So you need your rabbits’ urine, maybe you are suspicious of a urinary tract infection?
Maybe urolithiasis?
Or possibly kidney disease.
The first step is collecting the urine,
- If you are lucky, your rabbit will urinate for you, either on the floor or in a litter tray. Great work!
- You can manually express urine – as you would for a cat or dog.
- You could place a urinary catheter – easy for male rabbits
- Or you can obtain a sample via cystocentesis – but…that’s risky as rabbits have large LARGE intestines and this will be painful. Your rabbit most likely will need sedation for this technique.
You choose what works best for you and your rabbit!
Now you have the urine, great!
But what does normal rabbit urine look like?
- Rabbits excrete calcium in their urine, often resulting in turbid, cloudy or opaque urine, high in calcium.
- USG 1.003-1.036
- pH approximately 8
Now make sure your rabbit’s urine is normal!
Hop to it!
References:
- CVE Time Online. Vella, D. Rabbits and rodents – 2018. CVE.
Exotics Vets 