Butt covered with poo :(

[Bunny parents]

We've been on and off through this problem. My girl, one year and 1o months old Mini Lop, usually has excess cecal. I've read from others' posts and I've tried many ways, but nothing works. She eats normally and seems okay. I've tried cutting down her pellets which is now a day she gets 40 g. of pellets and greens (parsley and dill-her favourite), unlimited grass hay and sometimes I give her homemade cookies (which I made them myself ; hay,pellets,a bit honey,banana and oat).
After I noticed she had lots of cecals and she didn't eat them, I cut back her pellets. It didn't work. Then I stopped giving her both greens and pellets. I gave her only hay. It also didn't work. Now I don't know what to do Could this lead to some kind of disease? I've been cleaning her butt so many many times 'cause she wouldn't clean it herself. At the beginning I thought she couldn't reach her butt, but I've observed her and I could see that she reached down there. But recently her butt is all covered with cecals.
I also had to clip off some of her fur around that area because the poop was so dry and thick that I couldn't remove it by cleaning nor rinsing it with water. Tonight while I was cleaning her butt, I noticed that her butt became a bit red. I'm afraid that I've cleaned her too many times. I'll take her to the vet , but before doing so. Is there anything I can do ? Any suggestions? Thank you so much for your time.

 

[Serenity73]

Cut back on the pellets. Give your bun 1/2 a cup 3x a week. Offer hay all the time. Cut back on veggie intake. I give my buns a portion of 3 different types of veggies a day no bigger than the size of my hand. I also cut out a lot of the store brand bunny treats, the yogurt treats are bad and they mess buns bellies up. They get treats very sparingly now. As far as the dirty butt goes, I have to give mine a butt bath every so often. But I would bring our bun to the vet if this keeps up.

 

[Bunny parents]

Now I give my bunny only hay and water. Actually I've started doing so since yesterday and today she didn't eat at all. Now I'm scared that she will get more sick if she won't start eating hay. I don't know what to do about this. Yes, I'll stop giving her the cookies, thank you for your advice. How about hay? My girl seems to prefer pellets and greens than hay and she will eat hay only when she goes to litter box for pooping I've tried urging her to eat hay but so far I've failed Should I continue on giving her only hay or I can give her pellets according to the amount you suggested.
I just touched her tummy and it's still soft. She didn't seem to be hurt when I rub her tummy.
I really don't like it when I don't know what to do...

 

[LakeCondo]

I have read that uneaten cecals can be a sign of too much protein in the diet. Rolled oats are listed as a high-protein food, so you should eliminate them from her diet. Other high-protein sources are seeds & nuts.

But you cannot give a rabbit just hay, which has very little nutritional value. But some hay is necessary, so if you must to get her to eat hay, make the cookies again, but without the rolled oats or the honey.

 

[Kizza]

I wouldn't give her any treats until she is better, I would stick to her normal diet of hay, pellets and greens. Even if the ratios aren't ideal, it is what she is used to and it will help to rule in our rule out her diet being the problem.

What type of pellets are they, can you list the ingredients? I have heard of over producing cecals but I don't know what causes it.

I would take her to the vet to get their professional opinion.

A very important note is not to change her diet too often because that alone can cause tummy upsets and please don't let her go more than a couple of hours without eating. If she doesn't eat regularly this might also cause problems.

With her red bum, are you using soap to clean her? Bunnies have very sensitive skin and soaps and cleansers can easily irritate them and cause skin problems, best to stick with just warm water and don't scrub. I know it is hard because she has a messy bum but you don't want to cause an infection.

I hope you find a solution and that a vet can help you it is very distressing when there is something wrong and you don't know what to do. Best of luck

 

[LaylaLop]

When my girl doesn't clean herself well, I trim all her bum-fur off to keep it from sticking. She just mashes it onto the floor now. If they don't eat any of their cecals they can have a vitamin B deficiency, so you may want to ask the vet about this if you think she's eating none of her cecals.

 

[Bunny parents]

LakeCondo wrote:

I have read that uneaten cecals can be a sign of too much protein in the diet. Rolled oats are listed as a high-protein food, so you should eliminate them from her diet. Other high-protein sources are seeds & nuts.

But you cannot give a rabbit just hay, which has very little nutritional value. But some hay is necessary, so if you must to get her to eat hay, make the cookies again, but without the rolled oats or the honey.

:shock: That's it... it could be oats. She gets them from cookie and also a pinch of oat and few sunflower seeds every day which I gave her as a treat after grooming Why didn't I think about this...... Urgggg bad mommy.
Thank you so much for your suggestion. I'll remake her cookie without oats and honey.
This morning I started giving her pellets, around 10 g. She ate some of them. I called the vet, we will take her and her fecal sample to the vet, just to be sure :'( 'cause I can't sleep if I don't know exactly what went wrong and what I did wrong
Thank you so much again. This really gives me a heads up.

 

[Bunny parents]

Kizza wrote:

I wouldn't give her any treats until she is better, I would stick to her normal diet of hay, pellets and greens. Even if the ratios aren't ideal, it is what she is used to and it will help to rule in our rule out her diet being the problem.

What type of pellets are they, can you list the ingredients? I have heard of over producing cecals but I don't know what causes it.

I would take her to the vet to get their professional opinion.

A very important note is not to change her diet too often because that alone can cause tummy upsets and please don't let her go more than a couple of hours without eating. If she doesn't eat regularly this might also cause problems.

With her red bum, are you using soap to clean her? Bunnies have very sensitive skin and soaps and cleansers can easily irritate them and cause skin problems, best to stick with just warm water and don't scrub. I know it is hard because she has a messy bum but you don't want to cause an infection.

I hope you find a solution and that a vet can help you it is very distressing when there is something wrong and you don't know what to do. Best of luck

I give her Beaphar Care+ for adult bunny. This is the best one I can find here. We used to give her Oxbow, but they are no longer imported and I can't afford it to order from abroad.
The ingredients in Beaphar Care+ are;
Crude protein 16%
Crude oils and fats3 %
Crude fiber 22%
Crude ash 4.8%
Ca 0.67%
Mg 0.27%
Na 0.20%
K 0.66%
P 0.39%
Also there are some nutrition additives such as Vit. A13, 167 IU, Vit. E87 mg ( as D-a-tocopherol acetate), E4 12.6 mg, E2 1.4 mg, E5 15.4 mg, E6 118 mg, DL-methionine 500 mg.

When we couldn't find Oxbow for her, I changed to Grainless Complete from Germany. She hated it and didn't eat them at all. So we decided to look for new one and found Beaphar Care+ I should have thought about high protein from the pellets she gets, but still, I've continued on giving her other food-source which also gives her high protein. I'll stop the oat intake from now and see what will happen.
Also I went to clean her bedroom today , no cecals has found. I hope it's a good sign, but we'll still take her to the vet.

About red bum, I clean her with only warm water with cotton pads. Sometimes the poops stuck on her bottom and went dry ( 'cause I found it out in the morning) I had to rubbed it instead of wiping it out with cotton pads. :-/ So I'm scared that her skin there will sore and lead to infection :-/

Thank you so much for your time and thoughts.

 

[Bunny parents]

LaylaLop wrote:

When my girl doesn't clean herself well, I trim all her bum-fur off to keep it from sticking. She just mashes it onto the floor now. If they don't eat any of their cecals they can have a vitamin B deficiency, so you may want to ask the vet about this if you think she's eating none of her cecals.

I saw her eating cecals in the morning and sometimes in the night. But the amount of cecals are a lot. I think more than she needs. So at the beginning I thought of too rich food. Then when things didn't work out I started to be worried about sickness. I trimmed her fur around there too As much as I can. So it stuck on her skin instead :-/
I'll ask the vet about Vit. B Thank you very much for the thought.

This is really frustrating... I'll write more when I have something from the vet.

Thank you again, really