Rabbit savvy vet in Wirral or surrounding areas

Hi, hoping someone can assist with a rabbit savvy vet in Wirral or the surrounding areas please? Since we've had Coco she's had issues wetting herself, the first year being the worst and now it happens around once a year. The vets have treated her on Panacur and Baytril and usually after 9 days it is fixed. The vets she has seen have been puzzled as at one point her urine was tested and not found to have an infection. Because she had it from 9 weeks they said it wasn't diabetes. They said the next step would be checking her kidneys, but previously it has cleared up so we've not taken it this far yet. They believe it could also be behavioural, and she does get quite stressed with change, being held and going to the vets. She's 4 and a half years old now.

So it's started again, but different this time, it's only happening one, twice max a day, and she's still using her litter tray at other times. She does not appear to be in pain, is eating and drinking fine (when she was younger she really increased her water consumption, but this has not happened) - she's as hungry as ever. There has been no changes to get stressed over in the last few months, but prior to that they (I have 2, they have been together over 4 years) were living at my parents. I'm conscious of her not giving excess calcium, so she doesn't get alfaya hay, just ings and Timothy hay, I experiment with others and dried herbs to mix it up. She gets Science Selective rabbit food and vegetables, the occasional treat of fruit. They are currently indoor house rabbits but on warm days we take them outside and she gets grass and dandelions too. Last vaccination was April and had their check up then everything okay, just to keep encouraging hay as some slight spurs maybe starting to form on back teeth. I've been buying them twigs to encouraging gnawing on this as well to help. The only other thing I can think of is I have seen her itching her ears a bit, but no real evidence of ear mites (a tiny bit of yellow wax at the base of one ear, and one tiny flaky bit one day inside the ear), so have ordered some Xeno 450 for them just in case (which they have had before).

I started her on Panacur as paranoid about EC, to see if it would help (and in the meantime work out if it is just behavioural or whether she needed the vets), but hasn't got any better (but also hasn't got any worse). Now I'm keen to find a good rabbit vet (the ones we've seen I question whether they have a clue!) to work out what on earth is wrong with her. I'm cleaning up her feet and legs etc to try and avoid urine burn. Thanks in advance!

Hi Leesa,
I don’t have a recommendation but you could try here https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ve...-rabbit-owners/copy_of_county-or-city/england
I hope you can find someone who can help Coco xxx

mariposa said:

Hi Leesa,
I don’t have a recommendation but you could try here https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ve...-rabbit-owners/copy_of_county-or-city/england
I hope you can find someone who can help Coco xxx

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Thanks I just want to get the issue sorted once and for all if it is say something like her kidneys etc. There's one just over 30 minutes away on there thanks, but would be interested to see if anyone has any other recommendations.

Cranmore at Chestergates have always been excellent BUT I know that their main bunny vet has just moved on

You could try getting a referral to Molly Varga in St Helen's - Rutland House https://rutlandreferrals.com/

SJH said:

Cranmore at Chestergates have always been excellent BUT I know that their main bunny vet has just moved on

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Thanks, I had to go there for the RHD2 injection as no where by me had it! I searched Cheshire and that one came up. Damn, thats annoying that they have moved on!

Sarahbun said:

You could try getting a referral to Molly Varga in St Helen's - Rutland House https://rutlandreferrals.com/

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Thanks, I'll check them out!

Leesa said:

Thanks, I'll check them out!

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Just to add we've used Molly, she's one of the leading UK vet expert on rabbits.
She helped with a problem my bun was having - repeat episodes of gut stasis. Whilst we've not been able to pinpoint the exact cause with Molly's help we've been able to rule out conditions, identify which part of the gut is affected and we now have a really effective treatment plan for him. Prior to the referral to Molly he would be given the 'usual' gut stasis drugs, which worked well but gradually - it would take 3-4 days for him to recover often including hospitalisation. Now he has meds specific to the area of the gut affected and (fingers crossed) recovers within 4 hours and doesn't have to stay at the vets.
Good luck I hope you find someone to help you and your rabbit

Sarahbun said:

Just to add we've used Molly, she's one of the leading UK vet expert on rabbits.
She helped with a problem my bun was having - repeat episodes of gut stasis. Whilst we've not been able to pinpoint the exact cause with Molly's help we've been able to rule out conditions, identify which part of the gut is affected and we now have a really effective treatment plan for him. Prior to the referral to Molly he would be given the 'usual' gut stasis drugs, which worked well but gradually - it would take 3-4 days for him to recover often including hospitalisation. Now he has meds specific to the area of the gut affected and (fingers crossed) recovers within 4 hours and doesn't have to stay at the vets.
Good luck I hope you find someone to help you and your rabbit

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Thank you!

Just to update you, Coco hasn't got better (we thought she was, it was a couple of days and then started again), she's on Baytril again now, so hoping that helps. She's fluxoumed the vet, he said it's unlikely to be a water infection as it's only happening around once a day and she's still using her litter tray the rest of the times. He did however suggest as it's happened from such as an early age that it could be that her organs aren't in the correct place. He advised he only knew of a rabbit specialist in London as he's only recently moved to our area, so would have to look into nearer ones (it's about 5 hours drive to London and as Coco gets so stressed out, I'm loathed to take them that far). Next steps if it doesn't go away are collect urine sample and x-rays. If it doesn't go away with the Baytril I'll definitely look at taking her to Molly at St Helens as it's much nearer than London!