Bladder full of sludge..Surgery or manage with diet?

Any advice please?
Bandit was admitted yesterday, he has bad urine scald bless him. He absoultely HATES being picked up so the vet admitted him to sedate him and investigate. He's had a bladder x-ray, I've spoken to two vets who have both been amazed at how much sludge he has. Its chocka block apparently. I had absolutely no idea. He's been eating, begging for food whenever I open the fridge, behaving normally and now I feel SO bad How did I not know?
Anyway The vets have said they can operate to clear out the sludge (more complicated in boys apparently because of the internal tube system?) Or I can manage it at home with diet. Any advice? He's 4 years old, otherwise healthy..I have no idea what to do...feeling pretty clueless.

I admit I've not had personal experience with urine scald but I would try to manage it with diet, simply because its less stressful for the rabbit. Ask the vet to help you work out a diet plan and adjust as need be hopefully he'll respond well. Good luck xx

Thanks, that's what I'm thinking, simply because the op sounds really invasive...but if that's the best in the long run I'm willing to go with it. It's taking 3 or 4 nurses to get his cream on him while he's there which is the main reason he's still in! I'd stand no chance

No experience sorry, but my gut feeling would to be to try diet control initially as it's less invasive but to closely monitor. Sorry that your boy is going through this, hope he feels better soon and stops fighting the nurses!

LainiT said:

Any advice please?
Bandit was admitted yesterday, he has bad urine scald bless him. He absoultely HATES being picked up so the vet admitted him to sedate him and investigate. He's had a bladder x-ray, I've spoken to two vets who have both been amazed at how much sludge he has. Its chocka block apparently. I had absolutely no idea. He's been eating, begging for food whenever I open the fridge, behaving normally and now I feel SO bad How did I not know?
Anyway The vets have said they can operate to clear out the sludge (more complicated in boys apparently because of the internal tube system?) Or I can manage it at home with diet. Any advice? He's 4 years old, otherwise healthy..I have no idea what to do...feeling pretty clueless.

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Could you do a compromise and manage at home with diet, but have Bandit at the vet for sub-Q fluids on a regular basis to flush out the sludge? One of the significant factors is drinking water, which should be as low calcium as possible. Therefore bottled or filtered water if you live in a particularly hard water area.

The most important factor is increased water consumption, including sub-Q fluids.

There is some useful info here:

http://www.rabbit.org/health/urolith.html

Is he on pain relief at the moment?

MightyMax said:

Could you do a compromise and manage at home with diet, but have Bandit at the vet for sub-Q fluids on a regular basis to flush out the sludge? One of the significant factors is drinking water, which should be as low calcium as possible. Therefore bottled or filtered water if you live in a particularly hard water area.

The most important factor is increased water consumption, including sub-Q fluids.

There is some useful info here:

http://www.rabbit.org/health/urolith.html

Is he on pain relief at the moment?

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Yes he's on pain relief and antibiotics. They were talking about sending some of the stuff off for a c&s test? I'll def check about admitting him for fluids. Our water is VERY hard so will sort switching that too

A couple of the lowest calcium waters for you:

http://www.waitrose.com/shop/DisplayProductFlyout?productId=41319

http://www.waitrose.com/shop/DisplayProductFlyout?productId=29106

As you can see, the Volvic is higher, but it is still pretty low for calcium, and widely available. Waitrose is the only place I know that sells Deeside, although Ocado do deliver it.

My Olly had very bad bladder sludge, also aged about 4. He had his bladder flushed as the sludge was causing him a lot of discomfort. If you have a rabbit savvy vet, I would say go for it... Olly's was two years ago, and he's been fine since then he was fine afterwards, just like any other op really. Is Bandit passing sludge instead of urine? Olly was, hence why it was so painful. If he is weeing normally without discomfort, maybe you can manage it with diet adjustment. Olly is now on very minimal pellets, and lots of wet herbs (not parsley) that are low in calcium :wave:

These may be useful (from FHB's web site):

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/articles/free-food-for-rabbits/calcium-and-rabbit-food
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ar...-sheet-for-rabbits-with-urinary-tract-disease

LainiT said:

Yes he's on pain relief and antibiotics. They were talking about sending some of the stuff off for a c&s test? I'll def check about admitting him for fluids. Our water is VERY hard so will sort switching that too

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Good, I'm glad he's on pain relief and antibiotics.

If you can bear the cost, it would complete the picture to have a C&S.

The drinking water situation is way more important than feeding low calcium veggies. Pellets is probably one to limit, to some extent too. Grass is better than hay as it contains more moisture. And of course put a bowl down instead of/as well as a bottle if you use one

I wouldn't rule out surgery though, if it really is bad.

Good luck! xx

Oliver had his bladder flushed on 2 occasions and he is now 6 and came through that really well. Did ur vet not flush when he was sedated ?? I manage it with diet. Tesco Ashbeck water is 10mg calcium. Don't feel bad for not noticing . He obviously could not get rid of the sludge so u couldn't see it. U r getting him sorted now so u r doing ur best for him.

Just had an update from the vet, he's comfortable..eating but not weeing much. They're just monitoring him really now so I'll be getting him back tomorrow. He's accepting the cream a bit better..just takes two nurses now to put it on. Not looking forward to that job!

They'll be sending him home with a care sheet food wise. I'm not sure if they flushed his bladder..it was 10.30 last night I had the phone call to tell me all this, I was a bit :shock: and I wasn't very awake..I thought they said they'd flushed it but then what's the op they're talking about to clear all the sludge? I'm confused now

As others have said, fluids are most important to help the bladder flush it out. I have had a male rabbit who had to have his bladder flushed (on Christmas Day :roll and was fine after with some abx and metacam. They flushed it while he had the x-ray and was sedated. We also changed the pellets to Oxbow Bunny Basics as they were the lowest in calcium that we could find at the time. I think they are still one of the lowest. We also limited the veg which was higher in calcium.

I also had a female who had her bladder flushed and she was fine too after. We never had any recurrences from either.

If he is comfortable you could try him at home and try to increase the fluids to try to flush it out but he may still need the op.

It may also be that the urine scald is healing nicely with the cream and he may just need the abx once he gets home (providing he is not wetting). Once of my current buns has been incontinent lately (now OK thankfully) and she was red so with a bit of cream it went a nice pink after 2-3 days and then we kept on with the abx and she is fine now.