Today, we’re going to discuss the top five diseases you need to know about for rabbits. In this article, you’ll learn about rabbit health problems, common rabbit illnesses, rabbit care and prevention, how to prevent rabbit diseases, symptoms of rabbit diseases, and rabbit care tips. Hopefully, you’re already doing some of these. Let’s get started.
1. Sludgy Bladder
Sludgy Bladder
Number one is a sludgy bladder. Now, I don’t say this is number one in the numerical order of most important; it’s just the one I picked for number one. Now, in many other mammals, calcium is picked up from the intestines as it’s needed. However, in rabbits, and kind of like in horses, it is picked up almost completely, and then it’s excreted down to the level that is necessary. Now, that means that the more calcium that they’re intaking, the more calcium they have to excrete. So, sludgy bladder is when there’s an accumulation of calcium crystals, usually something like calcium carbonate or something along those lines, in the bladder that is going to inhibit their ability to urinate. This can be very painful and can cause some other issues.
Now, we have to think about two things. Number one, is the calcium intake too high? Number two, are we not able to excrete calcium normally? This sounds very complicated, but it’s really not as complicated as you think. So, the number one place where rabbits accumulate calcium is alfalfa-based food products. Now, what that means is alfalfa hay and alfalfa-based pellets; both of those are very high in calcium, so they can intake much more than they normally would. So, rabbits can also have problems excreting calcium if they’re dehydrated or if they’re otherwise sick and unable to process it normally.
Symptoms of Sludgy Bladder
Blood in the urine is probably the number one; otherwise, it would be slow urination if they’re just not urinating as quickly as normal, if there’s white crystals right after they urinate rather than after it’s dried out for a little while, because it’s normal for them to excrete some calcium, just not a ton, or if there’s painful urination if they start hunching their back when they’re going to the bathroom.
Preventing Sludgy Bladder
So, what can you do about it? Well, the number one thing is to make sure you’re feeding limited amounts of alfalfa. You can feed some sort of grass-based hay, like timothy or orchard grass, and try to avoid the alfalfa as much as possible, and this will be kind of a trend going forward as roughage and other sorts of hay.
2. GI Stasis
Symptoms of Gi Stasis
Number two is GI stasis. Now, GI stasis occurs in rabbits when the gut stops moving and allows an accumulation of gas in the intestinal tract. And this can occur for a lot of reasons, but some of the main ones are stress, dehydration, and not enough roughage if they had diarrhea. A lot of these things can eventually cause some sort of GI stasis.
Symptoms of GI Stasis
Symptoms of GI stasis include decreased fecal pellet size, or if they’re having any diarrhea, being unwilling to eat, hunching back, or feeling like they’re in pain. All of these things can be signs of GI stasis.
Treating GI Stasis
Now, if your rabbit has GI stasis, you’ll want to contact your vet as soon as possible, but sometimes this will happen overnight or over a weekend where you just can’t get to a veterinarian. And if that happens, the number one thing we can do is replace that roughage and replace any fluid deficits, meaning we want to do some sort of fluid and we want to do some sort of hay. But if they’re not eating, how do we get hay down there? Well, that’s easy, actually. There’s a product by Oxbow called Critical Care. Now, there may be other products out there. I’m just not aware of them. This is the one that I’ve always used for my patients and for my personal rabbits as well. And this is basically a crushed hay product that you can syringe feed once you mix it with water. You’ll see a link in the description below.
Now, you may need other medical interventions, such as some sort of IV or fluid under the skin, and you want to start with feeding a liquid hay diet as much as possible. And you also may need to think about whether there is something else going on that is that is causing stress or disease. Is there an infection or something along those lines? And you may need your vet to help you figure out what else might be going on. The other thing that might be necessary is some sort of pain relief, because sometimes if they’re in a lot of pain, they still won’t eat. Even if you’re syringe-feeding them, it may not be enough to get the gut stimulated without some pain relief.
Preventing GI Stasis
So how do you prevent this? Well, the number one thing you can do is follow a hay-based diet. Again, like I said, you’ll probably hear this multiple times. But then the other thing is to monitor their health closely. So if you start to see slightly decreased pellet size, start watching them really closely and watching for any other symptoms of something else being wrong. If you notice a decreased number of pellets or anything along those lines, start looking and paying attention, and if it continues, talk to your vet before it spirals out of control.
3. Uterine Cancer
Rabbit
Number three is uterine cancer. Now I briefly mentioned this in one of my other videos, but uterine cancer occurs in 50 to 80% of women over the age of three. Now that’s a really, really high percentage. So 50 to 80% of all female rabbits are going to develop this; at least European rabbits are going to develop this by age three. Now they might live with it for a lot longer after they reach that age; we don’t always know, but it can metastasize and end up causing a lot of issues and may shorten their lifespan pretty dramatically.
Symptoms of Uterine Cancer
Now, things to look for if you have an intact female rabbit over that age or even slightly under that age would be hematuria. So if there’s some blood right at the end of when they pee, if they have some weight loss, that’s unexplained, and really, there’s a lot of unspecific or nonspecific signs that can be attributed to cancer. So diagnosis can be really difficult, and you may need imaging or surgery, but the number one thing we can do is prevention in this case, and that’s to make sure your rabbits are spayed unless they’re going to be used for breeding, and then spay as soon as you’re done with breeding if possible.
4. Dental Disease
Number four is dental disease in rabbits. Now rabbits have teeth very similar to those of horses, cows, and rodents, in which all of their teeth continually grow. This includes their incisors and molars. Now, when rabbits are wearing down their teeth, they’re usually doing that on roughage like hay. The other thing would be if they have any chew toys, such as wood or some sort of hard object. Now the chewing motion is very important to keep their teeth at the correct length, allowing them to continue eating and chewing normally.
Symptoms of Dental Disease
The diagnosis of this can sometimes be very simple, with the incisors being wonky or even looking a little bit funny. So there is some predisposition to bad teeth, but the other thing that you really should be watching is if they’re dropping food or if they’re eating more slowly.
Treating Dental Disease
And treatment is relatively simple. You just need to bring them to your veterinarian, and they’ll do a tooth trim with some sort of bird drill. I don’t recommend trying to clip them off because it can fracture the teeth and actually lead to more problems in the future. Now one other thing to remember is that when your rabbit has some sort of dental disease, especially if the incisors look funny, usually the incisors having a problem is secondary to something going on with the cheek teeth or the molars. And so, if you bring them to your veterinarian for a tooth problem, make sure they’re doing a full oral exam in the back of their mouth. And your pet may need to be sedated in order to do this effectively.
Preventing Dental Disease
In terms of prevention, the only thing we can really do is keep an eye on it. And if it is happening, make sure you talk to your vet to trim them down before it gets out of control. Number two is making sure that they’re eating enough hay and fewer pellets. The more calories they’re intaking through hay, the fewer pellets they’re going to have, and they’re going to break down a lot more of those teeth and wear them down more effectively. The other thing we can supplement them with is some sort of chew toy. I have a willow chew ball that my rabbits typically like, but there’s a lot of other chewy things out there. So find one that your rabbit likes, whether it’s made out of wood or hay; just make sure it’s non-toxic.
5. Heat Stroke
Number five is heat stroke. And heat stroke can occur. This is mostly going to be in outdoor rabbits or rabbits that get to go outside, which is fantastic if they do, but watch out for red ears, especially on a hot day. If there’s any panting, lethargy, weakness, or if they look confused or have any convulsions, those are all signs of heat stroke.
Symptoms of Heat Stroke
Immediate Reaction
★Now our immediate reaction when we see something that seems too hot is to cool it down quickly. Now, we can’t do that, unfortunately.
Cooling Methods at Home
★Things you can do at home is spray their ears gently with water, not too much, but enough to evaporate and do it more frequently rather than more at a single time.
★The other thing would be to use a cool, not frozen or cold water bottle and put that next to them if they seem overly hot.
Veterinary Care
★And if they do seem to be having a heat stroke, call your veterinarian. Your vet is going to be better equipped to be able to monitor their temperature and make sure it’s coming down at the right pace and not coming down too quickly and pushing them into shock.
★I had a dog that actually had a heat stroke that came in. They assumed he was super hot; he wasn’t doing well. They cooled him down really quickly, and when he came in, his temperature was 94. And the same thing can happen to rabbits. A normal temperature for a so being down at 94 is really low. So just don’t overcool them. Bring them to your veterinarian if this happens.
Prevention Tips
★And things you can do to prevent this are making sure they have shade. They’re not going to be in direct sunlight.
★I’m putting on some sort of misting system, whether it be a sprinkler or putting cool water bottles down that they can lay next to.
★Putting ice cubes in their water outside. Any of these things can help keep them hydrated and cool.
So these have been my top five diseases in rabbits and what you can do to prevent them. If you guys enjoyed this content, feel free to drop a comment.
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