sticky poopy butt

[nicolew07]

HELP!
So I had been noticing that Tennant's butt has been very smelly. A couple days ago i flipped him on his back and he had a HUGE glob of poop stuck all over his butt. I soaked it with water and finally was able to get it all off with my boyfriends help. Then today just 2 days later I notice there is a little more again but it was just a little so it came off easily. His diet is just his pellets and unlimited hay and then about a tablespoon of dried fruit at night before I go to bed.
What is causing this and what can I do to try to fix it? There is barely any normal rabbit poop in his litter box but I find little clumps here and there around his room and then all over his butt

 

[JBun]

Most often problems with soft poop are caused by too many carbs and sugars in the diet. Other reasons can be a new food introduced too quickly, certain veggies causing digestive upset, or parasites/bacteria. If you have some pet probiotics like benebac, you can start off with giving him some of that. Next you will want to stop feeding all fruit, grains, starches, sugars, carbs. A tablespoon of dried fruit is way to much for such a small rabbit. Usually the recommended amount is 1 tsp. for every 2 lbs of body weight, and that is for fresh fruit. Dried fruits sugars are much more concentrated and should be fed in much smaller amounts. But with your rabbit having soft poop, he shouldn't be getting any fruit or sugars for a while. How much of the pellets do you feed him and what kind are they(brand and type) and what kind of hay? You may also need to start decreasing pellets if stopping fruit and treats doesn't correct the problem within a couple days. You'll decrease a little bit every couple days until the soft poop stops. If his condition worsens, you see blood or mucous in the poop, or if you are worried that it might be parasites/bacteria, you can talk to your vet about bringing in a fecal sample to have it tested for parasites(like coccidiosis) or bacteria(like e. coli).

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/poop.html
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/drop/Drp_en.htm

 

[nicolew07]

He is on Kent for pellets which is what the breeder I got him from has always had him on so I just stuck to that and then the kaytee timothy hay. I give him 1/4 a cup of pellets every morning and refill his hay throughout the day which he doesn't really eat that much of...
I had posted in here a week ago about him shedding really bad could that possibly be related to this too?

 

[JBun]

No, molting isn't going to cause soft poops. It actually does the opposite and causes the gut to slow down, which can sometimes result in small hard fecal poop, and gut stasis.

This is most likely diet related. Too many sugars and carbs cause a bad bacterial overgrowth, which then starts causing the poop problems. The amount of sugars/fruit that he was getting each day, would have started to cause the imbalance. You can try just eliminating the fruit and sugars, but if the imbalance has gotten too bad, it may also take cutting pellets out and feeding grass hay only until his poops return to normal. But you can just start with cutting the fruit and seeing if that will be enough to get his GI back to normal. The addition of benebac probiotics will help out a lot as well. You'll want the 15 gr tube if you can find it. Some pet stores carry it, or you can sometimes pick some up from your vet, it just usually costs more. If after eliminating the fruit, he still isn't eating very much hay, like a large handful each day(he's about 2-3 lbs isn't he?), then you are going to want to reduce his pellets even if his poops go back to normal after cutting out the fruit. I also have dwarf hotots, and they eat about 1/8-1/4 cup pellets, split into two feedings, and also a small handful of hay with each feeding. So their hay amount each day is about the size of their bodies. Hay is very important to keep the gut contents moving well and to prevent soft poops or stasis from occurring. Bagged petstore hay is pretty expensive. If you have a tractor supply or feed store near you, they will sometimes have bales of timothy hay. You want good horse quality hay that has never been wet. Usually 50 lb bales are $10-20. Spliting his pellet amount into 2 feedings, may also help stop the soft poops from occurring, so he's not getting all the carbs from the pellets, all at one feeding.

This link explains intermittant soft stool in rabbits, which is what your rabbit has. But you will want to try and correct this right away as it can progress to much more severe GI problems, some of which can be fatal.

http://www.sawneeanimalclinic.com/downloads/chronic_intermittent_diarrhea_in_rabbits.pdf

 

[nicolew07]

Okay thanks so much! Yeah he is about 3 lbs. I will cut back his pellets and see if he eats more hay that way. I usually give him a handful and that usually lasts a few days before I have to refill it. I am on the same bag of hay from when I got him in January that's how little hay he eats but he goes through spurts where he eats more hay some days and then not very much at all again.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Definitely need to get more hay into him. Some of ours get no fruit at all and only a small amount of veggies or they get the same way. I use unscented baby wipes to do a cleaning if needed.