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wt loss and excessive drinking in a lionhead rabbit

22 11:21:59

Question
i have a little lionhead that apears to be losing weight despite a good appetite. he also drinks a lot of water at one go and subsequently urinates a lot. otherwise he is active.What is wrong?

Answer
Dear Chow,

Weight loss/wasting and PU/PD (polyuria/polydipsia), or excessive urination and excessive drinking, are classic signs of renal disease. I am getting more and more questions about this from people with lionhead rabbits, which has me worried that unscrupulous breeders (and truly, I'm not sure there are very many of the other kind) are creating a monster.  

Some highly inbred rabbit breeds are susceptible to congenital health problems such as a predisposition to ear infections, problems with the teeth, etc.  And I'm starting to wonder whether certain strains of lionheads are prone to renal problems.

You need to find a good rabbit vet:

www.rabbit.org/vets

who can take a blood sample and run tests to see if your bunny's levels of B.U.N. (blood urea nitrogen), creatinine, total protein, and other levels are normal or not. If they are not, there are other tests that could indicate whether this problem is acute (sudden onset, perhaps due to toxic reaction to something he ingested) or chronic (more likely to be due to aging or congenital factors).  The former is more likely to be treatable.  The latter is not good news.

Some vets will prescribe a regimen of subcutaneous fluids, but this must be done with *extreme* caution.  In my opinion, a rabbit who is not showing other signs of health impairment (e.g., neurological problems, lethargy, inappetence) should not be given massive amounts of fluids, as they seem to be able to monitor what's necessary on their own better than we can guess.  Excessive fluids will help flush out toxins, but they also can really mess with other normal blood values, hastening the bunny's demise.

I know this from bitter personal experience.

So I would get bun to the vet for diagnostic tests, and see what the vet says is the best course of action.

I hope this helps.

Dana