bladder sludge info needed.

we adopted 2 rabbits 3 weeks ago , they are on a timothy hay /excel hays + excel pellets + excel herbs/ flowers+ fresh stuff diet and both have heavy calcium deposits in their urin (dried up urin leaves thick chalky marks).
They use their litter tray but not exclusively and the colour of the urin we see is mostly chalky and often dark yellow and orange (it looks particularly nasty when its dark orange / brown mixed with calcium).
I have read that the colour might be due to their food and we have tried to reduce greens rich in calcium and to introduce some brambles etc instead, but it hasn't changed anything so far.
One of them seems to leave smaller puddles (not drops, they are puddles but more like 1 pound coin sized) and they appear to be unintentional (unless they leave very small puddles to mark or for added cleaning fun ).

We took them to the vet today for the first time for a check up and a VHD vaccination (Myxo will follow in 2 weeks) and he said to give them time to get used to new foods etc and that he can't see anything wrong with them and that bladder issues would be very rare. They came with a supposed clean bill of health from P@Hs adoption centre (in-store vet). Our vet took his time, checked their teeth, examined their bellies (could't feel anything hard etc) and said they were fine too..

We have also booked them in to be spayed, would you advise we have them x-rayed for possible bladder sludge / bladder stones at the same time or is this me being overly worried?

They both hop, eat, drink and play normally ... neither one of them seems to be unwell. Your advise would be appreciated ! thanks !

PS: the adoption form says they are 1.5 years old, but they were abandoned in a box so that's an educated guess..

I used Bunny Basics T, it is the lowest in calcium and highest in fibre and it timothy hay based. I moved to this when one of mine had bladder sludge and had to have an op.

Be careful with the veg you give e.g. kale, spinach and carrot tops are high in calcium so you should only give limited amounts.

You could also give your bunnies their water in a bowl as this can encourage them to drink more to help pass stuff through. I also put some boiling in with mine to make it "tepid" and they love it like this.

bunny babe said:

I used Bunny Basics T, it is the lowest in calcium and highest in fibre and it timothy hay based. I moved to this when one of mine had bladder sludge and had to have an op.

Be careful with the veg you give e.g. kale, spinach and carrot tops are high in calcium so you should only give limited amounts.

You could also give your bunnies their water in a bowl as this can encourage them to drink more to help pass stuff through. I also put some boiling in with mine to make it "tepid" and they love it like this.

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thank you!
we already feed as little calcium rich stuff as possible and the hays we feed are "alfalfa king timothy hay" and the excel range. will look into lower calcium pellets too!
they drink massive amounts (well, compared to cats anyway) and go through at LEAST 600ml of water between them per day. is this enough/ too much ? Is a certain amount of calcium deposit normal or is normal urin clear? if they had some sludge would this sort itself with loads of water and low calcium food ?

sorry about all the questions, but we have got nothing to compare this to as we have never had rabbits before:?

This is a lot of water - and it might pay to have them x-rayed for sludge or kidney issues.

However before you go mad on calcium free foods - may I ask what part of the country you are in?

Some parts have very very high calcium water - (my area - Cambridge- the water is so hard its amazing it gets out of the taps). If your water is high in calcium then get bottled water for them from the shops. Fortunately it tends to be the lowest price bottles that are very low in calcium (Tescos own!!).

You can check the calcium of your tap water on line and then try and get a bottled water that has a lot less calcium. (PS filters dont help with this one Im afraid!)

parsnipbun said:

This is a lot of water - and it might pay to have them x-rayed for sludge or kidney issues.

However before you go mad on calcium free foods - may I ask what part of the country you are in?

Some parts have very very high calcium water - (my area - Cambridge- the water is so hard its amazing it gets out of the taps). If your water is high in calcium then get bottled water for them from the shops. Fortunately it tends to be the lowest price bottles that are very low in calcium (Tescos own!!).

You can check the calcium of your tap water on line and then try and get a bottled water that has a lot less calcium. (PS filters dont help with this one Im afraid!)

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thanks for the info! how much should they be drinking then? (if they were cats I would have taken them for a kidney test immediately, than again it seems unlikely that they both have something wrong with their kidneys ...? ) they have upped the intake since we reduced the veg a little which we thought would be normal ?
We are in south wales and the water is extremely soft here. as in i have not descaled the kettle in 5 years (in Munich where I'm from originally it's a bi-weekly task ...)

PS: think we'll have the x-rays done, cant hurt and won't cause them any additional distress during the spaying anyways !

I think alfalfa is higher in calcium than Timothy hay.

No harm in getting x-rays done whilst they have their spay.

Mine do pass some white wee (one more than the others) so I think some is normal - you could take your vet a sample

bunny babe said:

I think alfalfa is higher in calcium than Timothy hay.

No harm in getting x-rays done whilst they have their spay.

Mine do pass some white wee (one more than the others) so I think some is normal - you could take your vet a sample

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thanks ! the brand is called alfafa king, it is timothy hay though
we'll give it another week if it is still chalky then we'll book the x-rays with the spaying ! might take some convincing as the vet didn't really seem to want to do it (didn't think there was anything wrong with them ...) :?