabbit to eat again as soon
as possible after returning home. To coax him to eat again,
you may have to offer a variety of treats, including his
regular pellets and hay. If your rabbit has not eaten for 48
hours after surgery, consult your veterinarian.
The first indication of an infection may be a runny nose or
eye, sometimes a high temperature, sometimes a rattling sound
from the lungs or (rarely) a coughing sound. It is important
to see your veterinarian as soon as the first symptoms of any infection
appear, as they are more easily cured when caught in the early
stages. The bacteria you may hear the most about is called
Pasteurella. This used to be a major problem, but with the
newer antibiotics, this bacteria can often be eliminated. And,
if not totally eliminated, it can be controlled with the use of
long term antibiotics. Most of the symptoms described are
quite common for many types of bacteria, so it is important to
have your veterinarian do a culture to determine exactly what is being
treated.
The following symptoms require that you see your veterinarian
immediately. Diarrhea--as in human children, diarrhea in
rabbits can be fatal. Rabbits have various kinds of diarrhea,
if it's runny, messy and smelly it's easy to identify. A more
subtle form of diarrhea (which does not require the urgency of
runny diarrhea) is when the droppings appear to be normal, but
"squash" when you touch or sweep them up. You may also see
"clumpy" diarrhea. This will be the consistency of silly
putty, with normal round droppings mixed in. Diarrhea usually
requires antibiotics from your veterinarian. Other signs to
watch for are loud tummy growling, small and/or misshapen
droppings or no droppings at all. See your veterinarian if any of these
symptoms appear. (Veterinarians often misdiagnose this problem
as being a hairball.)
Primary Author(s): Sandi Ackerman
Sources: HRH, various articles from the HRJ
Red Urine
