Female rabbit vaginal discharge

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I have a female rabbit without a male rabbit. She is 1 years and 9 months old. Last time she pregnant when she was 6/7 months old.

My female rabbit had a vaginal discharge last week. First day, a lot of blood came out from her vaginal area.I brought her to vet, the doctor pressed somewhere near the vaginal, blood came out. it is a fresh blood. She stayed in a ward for 4 days, and the blood decreased gradually. But after two days, the blood came one time even though she received an injection from the doctor. But it is only one time. After two days, the blood came out two times when she urinates. Today I am going to bring her for the second injection, which the doctor asked me.

my question, based on the scenario, what is happening to my rabbit? We really love her, and if possible, we don't want to operate her yet, :-( I thought that might be an infection. But the doctor do said if it is still bleeding, it might be a cancer. Doctor said if she still bleeding, we need to operate her. Please help me...

ANSWER: Dear Rab-Lov

Without seeing radiographs or getting more information, it is not possible for me to diagnose the problem, of course.  But given the very common occurrence of uterine problems in unspayed female rabbits, I would hazard a guess that she may have uterine cancer.  This would require that she be spayed as soon as she is stable enough for surgery.  If she has lost a lot of blood, this may require some recovery. But if there are internal lesions hemorrhaging, then you may have few options, and need to have her spayed ASAP.

Radiographs could reveal if this is a urinary tract problem, such as a stone causing the bleeding.  But uterine problems (mostly cancer) are so common in unspayed females that this would be my first guess.  But that's all it is:  a guess.  This must be confirmed by a rabbit-savvy vet, and appropriate action taken as quickly as possible if she is still bleeding.

Please check the international vet listings here for a rabbit vet who can help you.  I hope there is one close enough:

http://members.shaw.ca/cocoasun/RabbitVetsMain.htm

Also found some listings here:

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f21/malaysia-48750/

I hope this helps, and your girl is well soon.

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for the reply. I like to follow up a question. I sent my rabbit to vet. They took a radio graphs of my rabbit. All look good, the doctor cannot see anything strange in the radio graphs. But he suspected that my rabbit is suffering from bladder stone. But the stone cannot be seen in the radio graphs. They gave me muscle relaxant to make the ureter larger so that the stone can get out from my rabbit's body.

After 5 days..

My rabbit is still bleeding. There was one time that there was some hard thing (like stone) with her urine. And in the same time, her urine smell quite strange. I don't know how to describe it. We thought that it was a bladder stone.

But the problem of bleeding still remain unknown. First surgery, the doctor checked her uterus, and it is not inflamed, looks fine. Meaning that, not a cancer. When she urinates, there will be some blood with her urine. But this is intermittent. At the moment,she is in the ward with e-collar. It is because she had bite her stitches twice and the wound was opened. At the moment the doctor just focuses to ensure the wound is getting better first and to have my rabbit eats because of the blood discharge. At the moment they are giving pyometra medication and still doing the observation.

What is other possibilities of my rabbit's problem? Any suggestion. Please give some advice. Pity her, always need to stay in the ward. Before this she had a very good time playing with us. Thank you so much in advance...

Answer
Dear rab-lov

There is usually no good reason to keep the bunny in hospital where it is stressful and lonely.  Also, E-collars are not recommended, as the bunny cannot reach her cecotropes to eat them.  I would ask the vet to show you how to administer her medication and then bring her home to do it yourself.  She will recover more quickly at home with your familiar love around her.  

If the vet did surgery to check her uterus, I am mystified to know why he did not spay her.  Female rabbits have a ridiculously high risk of uterine cancer as they get older, and there is simply no reason to leave the uterus, especially if there is blood in the urine.  The neoplasia might not be obvious on gross examination from the outside of the uterus; there could be growths inside that are causing the bleeding.

I am very sorry that the vet is not more aware of this problem.  

If you can't see a bladder stone, then conjuring up an imaginary one to explain the bleeding is really not good practice.  :(  Yes, there can be uroliths that are radio-translucent.  But if there is no evidence of a stone on radiograph or palpation, and this is an unspayed female bleeding when urinating, then a very likely source of the blood is the uterus.

I hope the bunny will be fine.

Dana