Intermittent Soft Cecotropes

[bobbyv]

Hi All,
Our rabbit, Beans, has been having issues for the past few months with cecotropes sticking to his butt. He's a 4 1/2 year old Netherland Dwarf. Our vet has checked him out and can't really pinpoint the problem (xray, fecal tests). The first thing we did was limit him to just Timothy Hay and that's been for a couple of months already. Yet, he still has issues of the cecotropes sticking to his bottom.
We're able to get some of the clumps off from time to time, but would like the problem to go away entirely.
Has anyone experienced this issue and have you had any success?

Thanks,

BobbyV

 

[Imbrium]

By "just Timothy hay" do you mean no other types of hay or do you mean he's on a hay-only diet (no pellets, veggies or fruit)?

Not eating cecals (for adults, anyway) is most often due to either excess production of cecals (commonly resulting from too rich a diet; in particular, too much pellets is usually the culprit) or an issue with the bunny's ability to reach down and ingest the cecotropes as they're produced. This can be due to obesity, arthritis, injury, etc. - anything that makes it uncomfortable, painful or impossible to bend down to eat them.

If those two possibilities have been ruled out, then I really don't know what it might be

 

[JBun]

Normally a hay only diet helps to normalize their gut bacteria and resolve this type of thing. But since that doesn't seem to be working, there may be some other things that may help. Have you tried probiotics at all, or has your vet ever had you try gut motility meds?