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Managing Sludge -long Term subq injections

N

nickybunny1

Mama Doe
Sorry for posting again but i have been googling long term treatment for bladder sludge and have seen that some vets advised sub q fluids 3 times per week plus owners learning to manipulate the bladder. Also should metacam be part of the treatment plan ?? I have read diet changes alone may not be enough. I have just been told to change his diet. I am feeling very overwhelmed at the minute as I am now going from one sick bun to the next and i want to treat Oliver the best way possible as i now understand this is a long term thing. Thank fully rosies assess is in remission and she is thriving and good man code is no bother.
 
Artie's treatment regime for bladder sludge for over four years was:

Daily Metacam (anti-inflammatory) and Furosemide (in theory to make him urinate more - flush out the bladder, plus would also make him drink more, for the same purpose).

He had his bladder expressed by the vet at intervals, this varied between 4 weeks and 6 weeks. This may be something an owner could do but as I'm told rabbit bladders are easy to rupture in unskilled hands it wasn't something I wanted to do.... not that it was discussed with the vet, it think it was just known she needed to do it.

In the four years he did have a couple of stasis episodes that were deemed to be related to his bladder but remained will in this regard otherwise.

His diet (as advised by vet) was to give very few/no pellets and a lot of green food, fresh forage and low to moderate calcium veg. It's important to keep the fluid intake as high as possible so fresh green food was considered very important. He previously had a water bottle but all my rabbits now have bowls to encourage drinking.

Artie's regime was based on him needing surgery at the outset of the diagnosis though so such a regime may well not be needed for a rabbit with a less severe symptoms.

Re the sub-cut fluids. I asked vet's advice regarding the benefit of sub-cuts when Artie was in late stage kidney failure and the vet felt frequent injections for sub-cuts would not be good for rabbits given their delicate skin/the stress involved for them. I personally would go with natural methods of increasing fluid intake for bladder sludge and only consider sub-cuts as a last resort.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Bunny B for taking the time to reply. I think it's going to be difficult to cut out their pellets as all 3 live together and they love their pellets but i reduced them as of this morning and replaced some with the new urinary tract food . I would have no problem trying to switch from the excel pellets to this special food but it's£7 for a 1kg box and each bun is to get 45g per day so it would be too costly as it would only last 10 days. I have also switched to bottled water as we r a hard water area. I tried to incorporate romaine the other day and rosie took a tummy pressing episode. What greens did u feed artie ??
 
Don't think I will ask how to do bladder expressing then if I could maybe hurt him. Some things r maybe best left to a vet. Just the rabbit specialist vet is 90 mins drive away :(
 
This is really helpful, thanks. Does the vet express the bladder in a normal appointment or is sedation required? Does it hurt them? I think Olly is going to need this :(
Bunny Buddy said:
Artie's treatment regime for bladder sludge for over four years was:

Daily Metacam (anti-inflammatory) and Furosemide (in theory to make him urinate more - flush out the bladder, plus would also make him drink more, for the same purpose).

He had his bladder expressed by the vet at intervals, this varied between 4 weeks and 6 weeks. This may be something an owner could do but as I'm told rabbit bladders are easy to rupture in unskilled hands it wasn't something I wanted to do.... not that it was discussed with the vet, it think it was just known she needed to do it.

In the four years he did have a couple of stasis episodes that were deemed to be related to his bladder but remained will in this regard otherwise.

His diet (as advised by vet) was to give very few/no pellets and a lot of green food, fresh forage and low to moderate calcium veg. It's important to keep the fluid intake as high as possible so fresh green food was considered very important. He previously had a water bottle but all my rabbits now have bowls to encourage drinking.

Artie's regime was based on him needing surgery at the outset of the diagnosis though so such a regime may well not be needed for a rabbit with a less severe symptoms.

Re the sub-cut fluids. I asked vet's advice regarding the benefit of sub-cuts when Artie was in late stage kidney failure and the vet felt frequent injections for sub-cuts would not be good for rabbits given their delicate skin/the stress involved for them. I personally would go with natural methods of increasing fluid intake for bladder sludge and only consider sub-cuts as a last resort.
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