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Why does my bunny drink a lot of his wee?

thumps_

Wise Old Thumper
He's always drunk at least 1/3 of his wee. Dip stix is normal rabbit wee - no glucose, alkaline, protein+++. Problem - he's recycling the calcium, gets too cloudy for my liking in hot weather. "Turbid", true "sludge" only x2. Also reluctant to drink water - We've very hard water. tried boiling it, deionized, highland spring (soft), clean catch rain, putting in fruit juice, tried bottle & bowls of various depths. He's a tiny "goatee beard" of a dewlap - gets wet in a bowl, but not in his wee! Also has small molar spurs - can just manage 3 months between dentals. Gets hypomotility easily. I've got the hang of a diet that works with loads of fiber, but stress can set off his tummy too, just the sudden rise of temp from 18C to 21C. Reason for question - if I understood why he drinks his wee, I might be able to give what he wants another way, & reduce turbidity. He needs good hydration with the gut problems, & to prevent obstruction on hard dry deformed poops. It's hot again, he breaths faster & loses water - wees less etc. (do the standard things to keep him cool has his main run out at dawn, & just before dusk), otherwise has freedom of the house. It's reducing risk factors & prevention.
 
Can I ask how come he's able to drink it? Does he just do it in pools all over the house or what? If you litter train him so he pees in a litter tray with absorbant litter, he wont be able to drink it!

Unfortunately, I can't tell you why he does it, but I'll speak to my sister who's a vet and ask if she's heard of this, and let you know.
 
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Reply to Hoppit

Thanks for your query. Thumpers' had very definite "ideas" since babyhood, & "designed his own toilet".Took a vehement dislike to litter tray, scrabbled out litter until light enough to pick up, & threw it out into the hall! He's perfect with toilet training - there's a rolled up old towel in front of a narrow plastic tea tray. He hops on the towel & everything goes back into the tray so he doesn't get his feet wet or dirty! (I put a plastic bag under all for any rare dribbles.) It's cheap, & easy to clean x2 per day. If I put any paper in, he eats the paper he's wee'd on. I think that most litter/paper might impact in, or obstruct his gut because his gut doesn't work as well as it should. [you'll all fall about laughing at what went on here when we were settling in! Some people adore baby rabbits, I was just relieved when we sorted ourselves out & he grew up.]
 
Hi Judy,has Marie shed any light on why Thumps drinks his wee?Does she think It could be a mineral deficiency?
 
Answer to question

Habit - wonder what happened before he came here? e.g.faulty water bottle, or ran out of water?

Stopped drinking 24 hours - low wee output - :censored: teeth again! Just round from dental. I asked Marie.
probs with drinking water - molar spikes. It's different symptoms on a different diet which is very dry! Reckon it hurts his mouth more to drink, than when moist food cushions the spikes. Back to trying to make water more palatable & keeping his dewlap dry! what do you think?
At least his toilet design shows me how much he's weeing - (becoming dehydrated)
 
Poor Thumps,I hope hes OK.The only case i have read of is of a malnurished dog that had to survive drinking Its own urine.He was rescued but never got out of the habit:cry::cry::cry::cry:You will have to start giving Thumps naughty apples again,lots of nice fluids.Please give him a big kiss from me:love::love::love::love::love:
 
Thanks Sarah, He's on fantastic form. I managed the admission better this time - remembered his toy rabbit, & one of my well worn jumpers (for the smell of me) - at least something's familiar in a strange environment. The 1st EVER visit to the vet without a temper tantrum afterwards! The 1st thing he did when we got home was to drink loads from his bowl.

Not so convinced that wee drinking is habit. He hasn't done it since this last dental. Beginning to wonder whether it's to do with head position when he drinks, & how his tongue moves against the spurs. He tries to show me things & I'm so thick at working it out! :oops: :oops:
 
Judy you and Thumper spend 24/7 together and have a relationship that I have never seen before between a bunny and a human,Thumper comes when you call him from the garden,rings a bell when he wants something and thumps on the floor when hes cold and wants the fire on:shock::shock:It never ceases to amaze me how you always work out what the problem/answer is.I wish i could be like you:love::love::love::love:
 
I have only just seen this thread !

I used to have a Bun that drank her wee. She also ate her 'hard poo' aswell as her caecotrophs. She took recycling very seriously.......:?

Trouble is we never found out WHY she did it. She did drink water but not alot.
In the end I decided it was a behavioural thing as no amount of tests or dietary changes gave any answers.

I really cant think of any physiological causes :?

Just a thought but have you tried giving Thumps warm water (cooled boiled)

xx
 
Thanks Jane. What you don't know about rabbits isn't worth knowing about. He hasn't drunk his wee since coming home from his dental on Wed, & drinks from his bowl - so I'll keep an eye on the situation. Beginning to wonder whether some one "speaks rabbit" at the GWR!!! He also eats the occasional waste poop that pops out in the wrong place. I thought he was just tidying up/ :oops: by the accident. I'll give the warm water a try tonight. Sometimes think he just tries to keep me stimulated :lol: :lol: :lol:
:love: Judy & Thumper :love:
 
Well, I spoke to my sister and she's never heard of it. It's great that he seems to have stopped - at least for the time being.
 
Dear Hoppit, Thanks for going to so much trouble for us. I'll try to let you know how things go. I'm relieved that he hasn't drunk his wee since Wed. & has normal faintly cloudy wee.
It would be too distressing to speak of the conditions he was kept in for the 2 weeks before he came here. With HIS memmory, I reckon that most of his "definite ideas" were wanting to get rid of anything that reminded him of his past experience.
I'm feeling relieved, & I've a couple more ideas up my sleeve if he goes back to the habit. Judy & Thumper :D :D :wave:
 
I have only seen one other rabbit do this a that was also a dental bun: Could be coincidence but you could be onto something about the sore mouth making it difficult to drink.
I use hay/dried grass in the litter trays so it doesn't cause problems if eaten and to make sure my monsters get enough fluid i leave water on their grass/greens after washing :)
 
Thanks so much for your reply Lilbun.
It's been such a long haul of crises with Thumper's gut probs (teeth), I've got "brain ache". Forgot to say the 1st thing I noticed the day he arrived was that he made a gulping sound when he drank water from bottle /bowl, but not when he ate solids. isn't gulping after this dental & still not drinking his wee! Did the other dental bun do this?
It's lovely to hear from people with bunny experience, I hope that together we can improve bunny care.
 
Thanks so much for your reply Lilbun.
It's been such a long haul of crises with Thumper's gut probs (teeth), I've got "brain ache". Forgot to say the 1st thing I noticed the day he arrived was that he made a gulping sound when he drank water from bottle /bowl, but not when he ate solids. isn't gulping after this dental & still not drinking his wee! Did the other dental bun do this?
It's lovely to hear from people with bunny experience, I hope that together we can improve bunny care.

I didn't notice gulping, but I don't particularly remember him drinking anything other than his wee! He was eating lots of greens though. He was also very fond of wee'd on newspaper :)
 
Sounds very much like our prob. NO vet thought it was his teeth, cos he'd no sores! The GI probs are a long story. I'd planned for a natural grass based rabbit diet, with hay to munch on overnight, traditional wild plants, & a bit of veg greens. Autumn 06 -07 was very wet, we had terrible sewer flooding at night. I didn't even dare let him dig in case he contaminated himself when he cleaned his paws, let alone let him eat grass.
One theory is colonisation of his gut by bacteria producing a low grade toxin, the problem was the colon. Whatever the brand of hay, whatever I did to it, even damping it down, he wouldn't eat it. So the fiber/ nutrient balance went up the spout. At it's worst (summer 08) there was no separation of waste fiber from fine particles at all, he just oozed khaki coloured "toothpaste" pr. which stank poor soul.[The other prob that year was that he started to moult, then stopped - still in winter coat at end of July.(day light lamp for SAD helped there]) I eventually got him going on a diet of hawthorn leaves (no buds berries or flowers) then current year's growth of Sloe/Blackthorn leaves. (Current year's growth doesn't have thorns). It sounds bizarre. We got through 08 (just) until winter - full blown ileus. I'd heard of Marie through a friend on here, so when no action was forthcoming after 2 days of no poops only 2cc wee & complete food refusal we got referred GWR. He had his 1st dental, eats hay better & gut has a record of behaving normally for 6 months. The tragedy is that we knew he had spurs from the 1st check up. It's just getting fluids normal now, & hoping we can help others.
 
It sounds like you've been through a tough time together and have done amazingly well toi bring him through it :)
 
Final Answer

Thank you for your kind comments Lilbun. Jack's -Jane & later Marie suggested I try luke warm boiled water cos his teeth might be sensitive. He didn't seem too impressed at first, but was still drinking cold water & hadn't reverted to wee drinking. Then realised after over 3 years of cold water he wouldn't know when warm water would arrive, & it cools down so quickly! So it's a routine of breakfast, lunch, tea, & bed time! I'm so hung up about animals being thirsty that I've started to warm it up whenever I have a cuppa in between. His fluid intake has rocketed.
 
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