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Help with Kidney failure

sgprescue

sgprescue

Mama Doe
Hi all, I wonder if anyone can help. Rose my 7 year old lionhead has what I suspect is kidney problems. She has dental problems and has been gradually loosing weight. She last had a dental 3 weeks ago but it took her several hours to recover from the anaesthetic. She still eats a lot (tons of hay) but I am very worried about her. Just lately I have noticed the newspaper in the hutch as been wetter than normal. A few days ago I noticed her starting to go a bit wobbly on her back legs and when I picked her up she was a bit wet around the rear end and she was passing a jelly like substance. I suspect she may be going into kidney failure, I desperatly hope I am wrong but I am very worried about her now, especially as she still appears to be loosing weight. I have an appointment at the vets tomorow morning and will go ahead with any tests as necessary, I just hope I am wrong. Unfortunatly Rob (my brilliant bunny vet) is on holiday for 3 weeks so I am seeing Rhianne instead. Can anyone please advise me? The last bunny I had with suspected kidney problems (tulip) passed away the day before she was due to go in for tests :cry:

Cheryl
 
The buns I have nursed who have been diagnosed as being in chronic renal failure were put on 1-2 weekly injections of Nandrolone (an anabolic steroid) plus a multivitamin/iron injection. Frequency of treatment depending on how advanced kidney damage is(ie as would be evident from blood biochemistry results).Also any signs of urinary tract/nephrotic infection were treated with Baytril.Although the treatment cannot cure the renal failure it does slow down further renal deterioration. The Nandrolone addresses uraemic anaemia and helps with the retention of intracellular water,increases muscle mass and stimulates the appetite.Dietary modification included increasing fresh veggies to ensure maximum fluid intake, limiting calcium intake but not excluding it altogether,restricting phosphates...ie no carrots,banana or Tomatos. On treatment all the 'renal buns' I have nursed appeared to generally 'feel better' and had on average a further 8 months GOOD QUALITY life. So sorry that your bun is not too well. Jane and Bunsxx
 
Cheryl, what is the color of your rabbit's urine? What is the density level of those urine? Is it the milky yellowish orange color or did it change to the semi-clear soil color?

If you give him sweet treats during the day, do not give him anything sweet when his stomach is not half full or more. For e.g., say your rabbit likes raisin or dry mango, give it to him 1/2 hr. after he eat a reasonable amount of pellet because his kidney cannot fully filter out the excess sugar.

But note this, a rabbit living at the age of 7 is a very good life, even w/ partial kidney failure, he could easily have 2+ year of his life left, so if he has been eating some level of sugar related treats, might as well continues because judging between living longer vs. living happier, I'll pick living happier. If raisin makes him happy say, might as well continue.
 
awww poor Rose. I have Treacle with the same problem. I've been feeding him lots of fresh veg and been giving him access to the garden as much as possible. He also seems to prefer wet pellets and has been having weetabix and oats mixed with warm water. I'm at a bit of a loss on what else I can do for him too so will be interested in any advice posted here! :wink:
 
Happy Hopping said:
Cheryl, what is the color of your rabbit's urine? What is the density level of those urine? Is it the milky yellowish orange color or did it change to the semi-clear soil color?

If you give him sweet treats during the day, do not give him anything sweet when his stomach is not half full or more. For e.g., say your rabbit likes raisin or dry mango, give it to him 1/2 hr. after he eat a reasonable amount of pellet because his kidney cannot fully filter out the excess sugar.

But note this, a rabbit living at the age of 7 is a very good life, even w/ partial kidney failure, he could easily have 2+ year of his life left, so if he has been eating some level of sugar related treats, might as well continues because judging between living longer vs. living happier, I'll pick living happier. If raisin makes him happy say, might as well continue.
Click to expand...

But giving raisins does not automatically make a happier life. There are plenty of alternate foods that lots of buns enjoy as much as sweet ones, and if the sugary foods are harming the kidney then I would avoid them all together and go for healthier alternatives.
 
Thank you for your replies. Unfortunatly Rose is fading fast :cry: I took her to see the vet on xmas eve and he was equally puzzled about her problem. I insisted on a blood test anyway so we could rule out kidney problems. Unfortunatly their in house test machine is not very reliable for rabbits and they usually send the samples off however time was against us so we did it anyway. The results came back normal which worried me even more as we still could not get to the bottom of whats wrong. He checked her teeth again and they are still ok. He put her on baytril and probiotics and told me to bring her back during the week. We weighed her and she was only 1.2kg :cry: some of my guinea pigs weigh more than that :cry: I cant understand why she has lost so much weight as up until now she has been eating a lot and I have kept up with regular dentals. The past few days I have supplemented with critical care and have upped the frequency today as she has gone off her food. Every time I go out there she looks worse. She is in a big enclosure in one of the heated sheds and is relying on the other bunnies to keep her upright. I just dont know what else to do for her :cry:
 
Happy Hopping said:
Cheryl, what is the color of your rabbit's urine? What is the density level of those urine? Is it the milky yellowish orange color or did it change to the semi-clear soil color?

If you give him sweet treats during the day, do not give him anything sweet when his stomach is not half full or more. For e.g., say your rabbit likes raisin or dry mango, give it to him 1/2 hr. after he eat a reasonable amount of pellet because his kidney cannot fully filter out the excess sugar.

But note this, a rabbit living at the age of 7 is a very good life, even w/ partial kidney failure, he could easily have 2+ year of his life left, so if he has been eating some level of sugar related treats, might as well continues because judging between living longer vs. living happier, I'll pick living happier. If raisin makes him happy say, might as well continue.
Click to expand...

The urine is clear and has lots of jelly like stuff in it

I never give any of the bunnies sweet treats as they are not good for them, their diet is as natural as possible consisting of mostly hay supplemented with small quantity of pellets and daily veg.
 
I'm so sorry to hear she's not doing well I know how fustrating it is when the bunny is fading and you don't know what to do to help!

If she's not eating you could try weetabix mixed with warm water thats all treacle would eat when he's really unwell! or oats may be? oats are quite fattening to so might bulk her up! Treacle is very underweight and wobbly too and keeps falling over :(
 
If the blood test and the urine test is normal, then the only other thing I can guess is insects such as mites that is embedded in her body.

At this stage, I would recommend switching to a exotic pet rabbit specialist to do a thorough check on the entire body. What if there is mites inside his ear for instance?

Rabbit first response to any health problem is that their system will shut down and stop eating. Which is why we have to force feed. So not eating is not the direct cause most of the time, rather, something else causing the bunny problem, and thus, he stop eating.

Having said that, I never seen "jelly like substance" in urine. If there is calcium in her body, then the urine is milky yellowish orange. If there is not enough calcium, then the color is more semi-clear with the color tan orange. But "jelly like" substance, never heard of it. You sure urine test shows nothing abnormal?

My last rabbit who passed away in July, also have kidney failure, but it is not the cause of death (it was liver cancer), the fact that the urine is clear all the way, meaning there is no calcium inside. I have 2 exotic pet rabbit specialist opinion on that.

The first one said, it is not kidney failure eventhough the urine is clear.

The 2nd one said due to the quality of his fur is very DRY, it indicates the kidney is not filter the water the way it should, and thus, still consider as kidney failure.

Is your rabbit fur very dry? But even so, my last rabbit has partial kidney failure for at least one year, and still had a happy life. Unless it is total kidney failure, one functioning kidney can still allow a rabbit to go on w/ his normal life.

I suppose if his teeth is causing him pain, you can try veggie diet as a test, if he eats the veggie and soft food only, like banana, then, it could be an indication that the teeth is causing him pain somehow and at the very least, you need painkiller.
 
Hmmm. Did the vet give a reason as to why he hasn't prescribed metacam?
I know the contra indications say not to give to animals with cardiac, hepatic and renal disorders but if he thinks the kidneys are ok then I would have thought an anti inflammatory would be more helpful to her than anti biotics if she's showing no sign of any type of infection (of which many infections would be indicated in the blood results, altho I know u said the inhouse system isn't very accurate)

Maybe phone him & ask if u can give metacam? At least that way if it's the kidneys, bladder or teeth causing her pain and not to eat it will be alleviated abit by the metacam until a diagnosis is found.

Critical care given every couple of hours by syringe aswell as a bowl in her enclosure will keep her digestive system running & energy to replenish cells.

I hope she is doing ok today :(

ps. whats her water intake?
 
Sadly Rose passed away in the early hours of this morning :cry: :cry: :cry:

Happy Hopping said:
If the blood test and the urine test is normal, then the only other thing I can guess is insects such as mites that is embedded in her body.

At this stage, I would recommend switching to a exotic pet rabbit specialist to do a thorough check on the entire body. What if there is mites inside his ear for instance?

Rabbit first response to any health problem is that their system will shut down and stop eating. Which is why we have to force feed. So not eating is not the direct cause most of the time, rather, something else causing the bunny problem, and thus, he stop eating.

Having said that, I never seen "jelly like substance" in urine. If there is calcium in her body, then the urine is milky yellowish orange. If there is not enough calcium, then the color is more semi-clear with the color tan orange. But "jelly like" substance, never heard of it. You sure urine test shows nothing abnormal?

My last rabbit who passed away in July, also have kidney failure, but it is not the cause of death (it was liver cancer), the fact that the urine is clear all the way, meaning there is no calcium inside. I have 2 exotic pet rabbit specialist opinion on that.

The first one said, it is not kidney failure eventhough the urine is clear.

The 2nd one said due to the quality of his fur is very DRY, it indicates the kidney is not filter the water the way it should, and thus, still consider as kidney failure.

Is your rabbit fur very dry? But even so, my last rabbit has partial kidney failure for at least one year, and still had a happy life. Unless it is total kidney failure, one functioning kidney can still allow a rabbit to go on w/ his normal life.

I suppose if his teeth is causing him pain, you can try veggie diet as a test, if he eats the veggie and soft food only, like banana, then, it could be an indication that the teeth is causing him pain somehow and at the very least, you need painkiller.
Click to expand...

Mites would not have caused the symptoms rose had. Her skin was absolutly perfect, if she had a problem like that I would have noticed. I know more about rabbit/guinea pig skin problems and small animal medicine than most of the vets in this area but even this was a mystery to me. Perhaps it was her old age finally catching up with her, I can only guess as I will never know now :cry: Up until Sunday she was eating normally but was loosing weight, it was only yesterday that she really took a turn for the worst. Her teeth were not causing any problems, she only had a dental 3 weeks ago and Rhianne checked them again on Saturday morning. The vet practice I use is by far the best in the area when it comes to small animal medicine, it is just very unfortunate that the vet that is the most knowledgable is on holiday for 3 weeks :cry: I would not have even considered going elsewhere as there is a very poor standard of small animal knowledge when it comes to the other vets in the area :evil:

Hmmm. Did the vet give a reason as to why he hasn't prescribed metacam?
I know the contra indications say not to give to animals with cardiac, hepatic and renal disorders but if he thinks the kidneys are ok then I would have thought an anti inflammatory would be more helpful to her than anti biotics if she's showing no sign of any type of infection (of which many infections would be indicated in the blood results, altho I know u said the inhouse system isn't very accurate)

Maybe phone him & ask if u can give metacam? At least that way if it's the kidneys, bladder or teeth causing her pain and not to eat it will be alleviated abit by the metacam until a diagnosis is found.

Critical care given every couple of hours by syringe aswell as a bowl in her enclosure will keep her digestive system running & energy to replenish cells
Click to expand...

She didnt show any signs of being in any pain (and I know the signs well :( ) which is probably why he didnt suggest metacam. I was syringe feeding critical care every couple of hours all day yesterday. The last feed I gave her at 11.30pm last night she seemed to have given up :cry:
 
Well it is very sad to hear this especially during this time of year. What is the average life span of lion head? Will you be doing a PM? Sometimes PM doesn't tell much and I'm curious and puzzled at the cause of death.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about her, was hoping so much that she would pull through! :cry: binky free little one! xx
 
poor little Rosie - sorry you've lost her Cheryl - sounds like some complex metabolic collapse or mass organ failure/cancer due to age?

Whatever - she had the best of care while she was alive I'm sure :)
 
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