The "sludge bunny"

I have a health update on the Little Man; I'll preface this by saying that he's fine and definitely on the mend, but we had a rather unpleasant incident today.

Little Man has not been feeling well for the last few months. With increasing frequency, he has been crying when he pees and has begun to miss his litter box entirely, which is unusual for him. (All the while I've been maintaining that if blind, arthritic Zelda can make it into the litter box, he can.)


I took him to the vet today to see if she could identify what's wrong with him, and sure enough, she found something wrong with his bladder. On x-ray inspection, she could see that his bladder was about twice its normal size and was filled with something solid.

Apparently over the years, the Little Man has been building up calcium deposits in his bladder, which have swelled it to great proportions. It was hard for us to tell this, because he's always been a bit pudgy, and there were no tell-tale signs of chalky urine in his cage.

The doctor squeezed a ton of it out - a shocking 10.5 ounces. I saw the pile of stuff, and it was no pleasant sight. (The doctor called him a "sludge bunny." Maybe that will be his new nickname.)

At the very least, he seems to be more comfortable. Now we've got to monitor his diet to limit calcium-rich foods and make sure he gets plenty of fluids to flush the remaining calcium deposits.

So that's the bunny update; Zelda's doing well, so nothing to report there. Sometimes I feel like we're running a nursing home for geriatric bunnies.