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mini lop doe swollen genitalia

22 10:25:35

Question
our 5 month old female mini lop has swollen genitalia, although she doesn't seem sick...  it just looks puffy and protruding.  worrisome. is this any sort of bad sign?

Answer
Dear Susie,

It's not normal for her genitalia to look puffy, so it would be wise to get her to a good rabbit vet:

www.rabbit.org/vets

who can examine her and find out what the trouble is.  In my experience, puffy genitals have always been linked to a urinary tract infection (UTI), so please do ask the vet about that.  A clean urine sample can be taken via cystocentesis (needle into the bladder) and a culture and sensitivity test run, if the vet suspects there might be a UTI.

She's still a bit too young to be spayed, but it's also possible that she's starting to sexually mature. This shouldn't cause her genitals to look abnormally puffy, though.  So I'd still have a good vet take a look.  Please read this, though, so you'll know what to do once she gets a bit older:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

I hope this helps.

Dana