blood in bunnies urine

Question
when i got home this evening i found that my bunny had blood in her urine, is there any simple explanation for this.  i will take her to the vet but just wanted someone to put my mind at ease.  thankyou

Answer
Dear Rebekah,

If your bunny is not spayed, then the most likely explanation is a uterine hyperplasia or uterine adenocarcinoma (cancer).  Unspayed female rabbits have a *very* high risk of this type of cancer, which is why we strongly recommend that all female bunnies be spayed by the age of a year.  There are other possible causes of blood in the urine (e.g., urinary tract infection, urolith, etc.), but the uterine cancer problem is so prevalent in unspayed females that this is really almost always the reason.

The good news is that if this has been caught relatively early, this type of cancer does not appear to metastasize in a very aggressive manner, and spaying your bunny may completely solve this problem permanently.  But that means you should not delay in getting her to a very rabbit-savvy vet who knows how to spay a bunny with a potentially problematic uterus with minimal risk.  You may be able to find such a vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Unfortunately, this is very common in unspayed females.  But with quick intervention, she may be just fine.  The fact that she is already bleeding suggests that you have little time to wait, though.  So make an appointment and let the vet staff know that while this is not an emergency requiring immediate surgery, that your bunny needs an appointment very promptly (i.e., TOMORROW) so she can be treated in a timely fashion.

I hope she will be fine.

Dana