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BooBoo

Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Messages
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Location
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Greetings;


I have an Old-English rabbit that I believe is about two-in-a-half years old. His daily diet consists of the following: 1/2 cup of pellets, 1/2 cup of kale; 1/2 cup of celery, 1 carrot, 1/4 of an apple, and a 1/2 cup of parsley.

Within the past month, my rabbit has been producing fecal matter that is approximately 1 inch/25.4mm in diameter, dark colored appearance, very foul smelling, and soft.

Anyhow, I have researched this problem on the internet and a few sites suggest removing the vegetables from his diet and feeding him only pellets.


Questions:
  1. Based on the information provided, what do you think might be the problem(serious health problem)?
  2. Should I remove his vegetables from his diet?
 
What is an Old-English rabbit? New one on me. Do you have a picture?

It sounds like megacolon syndrome, but I'm not sure why this would only be happening for the past month. Have you changed pellet brands? Different hay? Different variety of kale? Anything?

And can you put your location in your profile? That would really help us help you!


sas :bunnydance:
 
I am no expert by any means, but I would think elinating veggies would be a bad idea. I would, however, stop the fruit and the carrots..too sugary.
 
Ah, I think he is what we call an English Spot. It doesn't surprise me seeing as they have black rings around their eyes. Although some on this forum dismiss it, I'm convinced that genetics play a huge role in these things, and bunnies with rings around their eyes are prone to megacolon. (The only bunny I've had with the condition fit the bill).

It is diet controlled, but it takes some experimentation. My bunny came to me with the condition and a diet of almost all veggies made her much better, while other rabbits did better with a mostly grass hay and just a few low-protein pellets diet.

Most of the time increasing the hay (a grass hay like timothy, and not alfalfa) and decreasing the pellets helps with gut issues.

Best to figure out the 'why now' question and examine any changes, although it could just be something that developed with time.


sas :bunnydance:
 
Hi, I'm from New Westminster, B.C.; thank you for your reply.:)

Come to think of it, I had given him some new yogurt treats.

Furthermore, the produce has been consistent, and the brands have not changed.
As for the vegetables that he eats, I have introduced them slowly and one-at-a-time.

Here's an image that looks pretty close to my rabbit: Old-English Rabbit

I hope this additional information helps!








 
BooBoo wrote:
Hi, I'm from New Westminster, B.C.;
Click to expand...

LOL! I'm in Vancouver, I'm in your neck of the woods all of the time visiting family. I'll add New West to your profile for you.

And yup, the yogurt treats are the likely culprit. Fynnagin had the sugar part right.

He's definitely an English Spot, the official title here, anyway. Lovely bunnies!

Welcome to RO... neighbour. ;)


sas :bunnydance:
 
Because kale has calcium oxalates in it it is a veggie that should only be fed now and then not daily. I would eliminate the kale for now. It has a cumulative effect.

Ialso don't know the weight of your rabbit but 1/2 cup is a large amount of pellets unless the rabbit is large. A 5 lb rabbit should get about 1/4 cup perday and if overweight should even be less.

if it was my rabbit I would cut outmost of the veggies and fruit for now and feed maybe one veggie like parsley

Where is the hay in his diet???

Rabbits require a lot of long stem grassy hay , meadow grass, orchard grass , timothy etc for their guts to move properly and also for grinding down teeth.

I would guess that if you added more fiber (no veggies is not enough) in the form of various hays that your rabbit will start having normal ouput.

just give it a try
 
Agreed with the dietary concerns above. I feed my 4-5lb adult bunnies 1 Tablespoon pellets each a day, plus 2c veggies a day each. I'm actually trying to cut down on the veggies to 1c a day per bunny because of expense and I'm beginning to think veggies aren't all that nutritionally important, but it's hard to do because my guys love their veggies so much--it's the best time of the day for them. Unlimited hay is also a must-have, and fruit/carrots/treats should be no more than 2 tablespoons (2oz) a day.
 
Ok, and thanks for your valuable information.

Now that I know what size your rabbits are and the amount that you feed them, I feel as if I've over fed my rabbit. I appreciate your input on the situation. I think I'll be lowering his daily intake of food.:highfive:
 
I remembered reading this before, but couldn't remember where I'd read it. This article describes coccidiosis as having a very distinctive smell:
http://www.showbunny.com/gastrointestinal.html

Quoting from there:
"The intestinal form is more common, especially in those animals on high carbohydrate, low fiber diets. Signs are seen anywhere from three weeks of age through adulthood as populations of Eimeria become high enough to cause problems for GI tract.

Some signs of intestinal coccidiosis are: severe diarrhea with a sudden onset; persistent non-responsive diarrhea which is not alleviated by increasing fiber levels in the diet; or a positive fecal flotation test for coccidiosis.

Eimeria is a small protozoan parasite which colonizes the crypts of the intestinal wall. As higher numbers accumulate, damage may be done to the wall of the gut, and a diarrhea with an extremely distinctive odor is released.

Once smelt, never forgotten; a fecal flotation test should be performed immediately to differentiate coccidiosis from other causes. A positive result means it is time to treat the herd and step up one's disinfection program.

Coccida are parasites, and as such, shed eggs which are infective after 24 hours out of the body, which is why a disinfection program is essential. Daily removal of all fecal material from the cage wires, resting boards, and floors will aid greatly in reducing the occurrence of coccidial enteritis."
[...]
"Treatment of coccidiosis of either type may be accomplished by a common method. This is the use of a sulfa drug such as sulfadimethoxine, sulfaquinoxaline, or sulfamethazine as directed by the veterinarian.

This drug class is one of the small number approved for rabbits; however, dosage should be determined by the veterinarian and caution must be taken to observe the prescribed withdrawal period before using the animals for meat of any kind.

Once treated, the animals generally recover without major recurrence. Outlook after treatment is promising, and unless the animal experienced severe and prolonged dehydration, recovery is swift and uneventful. Keeping dietary fiber levels high is helpful in encouraging recovery."
 
BooBoo wrote:
Within the past month, my rabbit has been producing fecal matter that is approximately 1 inch/25.4mm in diameter, dark colored appearance, very foul smelling, and soft.
Click to expand...
That's why I was thinking of that article. ;)

 
All cecal matter is pretty stinky. I've never smelled coccidiosis. They should have scratch n' sniff cards. ;) :yuck

But megacolon and coccidiosis are quite different. My favourite article about the later (and other forms of diarrhea) is this one, it explains a lot of the subtle enteritis (gut inflamation) differences.

http://www.showbunny.com/gastrointestinal.htm

Megacolon Syndrome isn't covered in the above article, and to be honest, this probably isn't 'the real thing'. The term is controversial, its a catch-all phrase used for rabbits with really large poops, but true Megacolon syndrome is more often signaled by frequent 'cow pie' poops, looser than the occasional 'mega' poops seen here.

However, I believe that they are related and that the genetics of spotted bunnies with eye rings often mean (but not always by any stretch) differences in the intestinal make-up (as explained in one of the scientific abstracts linked below), and the main difference is just in degrees.

But that's far from an expert opinion.

I'm including the links, but don't panic. They discuss true Megacolon in the extremes. The bunny in this thread needs to be watched, diet-wise, but its unlikely to be life-threatening.

EDITED: I just realized that the awesome and much-missed Marietta did a whole Library topic on Megacolon, here:

http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=36159&forum_id=10



sas :bunnydance:
 
Regarding this topic matter, I would like add something.

As crude as this subject matter is, I would like to say that I have stumbled upon a few websites that have mentioned about "cecotropes." In this particular article, the site mentions that rabbits actually need to eat their fecal matter because it has certain nutrients in it that the bunny needs.

Here's the website: Cecotropes

Has anyone heard of this, or is this just a joke?
 
LOL! It's not actually poo, it's not waste material, it's fiber and 'vitamins' as it were. Think of it as a cow chewing her cud. ;)

And they only do it once a day or so, most often at night (which is why they're also often called 'night droppings').

My bunny Pipp 'kisses' me all over every morning, grooming me, and I've never smelled anything foul on her breath, it's always very sweet. They're stinky on the ground when they don't eat them, but I think they're re-digested pretty quickly with no trace of them in the mouth.

For that matter, all my bunnies always smell pretty good -- except the unneutered boys when they're all worked up. :yuck: I spend a lot of time nuzzling and 'inhaling' my bunnies.

Love it! :inlove:

sas :bunnydance:
 
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