bunny bladder issues

Question
We have had our bunny for several years, and have not changed anything lately.  For the past few weeks, he has been drinking his entire bottle of water in a day.  After cleaning his cage, it needs cleaning again in about 2 days because of all the wet.  His liter is a shredded paper product and not pine.  He eats vegetables and the dry food.  Can I give him cranberries incase of infection?

Answer
Dear Pat,

Cranberries will probably not hurt him, but excessive drinking and excessive urination are not usually a sign of infection, but rather of renal disease.  Your bunny needs bloodwork done to check the state of his kidneys (creatinine and B.U.N. levels, and some diagnostic electrolyte levels).  You can find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

The vet will tell you whether any supportive therapies are necessary.  Some renal insults can cause damage that is reversible, but other types of renal disease are chronic, and are not curable.  The bunny can be supported, however, and live for years even with compromised kidneys.  The key is early diagnosis and appropriate treatment (and not overdoing the subQ fluids!).

For some partly related urinary tract information, you may wish to read:

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

We did have one interesting case recently of a bunny drinking excessively, but his bloodwork was normal.  A deep oral exam revealed a severely overgrown premolar that was jabbing the roof of his mouth.  Once the tooth was filed, his "drinking problem" stopped a couple of days later.  He was just drinking to soothe the hurt in his mouth!

So I hope you'll get your bunny to a good vet soon to find out the root of the problem and have it treated, as necessary.

Hope this helps.

Dana