Diarrhea??!? Help??

Yesterday i noticed my bun had a few droppings that resembled the diarrhea type- it had a specific smell, and was larger and longer than the normal droppings that he does.
However, during his play/exercise time out of his cage, he had a few "diarrhea droppings" then it went back to normal for the entire time outside.
When i put him back in his cage, it seemed like the diarrhea came back?? It went back to the smelly, longer and larger droppings. However it was just a few.

He is behaving like his usual self, and his bum area is clean. So i really don't know if it is something serious that i need to carry him to the vet for, or something that i could do to help whatever this could be....any advice??
Thank you in advance!!

True watery diarrhea is considered an emergency in rabbits. What you're describing sounds a bit more like mushy poop, the other option is cecal pellets which are squishy poops in a cluster formation which smell strongly when squashed. Mushy poops are usually caused by something in the diet, either something new that they're not used to, or having too much of a certain food.

This image shows cecal poop on the left, and regular poops on the right. Cecal poops are natural, are usually produced at night and usually consumed by the rabbit. An excess production of them could mean a diet that's too rich. https://cdn.citl.illinois.edu/courses/ANSC207/week13/Rabbits/images/objects/obj5-4.jpg

What are you feeding and in what amounts?

I think that it might be from one to many treats....
Would this go away because i stopped all treats ??

If it's from too many treats, then yes it will go away if you stop them. Then after a few days of normal poops you can slowly introduce the treats again, just fewer than before

A sudden change in diet, or too much of one thing in their diet can cause some digestive issues for a short period of time. Make sure if you introduce something new to their diet take it slow until they are fully used to it


~Pumpkin and Kylie

If it continues for a while, then consider taking your rabbit to the vet


~Pumpkin and Kylie

And always make changes to a bunny under 6-12 months very carefully: their stomachs and intestines are going from a chemically basic medium to a chemically acidic medium. This change can at times weaken their immune systems and make it easy to throw the digestive tract off.

We have a couple that get "loose" if they get too many sugary treats--apple, banana, carrot, or yogurt drops. The loose is usually cecotropes, just not as well formed. Just have to get feeding adjusted and make sure they consume lots of hay as the main part of the diet. Our Checkered Giant couldn't tolerate pellets with alfalfa so we got a total timothy based pellet and she was fine.

Take it to the vets- bunny diorehea is dangerous

Just to summarize, gastro-intestinal (GI) problems in bunnies can quickly escalate to being life threatening. In some ways, bunnies are very robust animals but when it comes to GI issues, they are fragile. Persistent diarrhea needs a visit to the vet. That being said, my bunnies have sometimes had watery poop pellets but the occurrence has just been sporatic. I've read that iceberg lettuce will give rabbits diarrhea....in fact, you're not supposed to feed rabbits iceberg lettuce.

Azerane said:

... the other option is cecal pellets which are squishy poops in a cluster formation which smell strongly when squashed.

This image shows cecal poop on the left, and regular poops on the right. Cecal poops are natural, are usually produced at night and usually consumed by the rabbit.

Click to expand...

Maybe it's relating to the meaning of words, but I don't regard rabbit's "cecotropes," or the term I use "cecum pellets" to be termed as poop. All ruminants, vegetation eating animals, have provisions for re-chewing the contents of their stomachs which are the specialized brewing chambers for bacteria converting cellulose to glucose. For cows, we refer to cow's chewing their cud. Cow's regurgitate the contents of their cellulose brewing stomach for re chewing and re swallowing into their cellulose brewing stomach. For rabbits, the Cecum is the stomach where cellulose to glucose transformation takes place. The Cecum is located at the juncture of the small intestine and the large intestine. In humans, it's a vestigal organ known as the appendix, in rabbits it's an active major stomach. Like cows, rabbits need to re-chew the contents of their Cecum...however, the Cecum cannot be purged to the mouth since it's at the juncture of the small intestine and the large intestine....so the Cecum is purged through the large intestine and out through the bunnies rectum. I call this the Cecum pellet...more scientific name is cecotropes.
What happens next is important for bunny owners. The rabbit does not consider a cecum pellet to be poop. They know when it's coming out and will, for a healthy rabbit, immediately turn around and re-ingest the cecum pellet. My past bunny was just 100% with litter box behaviors, but she never went to the litter box when she had a cecum pellet.

The problem I had with Bunny (now passed away) was that she started dropping her cecum pellets on carpets and floors and was not eating them. Poops went into the litter box, but the cecum pellets were appearing on carpets/rugs. And then we'd step on the cecum pellet and it'd stain the carpet/rug. The cecum pellet when smooshed...has a very dark green color...from vegetation...it has a bilious odor...smells like vomit..but it is full of vitamins, enzymes, for the bunny's nutrition. The reason our bunny was not eating her cecum pellets was that she had spinal stenosis. It was painful for her to reach around and eat the cecum pellet as it came out. The vet prescribed Metacam, an anelgesic to relieve back pain and Bunny began once again eating her cecum pellets!!!

For me, I don't regard rabbit cecum pellets, or cecotropes, as being poop even though they come out of the rectum.

rochy said:

I think that it might be from one to many treats....
Would this go away because i stopped all treats ??

Click to expand...

How is your bunny doing? Have his poops improved?

flemishwhite said:

All ruminants, vegetation eating animals, have provisions for re-chewing the contents of their stomachs which are the specialized brewing chambers for bacteria converting cellulose to glucose.

Click to expand...

I understand what you're saying about cecal pellets, I know what they are. It's just a common terms for them that is used. Rabbits however are not ruminants, they are hindgut fermenters as they only have a single chamber in their stomach.

I NEED HELP!!! my bunny is 2 and a half months old and i dont know if he diahrriaed or barfed but im really scared!!

Looks like pee to mee.

TaylorxMatrix said:

I NEED HELP!!! my bunny is 2 and a half months old and i dont know if he diahrriaed or barfed but im really scared!!

Click to expand...

I agree, it's pee. Rabbit pee can be yellow, quite milky, even orange, red and purple colours as diet can change the colour of the pee. If the pee is white like your rabbit's and also sludgy it can be an indication of bladder sludge, which is a build up of calcium and needs treating. This pee looks fine to me though

Also, just as an additional note, rabbit's can't vomit.

I also agree that it is pee. Do you have a litter box for him? He may take to it which would make clean up easier for you and also prevent him from stepping in the wet pee and getting it on his paws.

Even though neutered rabbits tend to litter train easily, your young one may still train. I hesitate to use the word "train" because all you really need to do is provide a litter box set up and bunny will eventually figure it out.

Here is how to set up a litter box:
http://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/litter-training.html

Agree..very likely pee. My litter boxes are lined with newspapers and then covered with oat hay (sometimes timothy). The bunns love it. Eating a lot of green leafy vegetables, bunn pee will be chalky white. If you feed them a lot of carrots (which you shouldn't) their pee will be a dark orange.

Notice I said litter boxes. Our old Bunny was a house bunny and she had the run of the house. She had excellent litter box manners....she only pee'd and pooped in her litter box. She was nearly 12 years old when she died. Our two Flemish babies are pretty good with their litter boxes, but they are still prone to pee outside their boxes. We have hardwood floors and leather furniture, so it's not a big problem. I think they are marking...they still put a lot of pee in their litter boxes so they know what the litter boxes are for. !!!

Rabbits try to be very clean animals.

phew!! okay thank you guys so much!! hes about 2 and a half months and i got him about 2 days ago Im trying my best to litter train him right now but he poops everywhere! /: i have the news papers set up. also is it ok to put a little blanket in his cage while im litter training him or no?

Check the litter training link in my post above. It answers some of your questions - including the blanket idea (not advised during training). Laying newspaper on the cage floor isn't litter training (if that is what you meant by having the newspapers set up).

It is absolutely normal to see lots of stray poos in the early days with a rabbit. This is often marking territory in the new place. Litter training is mostly about the urine. Once they get the urine down, the rest will follow. It is the urine that is smelly anyway.