Runny poo help!

Hello everyone,

I really need some advice right now. I have been having a problem with runny poo with my bun for a while, I thought it was a dietary problem but I'm now thinking that it is that but also his teeth. He refuses to eat hay, which I know must be causing digestive problems but maybe a problem with his teeth is the reason why he won't eat hay. His runny poo problem seems to be getting worse this week, I have found runny smelly poo every morning and I'm really concerned. Right now he is having his science selective pellets morning and night, and his greens which is some parsley and romaine this week. I'm unable to get him seen by the vet until next week, I don't have the funds until next week and me and bun are moving to our new home this weekend also. I have found a very good rabbit savvy vet in that area which I'm really happy about as I called our current vet to try to get some advice over the phone today and all I received was a rude and horrible woman on the phone! Do any of you have some advice as to what I can do to help my bun in the meantime before I can get to the vets next week? As he doesn't eat hay I really don't know what I can get him to eat to help his poor stomach! I'm just so worried and I don't want things to get worse before we can go to the vets. He does seem to be his normal self, maybe a bit grumpy but I think that's because he is going through a heavy shedding right now. I would really appreciate any advice! Thank you!

Our poor Flemish Giant has dental problems. When he stops eating his hay and pellets, it means his teeth are hurting him and we have to take him to get dental surgery. The last time this happened, he started having runny poo. It was starting to become more and more mucus than poop and that is when I found out that I should not wait any longer. It happened in less than two days. If your rabbit is not eating hay, and not eating pellets, then you will need to get it to the vet as soon as possible. If it is eating pellets, but not hay, then he shouldn't be having runny poo. He could have something else going on - like an issue with his intestines and still the bun will need to be seen by a vet. If it were me, I would not wait very long.....rabbits can rapidly advance to a serious emergency without any warning. Can you contact the rabbit savvy vet and see if they have a payment plan or some way to work things out for you to get your bun checked? If not, can you check with a local humane society to see if they know of a way to get some funding to get the bun checked?

doodlebugger said:

Our poor Flemish Giant has dental problems. When he stops eating his hay and pellets, it means his teeth are hurting him and we have to take him to get dental surgery. The last time this happened, he started having runny poo. It was starting to become more and more mucus than poop and that is when I found out that I should not wait any longer. It happened in less than two days. If your rabbit is not eating hay, and not eating pellets, then you will need to get it to the vet as soon as possible. If it is eating pellets, but not hay, then he shouldn't be having runny poo. He could have something else going on - like an issue with his intestines and still the bun will need to be seen by a vet. If it were me, I would not wait very long.....rabbits can rapidly advance to a serious emergency without any warning. Can you contact the rabbit savvy vet and see if they have a payment plan or some way to work things out for you to get your bun checked? If not, can you check with a local humane society to see if they know of a way to get some funding to get the bun checked?

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Thank you for your reply. He is still eating as normal, and there are also lots of normal poops in his litter box. It's just his reluctance to eat hay which makes me wonder if he has teeth problems as I have been persistent with trying to get him to eat his for quite a while. I'm not sure if the new vet has payment plans, when I spoke to the receptionist there, I told her that I would be able to bring him in next week but asked if I could speak with the vet for some advice in the meantime and she told me that I wouldn't be able to have a conversation with him and I would need to bring my bun for an appointment but I think perhaps the reason for that is because they have never seen my bun before. Are you in the uk? If you are then any info on humane society's would be very helpful! I have never been in this situation where I couldn't pay for my buns health so I have no idea what to do. Also, what I have noticed is that he has normal poops as usual, but I will find that he has had some runny poo in the morning and then he is fine for the rest of the day. I'm going to keep a close eye on him today!

I'm glad you'll be taking him into the vet. Dental problems could be a possible cause for not eating hay and the mushy poop. Parasites could also be causing the mushy poop. The vet can rule that out with a fecal test. Usually though, mushy poop is often caused by diet. It could be from too many sugars and carbs in the diet(from treats and/or pellets), an intolerance to a certain food, or from not enough fiber in the diet. Since your rabbit doesn't eat hay, that could be the cause or a contributing factor for the mushy poop. Do you also feed any sugary or starchy treats? Also, about how much of the pellets does he eat each day and what is his weight? Have you tried different varieties of hay to see if he just doesn't like a particular kind? If eating too many pellets isn't the reason for not eating hay, and you've tried other types of hay, and it's not health related, you may be able to try hay pellets if you have them available in your country. I have a rabbit that wasn't used to hay and wouldn't touch it when I first got him, so I bought a bag of hay pellets made with timothy hay, and he would eat those just fine. I just got mine at a livestock feed store. They are a plain compressed pellet made just from hay with nothing added, and made for feeding to horses and other livestock. So maybe this will work for your rabbit. Probiotics may also help with the mushy poop.

Also, here's some info on cecal dysbiosis(mushy poop):
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=3012
http://www.sawneeanimalclinic.com/downloads/chronic_intermittent_diarrhea_in_rabbits.pdf

I do not agree with much of that site. In my experience the best thing to do is provide grass hay and plain old fashioned oatmeal. No veggies or fruits. The pelleted hay is pointless because if you look at pellet ingredients they are already pelleted hay with some grain. You need long stem fiber. Hay cubes are an option. Some high fiber plants like leaves from edible berry plants or safe tree branches can help and might be more interesting than hay.

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Just wanted to check and see how your rabbit is doing and if you were able to get the runny poop cleared up.

akane said:

I do not agree with much of that site. In my experience the best thing to do is provide grass hay and plain old fashioned oatmeal. No veggies or fruits. The pelleted hay is pointless because if you look at pellet ingredients they are already pelleted hay with some grain. You need long stem fiber. Hay cubes are an option. Some high fiber plants like leaves from edible berry plants or safe tree branches can help and might be more interesting than hay.

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I also agree that feeding grass hay is often the best thing to do when a rabbit is having this sort of problem, as is also stated in the two links that I shared. Veggies and fruit are only added back into the diet if the mushy poop clears up and doesn't return with the reintroduction of those foods. But the problem is that in the OP it was stated that the rabbit wasn't eating hay. As an alternative, hay pellets, though not quite as good as loose grass hay, could be used if the rabbit will eat them, to replace the loose hay for the time being, to help get more fiber into the diet and help with the mushy poop, until the problem causing it is sorted out, and the rabbit starts eating loose hay on it's own.

So hay pellets, which are also the same as hay cubes(ground up compressed hay), just in a different form, can be a good alternative if a rabbit won't eat regular hay. I have a rabbit that I had to do this with, as he had never had hay and wouldn't touch it, but he would eat hay pellets. He also couldn't have rabbit food pellets, as the grain and sugars in them caused him to repeatedly get GI stasis. So though food pellets are similar to hay pellets(they both contain hay), the grain and molasses in the food pellets very often can contribute to GI problems, such as stasis or runny poop, whereas feeding plain grass hay pellets won't.