A case of poopy butt...

[ChandieLee]

Ozzy, our male lionhead, has constant, smelly poopy butt. He eats, pees and poops normally. His stomach is nice and soft. Any idea what may be causing it? I've upped the amount of hay he gets, and slightly decreased the amount of greens, but so far, no changes.

*Sorry if this is the wrong area to post. It's been awhile since I've been active on the forum, and my memory is not the greatest.

 

[Imbrium]

how old is he, and is it possible that what's sticking to his butt is uneaten cecals rather than regular poop? (unsmooshed, cecotropes will look like tiny bunches of grapes)

if it's extra cecals, the two most common causes are age (babies often forget to eat them) or diet (too rich a diet/too many pellets).

 

[ChandieLee]

He is about 2 years old, and it could be cecals. His fur is actually pretty long around the bum area, so it's possible it's getting stuck. My bf and I talked about trimming the fur, but we don't want to stress him out. However, if it would help, maybe it's worth it?

 

[luvthempigs]

One of my adult rabbits had slightly runny poo that ended up being from alfalfa based pellets. Once I switched her to a timothy based pellet the problem went away.

 

[Imbrium]

if you want to trim, the easiest/safest way to do it is to flip him over and hold a length of hair between the index and middle finger of one hand then trim with the other - that way you don't have to worry about getting too close to the skin if he wriggles. that's what I did when I was trimming the skirt off my lionhead because hay and stuff kept getting stuck in it. how much it would stress him out just depends on how he handles being flipped over - one of mine seems perfectly content with it; the other one stays still but I can tell from her breathing/heartbeat that it stresses her out a bit.

if you're seeing normal fecal pellets in the cage/litter box, the chances of him having slightly runny regular poop is pretty slim since he'd be unlikely to go back and forth between normal and runny (if you're not seeing new fecal pellets, then the opposite is probably true)... the fact that you specified "smelly" makes me think cecal, though, as those tend to stink.

out of curiosity, do you have a grid in your litter box? he may deliberately leave an extra cecal or two in there sometimes and then end up sitting on them when he's munching on hay, which would lead to them getting stuck to his butt - a grid could help with that. about 1/3 of the way down the page in this link are instructions on building one - a lot of us have them in our boxes and love them: http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=53690&forum_id=93

 

[Mariah]

Hello,
I am going through the same things with my Papaya. He recently started having extra cecotrophs or it could be soft stool.

I decreased his pellets to less then 1/3 cup AM and PM and have always have him unlimited Timothy hay. I took away the grass hay and alphfa hay. This has been going on for 1.5 weeks now, probably closer to 2 weeks.

Today, there was no extra cecotrophs or soft stool!

I've also took a fecal sample to my vet to have that checked as well, even though he's an indoor bunny. We saw what looked to be a pollen (no problem) or it could be a roundworm egg. We are sending that to the lab tomorrow to confirm.

I would stop the veggies completly and decrease his pellets and see if that helps your bun!

Keep us posted!

 

[Geoff]

Is your rabbit overweight? On pellets? if either is yes, try to remedy that situation. Retained night feces on the rump is common with overweight rabbits. Daytime feces on the rump is less common, and if this is going on, I would recommend a fecal looking for parasites.

Upping the hay is a good idea, though not really sure what that means... a rabbit should have all the hay it can possibly eat at all times, so upping it would have no effect. The type of hay is important, too.. grass hays are way better, so if not on a grass hay, I would make that change as well.

Comment about some grass hays. Oat, wheat and rye grass hays can be harvested early (before going to seed)- these are excellent for rabbits. BUT... these hays (particularly oat hay) are NOT my favorite choices if gone to seed (oat hay is usually harvested at this point, making it far less satisfactory for rabbit food). These seeds are nearly pure carbohydrates and protein- the first is something that should be almost non-existent in rabbit diets and the second kept to a minimum in healthy adult pets that sit around the house most of the day. I recommend if you feel the need to feed your pet rabbit oat hay with has oats on it, to shake out the hay as much as possible over the trash can until nearly all (or all) the oats are gone... then it makes a better food... though this mature oat hay sans oats gets close to approaching straw in food quality... another reason I like early cuttings of oat hay. Oxbow sells an oat hay that is early harvested (saw some at PetCo the other day)- this hay looks like a good choice to me.

 

[Imbrium]

is all oxbow oat hay early harvest and if not, does it say that it is (if that's the case) or did you just determine that by looking at it? I have a bag of oxbow oat hay that I don't remember seeing actual oats in, but it doesn't say anything about the cut (only that it's harvested/selected by hand).

my babies eat mostly alfalfa for now because they're 4 1/2 months old, but I give them a little bit of grass hay as well and they definitely prefer the oat hay over timothy... I've heard mixed things about oat hay, though, so I haven't been giving them very much. my bunns are very active and growing, so I'm not too worried about keeping their protein consumption low yet (if I was, I certainly wouldn't be feeding alfalfa ), but I know carbs are bad for them.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We've had this problem with a couple of bunnies. One was cured by giving smaller amounts of veggie. Another needed a Timothy based pellet. One rex when we got her was a blob and ended up with cecals stuck to her that we cleaned off with unscented baby wipes til we got her weight down.

 

[ChandieLee]

I don't think the pellets are alfalfa based, but I'll double check. I give these pellets to all three of my rabbits, but he's the only one with this issue. But if it is alfalfa, maybe he's more sensitive to it?

Geoff- Ozzy's not particularly overweight, but he does weigh a bit more than he did when we got him in March. And when I say I'm increasing him amount of hay, I mean I'm trying to find craftier ways to get him, and the other buns, to eat more if it. I've had five rabbits in the last six years, and for some reason none of them have really liked hay all that much. Sure, they'll eat it, but not a lot of it and I'm not sure why. Seemingly, all of our rabbits have been picky eaters. I don't know if it's just trait they all had in common, or it's something I actually did that made them that way. :dunno

 

[luvthempigs]

Cutting back on the amount of pellets being fed will help encourage them to eat more hay.

I have found most rabbit pelletsare made from an alfalfa base and not timothy (atleast in the stores Ishop)The timothy based pellets are harder to find and often times costs alot more.

 

[Geoff]

oat hay is usually loaded with oats if not early cut, so you can look at the hay in the bag and if you don't see a lot of oat seeds, then that's early cut. I think all Oxbow oat hays are early cut. Timothy hay is not, but timothy hays has pretty insignificant seeds which are not a major source of carbohydrate, thankfully. Same with most of the other grass hays I did not mention above (all hays have seeds, but not all have large, cereal seeds like oats, rye, wheat and barley do).