my 4yo female rabbit bleeding

Question
QUESTION: dear Dana,Hi,im indonesian,i have 4year old female rabbit.She delivered twice,1st with 10healthy babies&the next 2.5months deliver 8babies but only 4 survived.Since last december07,she bleed when urinated,doctor treat with medication,she's getting better but periodically she always bleed.Vet do X-ray&USG,but can't really see/tell what happen inside her.In the last 1.5month she didnt bleed,only sometimes small blood spot when urinate.But 3days ago,she started to bleed again.Today i brought her to vet,she bleed there without urine.When we got back home,she bleed again quite a lot when she pee.I feel everytime we got back from vet,she bleed more when she first pee.Took 45minutes by car from my house to vet.Next week,doctor plan to perform surgery/laparotomy,but they also worry with her age.I got so scared.What should i do best for her?what happen actually?I fed her special pellets for senior rabbit,hays,grains,seeds,fresh veggie&small qty of apple.Sometime honey with water with her medication.Some vet say better dont do the surgery because of the risk.i haven't spayed her.is it ok to do it now?or better not?Is she too old to have surgery?Overall she looks fine..Pls help i'm confused. thanks

ANSWER: Dear Rosa,

It sounds as if the best and safest thing would be to have your bunny spayed.  Uterine cancer is very common in unspayed females, and the main sign is bleeding from the vagina and during urination.  Please read:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

and

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/spay.html

and--hopefully--try to find an experienced rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

with the International Vet Listings link.

A less likely possibility is a urinary tract problem:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/urinary.html

But a uterine problem is far more likely, given her history.

I hope this helps get you on the right track.

Dana

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

QUESTION: dear Dana, thanks a lot for your kind reply. I read your site already, but I'm still don't have the courage to operate my rabbit.. I'm afraid that she will not wake up anymore after the surgery..
is uterine problems are much easier to treat rather than urinary problems (kidney problems)?
how to perform blood test on rabbit? is it painful?
Is it ok to give her medicine all the time to stop the bleeding? She looks fine to me, so I'm kind of worried to do a surgery to her and i might loose her... since the vet here in Jakarta is not so familiar with rabbit..
also i want to ask if my other rabbit,one of his eye always wet,doctor said theres nothing happen, but once read (i forgot where) that it might be dangerous connect to brain? Is that true?
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Rosa

Answer
Dear Rosa,

The surgery option is something only you can decide.  But if your bunny is bleeding due to a uterine tumor, she will die from that.  It may take a while.  But uterine cancer will grow, spread, and ultimately be fatal.

A urinary tract problem is more easily treated if it's an infection.  But if it's a stone or sludge, that, too, will require surgery.  I wish I could tell you otherwise.

Runny eyes can be caused by various things, and you can read about them here:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sneezing.html

The closest *known* rabbit vets in your area are in Singapore:

http://www.hrss.net/aar/health/health_vets.html

but I'll bet if you contact someone from the Singapore House Rabbit Society *or* a veterinarian on the rabbit vet list in Singapore, they may be able to refer you to a rabbit vet closer to you.  It is certainly worth a try to save your bunny's life.

I hope this helps.

Dana