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What could it be? UPDATE: Kidney disease

He wet himself on me today for the first time :(. He had 2 accidents on the outdoor sofa last week in 1 day but I put that down to me giving him too much liquid and him being excited about food with a very full bladder. We've noticed he has been peeing in his hay, we always assumed this was Coco but it's been happening quite frequently and just assumed he was lazy as he still uses the litter tray regularly. Hoping these meds help him out as he looks lost right now the poor baby.

I gave him some apple for the first time in ages last night (have been avoiding sugar with statis worries) and some oats (which I read yesterday but help him put back on weight, but looking at that article looks like a no go for phosphate ��.- I need to read up on the why etc around that yet) and he perked right up, so might see if some apple helps again this afternoon.

Any other foods that would help put weight back on him but be gentle on his gut? (I have the cecotropes in check right now so worried about starting them off again after dramatically increasing the amounts of fresh food his is eating).
 
Leesa said:
He wet himself on me today for the first time :(. He had 2 accidents on the outdoor sofa last week in 1 day but I put that down to me giving him too much liquid and him being excited about food with a very full bladder. We've noticed he has been peeing in his hay, we always assumed this was Coco but it's been happening quite frequently and just assumed he was lazy as he still uses the litter tray regularly. Hoping these meds help him out as he looks lost right now the poor baby.

I gave him some apple for the first time in ages last night (have been avoiding sugar with statis worries) and some oats (which I read yesterday but help him put back on weight, but looking at that article looks like a no go for phosphate ��.- I need to read up on the why etc around that yet) and he perked right up, so might see if some apple helps again this afternoon.

Any other foods that would help put weight back on him but be gentle on his gut? (I have the cecotropes in check right now so worried about starting them off again after dramatically increasing the amounts of fresh food his is eating).
Click to expand...

I used to give my boy a tiny bit of apple too. I think excess phosphates are removed by the kidneys but if your bun has compromised kidney function they kick round in the body where they are likely harmful - they impact on calcium too. I'm terrible at explaining stuff - prob cos I don't understand enough. I was gutted about the oats too. The only way I could put weight on my boy (& it was slow going / limited in its success) was to feed lots & lots & lots of syringe feeding. He ate fresh forage too but relatively small quantities

Frances Harcourt Brown says ok to add a little blackcurrant or apple juice to encourage water consumption in CRF buns
 
joey&boo said:
I used to give my boy a tiny bit of apple too. I think excess phosphates are removed by the kidneys but if your bun has compromised kidney function they kick round in the body where they are likely harmful - they impact on calcium too. I'm terrible at explaining stuff - prob cos I don't understand enough. I was gutted about the oats too. The only way I could put weight on my boy (& it was slow going / limited in its success) was to feed lots & lots & lots of syringe feeding. He ate fresh forage too but relatively small quantities

Frances Harcourt Brown says ok to add a little blackcurrant or apple juice to encourage water consumption in CRF buns
Click to expand...

Thank you! Are ideas on how bad water is? I read someone on here suggest years ago that it was better to use Tesco bottled water to reduce calcium intake.
 
Leesa said:
Thank you! Are ideas on how bad water is? I read someone on here suggest years ago that it was better to use Tesco bottled water to reduce calcium intake.
Click to expand...

Its not something my vet ever mentioned but I know others on here buy bottled water for buns with urinary tract problems. Rudey drank loads - it was what led to his diagnostics. The thing is buns still needs calcium for teeth & bones so its not about removing it all but trying to avoid excess. My vets were very focussed on syringe feeding - that & metacam were pretty much his treatment plan.

Was it his creatine & urea that were high?
 
If he is struggling to maintain his weight the Vet may consider giving him an anabolic steroid injection, eg Nandrolone. This is often part of the treatment for CRF. The anabolic steroid (very different from corticosteroids) can help to minimise muscle catabolism (muscle wastage) and also increase the appetite x
 
Thanks both Joey&Boo and Jack's -Jane. So I don't actually know what the blood test results were, but he's being put on aluminium hydroxide. We've had a bit of a nightmare/mix-up with getting it, so taking a drive to the vets now to get it as he's looking pretty sorry for himself so I didn't want him waiting any longer. I literally phoned round 15 vets nearer me and nowhere had it in stock. I'm paying £108 for it so I hope it's going to be something that's better than £10.27 what I'm finding on Animed!

He doesn't feel as much like skin and bones today, but I have been feeding him up for the last week. He's still got a healthy appetite but has got quite fussy with eating as much hay, not eating things like courgette, which I tried him on 2 weeks ago and he liked. Usually he would scoff up grass and I'm having to hand feed it to him to eat. Usually he would wolf down pear leaves and I had to hand feed him those this morning to get him to eat them. The lack of amount of poops is bothering me - where does it go?! He's still pooping smaller poops on the gut stimulant but eating far more than he has been.
 
Leesa said:
Thanks both Joey&Boo and Jack's -Jane. So I don't actually know what the blood test results were, but he's being put on aluminium hydroxide. We've had a bit of a nightmare/mix-up with getting it, so taking a drive to the vets now to get it as he's looking pretty sorry for himself so I didn't want him waiting any longer. I literally phoned round 15 vets nearer me and nowhere had it in stock. I'm paying £108 for it so I hope it's going to be something that's better than £10.27 what I'm finding on Animed!

He doesn't feel as much like skin and bones today, but I have been feeding him up for the last week. He's still got a healthy appetite but has got quite fussy with eating as much hay, not eating things like courgette, which I tried him on 2 weeks ago and he liked. Usually he would scoff up grass and I'm having to hand feed it to him to eat. Usually he would wolf down pear leaves and I had to hand feed him those this morning to get him to eat them. The lack of amount of poops is bothering me - where does it go?! He's still pooping smaller poops on the gut stimulant but eating far more than he has been.
Click to expand...

If he's not eating much hay his poo will be a lot smaller.Did the Vet say why the aluminium hydroxide was being prescribed ?AFAIK it's an antacid :? I assume the Vet thinks gastric ulcers may be an issue ?
 
I guess the actual values of his bloods don't really matter - its how he copes that counts.

I really hope the new drugs work wonders for him. i've no what idea what happens with the poops (Rudeys were very plentiful, very scattered but way too small). He ate loads calorie wise (8 big syringe feeds most days +herbs + forage) but just seemed to burn it off. Its been my only experience of a bunny refusing hay & with all the other stuff I found it quite stressful to manage initially.

I'm rooting for your boy. Let us know how he goes xx
 
joey&boo said:
I guess the actual values of his bloods don't really matter - its how he copes that counts.

I really hope the new drugs work wonders for him. i've no what idea what happens with the poops (Rudeys were very plentiful, very scattered but way too small). He ate loads calorie wise (8 big syringe feeds most days +herbs + forage) but just seemed to burn it off. Its been my only experience of a bunny refusing hay & with all the other stuff I found it quite stressful to manage initially.

I'm rooting for your boy. Let us know how he goes xx
Click to expand...

Will do!

It's so bizarre, he has a full belly right now and has gone to his hay box so I'm hoping for bigger poops!! (Of course he jumped out after I wrote that!)
 
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