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white and thick discharge in wee

Carlotta TVB

Carlotta TVB

New Kit
Hi!
Have you ever noticed some white/yellow thick discharge in your rabbit's wee? Sometime I can find a few drops in my bunny's wee, it looks like a thick, sticky substance... her health is good, she eats normally and is neutered too...
Many Thanks :wave:
 
:wave: Hi.

It could well be 'sludge':
Bladder sludge (also called hypercalcinuria or hypercalciuria) is a thickening of the urine with calcium salts that never form into stones. Sludge may be comprised of any number of calcium salts, and does not flow as normal, liquid urine should. We are not sure why, but sludge does not form stones. It remains the consistency of chalk or fine sand, and is a white to gray color. Very thick sludge can have the consistency of toothpaste. When felt, this sludge can be smooth, have finely granular texture, or even have gritty texture. Sludge can form in the kidneys or ureters, but most sludge is noted in the bladder, and is suspected to have formed there.

Bob had this before and we had to change his diet (to low calcium hay and pellets - Oxbox Timothy Hay pellets are good). In my opinion you need to get a urine sample to your vet to check ASAP. Once that is done the vet will advise on the best course of action.

Calcium crystals can lead to infections and it's good to get them sorted straight away. I extracted the above from the internet and that's always a good thing to Google to check our more information. Don't panic, it's just something that needs to be checked out with the vets.

For Bob it was quite serious hence my more urgent tone (because it caused an infection). For other people it may have purely been a case of diet change.
 
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:wave:

I think it could be bladder sludge too, I think you should take your bun along to the vets for a check up, esp as she has started peeing outside her litter tray (from your other post) -there could be a problem that means she is not able to wait until she gets into the litter tray.
 
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Common causes of excess calcium in urine are:
Too much High calcium leafy greens: dandelions, carrot tops, kale, parsley, spinach etc...

Too many pellets and hay too high in calcium - Alfalfa hay is not suitable for buns over 6 months for this reason.

Insufficient water intake - dehydration prevents buns dissolving excess calcium - bunny not drinking enough, freeze dried grass (which saps a lot of fluid from bun - commonly readigrass has had this problem with some folks' buns) etc.

Normally a little adjustment in diet as BobbleG has said is all that is needed :wave:
 
Thank you lovely people! :D
I am going to change gradually her diet, cause you have made me realised that I am actually feeding her with too many high-calcium veggies (especially spring greens and parsley!).. so I have looked up in the web and found some useful charts from a guinea-pigs website
http://www.guinealynx.info/diet_order-cal.html check this out! I think they are very helpful... they show what veggies contains too much or vey little calcium! since yesterday evening I have reduced the spring greens quantity and introduced some slices of cucumber (which is low in calcium).. she ignored it at the beginning but then she started to smell it and finally took her first bite!
I made a bit of research.. calcium metabolism in rabbits is very poor (from http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-5/calcium.html) so it's important to keep an eye on it, but at the same time it's an essential part of their diet for a good maintenance of bones and teeth!
I won't bring her to the vet right now, as the sludge is still very mild and happens only occasionally, so I will try with her diet first and if things are not improving, I am going to bring her to the vet asap!
:wave:
 
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