Megacolon?

[neri18]

I've been having trouble with Pip, my 3 year old mini lop. He's got the white with broken black markings that they say is common in megacolon bunnies. He was fine up until maybe 2 months ago. He had some leakiness that wasn't diarrhea and it lasted for about a week and then stopped. It was gone for a few weeks and came back off and on, and now it's been on for a few weeks. I know it's not diarrhea because he produces somewhat normal poops at the same time. Sometimes they're mushy like cow patties and just sort of piled in the litterbox. Other times they look drier and more normal. Other times they're really moist and shiny and some are just really over sized compared to what normal rabbit poop should be. The leaks aren't constant, but I'm cleaning the carpet on a daily basis because of the smears. It doesn't smell really at all so I don't think they're liquid cecals. I've given him several butt baths but then by the next day it's just messy again. He eats and drinks fine and he acts normal. I do notice his stomach is very sloshy though when he runs and I can hear a lot of gurgling and popping when I listen to his gut. Sometimes I can hear it while I'm sitting at my desk and he's laying at my feet. He eats timothy hay and meadow grass and he gets about 1/4 cup of pellets each day. I usually give him a small salad in the evenings of green leaf lettuce, cilantro, dill, thyme and mint. The salad isn't too big, he only gets a few sprigs of the herbs and maybe 3/4 of a lettuce leaf. His diet hasn't changed at all from when he was fine to when the leakiness suddenly started. I made a vet appointment for next Saturday but does anyone have any ideas? This isn't going away this time and even though he acts normally otherwise, it's becoming a huge hassle to scrub the carpets every day and give him constant butt baths. Oh and he does get bene-bac sprinkled on his salads as well.

 

[Maureen Las]

I also had a bun ( with a stripe down his back) who I suspected had mega-colon. it was never diagnosed because the vets in my vicinity are not sophisticated enough in rabbit medicine to diagnose it.
Make sure that you take your rabbit to a really rabbit knowledgeable vet or you may not get anywhere .

My rabbit was never treated for this condition; I did not have access to any meaningful info at the time

We have some library articles on the condition


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

2 book may also be helful to you :

"Rabbit Health in the 21st Century" by kathy Smith

and

"When Your Rabbit Needs Special Care by kathy Smith/ Lucille Moore

These books can be ordered on-line.

 

[neri18]

Well the place I'm taking him is an exotic vet office and he's seeing their rabbit person, so I'm hoping they can figure something out. Maybe I'm wrong and it's not megacolon, but he doesn't act sick really. I know if it's genetic there's not much that can be done, but it seems to be getting worse and there's no way I can keep his butt clean. Luckily he's an indoor rabbit so I don't have to deal with flies or anything, but it's taking a toll on the carpets too and I don't want his skin to get irritated and raw. I don't think he'd sit still for a nightly butt bath and blowdry. It just gets messy again by the next morning. Thanks for the book suggestions. I'll look into those.