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SmokeysMomMom

SmokeysMomMom

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Jun 11, 2006
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Location
, New Jersey, USA
Hello everyone...



Hope all is well with all of you. I haven't been on here as much as I would like to be. I tried to continue on to one of my old posts on here to the similiar situation. Our rabbit gets excess poo poos and gets it all over here. Now we have to take her to the vet to get shaved when it gets bad. Sometimes we can get it and bath her and sometimes it is BAD!!! Everytime we take her to the clinic to get shaved they charge you for an office visit so it is $60.00 everytime. We took her in December last . I only feed her Timothy Hay pellets. I give her so :nerves1much in the morning and so much at night. When it is dinner time, she has no food left and I feel bad for her so that is why I split up the servings. If I give her a lot of pellets she has excess poops.

I know a lot of you say to give them unlimited Timothy Hay. Her vet said to only give it to her once in awhile. Well I guess he must be right and I guess Smokey has a sensitive stomach because if I give her too much Timothy Hay, she has a lot of poo poos in here cage. I mean piles. There were four big poos in here cage and one looked lilke a pile of grapes and the others looked llike she sat on it and made it mush. I pray when I get home from work that there isn't a lot of poop on her. I didn't think there was, but I cleaned her cage and fed her right before I left for work in the morning. Has anyone else had a problem with this? My sister came over and said her bowl is empty feed her. I told her that if I feed her a lot, she will eat it all and get sick. Everyone rabbits stomach is different. I can't even give her carrots because this happens.

Any advice?
 
To me personally, it sounds like her diet is very unbalanced, and that she is getting too much protein and not enough fibre.

My buns have unlimited hay, and they have VERY limited pellets, just a small handful.

I wonder if maybe the diet imbalance could be causing this issue?

I wonder if you cut the pellets down and upped the hay, if, in time, the gut might settle more.

My other concern would be flystrike, especially with spring and summer not too far away. She sounds a very messy bunny, and it is important to make sure she is safe. You can buy sprays over here to spray on their butt and they deter the flies. It might be worth looking into something like that.
 
Are you sure your vet is good with rabbits? I've never heard of a vet saying not to feed grass hay. Have you tried any types other than timothy, such as meadow grass or oat hay? You can find these in some pet stores from Kaytee and Oxbow.

Has the vet done any tests to make sure Smokey doesn't have any parasites?

Does she have both round, hard fecals (normal poops) plus the mushy or grape-likestuff? If so, it's likely a cecalissue. These are most often caused by too much protein and too little fiber. Exactly what brand of pellets are you feeding and how much? Have you tried letting her eat timothy hay all day for a week plus, and what were the results? Usually decreasing pellets and increasing hay is the best way to treat and prevent these problems, which we often see at the shelter. Many pet rabbits are fed too much pellets and too little hay resulting in this problem.

Does she do ok with leafy greens? Some rabbits do best with little or no pellets and some greens, plus unlimited hay. My girl Fey, who has megacolon, does best with this diet.
 
However, if it's not diet-related, it could potentially be an intestinal parasite or infection. Since you described seeing cecals, I doubt this. An intestinal parasite or infection would be more likely to give you mushy fecals instead of an overabundance of cecals.
 
naturestee wrote:
Are you sure your vet is good with rabbits? I've never heard of a vet saying not to feed grass hay. Have you tried any types other than timothy, such as meadow grass or oat hay? You can find these in some pet stores from Kaytee and Oxbow.

Has the vet done any tests to make sure Smokey doesn't have any parasites?

Does she have both round, hard fecals (normal poops) plus the mushy or grape-likestuff? If so, it's likely a cecalissue. These are most often caused by too much protein and too little fiber. Exactly what brand of pellets are you feeding and how much? Have you tried letting her eat timothy hay all day for a week plus, and what were the results? Usually decreasing pellets and increasing hay is the best way to treat and prevent these problems, which we often see at the shelter. Many pet rabbits are fed too much pellets and too little hay resulting in this problem.

Does she do ok with leafy greens? Some rabbits do best with little or no pellets and some greens, plus unlimited hay. My girl Fey, who has megacolon, does best with this diet.
Click to expand...

I agree with Angela (naturestee) ; I doubt very much and have never heard of a rabbit geetting poopy butt from timothy hay or grass hay unless it is full of alfalfa or clover.

Are you feeding a large quantity of pellets?
Also it is true that rabbits get unusual diarrhea type symptoms if they have parasites specifically worms. Possibly a fecal could be done to determine if your rabbit could have a parasite.

I never heard of a good rabbit vet that told a client to decrease grass hay....
Ihad to cut out greens on a rescue rabbit who had explosive diarrhea after eating them. After his tapeworm was treated he could eat everything.

Maureen
 
Blunt answer here....might want to find a rabbit savvy vet. I highly suspect you are feeding too many pellets. I have several Flemish Giants....two of which weigh well into the upper 20 pound range.....and they get less than a quarter cup pellets per day. A rabbit should get a low protein, high fiber diet.....limited pellets/treats and unlimited grass hays. I think you answered your own question when you said things got worse when you offered more pellets. Pellets contain far too much protein to be offered in large quantities. And carrots are not health food....they contain a lot of sugar and when you combine a stressed gut with mroe sugar, things get messy.

I would suggest cutting way back on the pellets and keep the grass hay available all the time....free choice. Until you get the gut back in order, find a product called Bene-Bac....great stuff to help an upset GI.

Randy
 
I only give my Bo (who weighs around 4 lbs now) 1/8 cup of pellets in the morning and 1/8 at night...... and lots of hay. If I vary from that much - he gets poopy butt.

A lot ofrabbits (like other animals - horses, dogs, sheep) will eat until it's gone and act like they are starved....... but they aren't.



 
I suppose I should mention that Fey, a 3 lb dwarf hotot with megacolon/genetic intestinal sensitivity, gets about 2 tablespoons of timothy pellets a day. To keep her from overeating, her 8 lb New Zealand husbun gets the same amount. They share about 5 cups of veggies twice a day and eat hay like nobody's business.

My other two adults, Mocha and Loki, get 1/8 cup pellets a day plus lots of veggies and hay. It was reduced to this from 1/4 cup daily after Loki started developing molar spurs.
 
diet problem--sounds like a very sensitive gut,,(barringinternal parasites),try orchard grass/timothy grass-in the poop box and hay/grass bin,(not the pellet form)--and a good quality rabbit food like purina,.(pellets),..(1oz.per # of rabbit daily,)-lots of water,.salt lick,..keep cage/poop boxclean daily,..sparingly any extra vegy,s or fruit,might even hold back for awhile,til gut gets back in order,:,now there are day poops and night poops,,lagamorphs are nocturnal(up at night-like vampires),..the night-poop-(our night)-are called cepatopes they look like a group of small grapes and they are eaten directly form -you guessed it-the bum,.this is a treat and very necessary to control the flora in the gut tract,..the day poops are just poops and are sometimes (rarely) eaten,again to control the gut flora,..a high fiber diet is necessary for gut mobility..ie gi stasis,..,.your rabbits cepatopes sound a bit watery/mushy,..this diet should show results rather quickly,..i have two female rex,s whose little tails collect the poops then harden,and give me something to do, so i have to watch that i don,t get them too fat to clean their ownbums--i hope this info. proves useful and cuts down on your vet bills,..sincerely james waller [email protected]
 
The vet specializes in rabbits and I don't understand that. They told me to bring in a poop sample the next time she has a problem to check for infection.

One more thing. For Christmas I got her one of those straw balls and after she got done eating that she got the mushy poops again. It only happened over night and was fine the next day knock on wood. She eats a little at a time of the straw ball and it happens.
 
SmokeysMomMom wrote:
The vet specializes in rabbits and I don't understand that. They told me to bring in a poop sample the next time she has a problem to check for infection.

One more thing. For Christmas I got her one of those straw balls and after she got done eating that she got the mushy poops again. It only happened over night and was fine the next day knock on wood. She eats a little at a time of the straw ball and it happens.
Click to expand...

Are they checking the fecals for a parasitic infection?
 
She is doing much better now. I have been giving her very little Timothy Hay pellets and more Timothy Hay. But now I feel like I am starving her. But I keep giving her hay in the morning and at night and a few pellets both times as well. Or the pellets just in the morning.
 
That's good
if you ae feeding the correct amount they always act as if they are being starved

unlimited hay and a small amount of pellets is great

I feed a very small amount of pellets now and my rabbits just jump on them when I feed them ,knock them out of the bowls and act like they are starved :)
 
:yeahthat:
My bunnies once ate all their pellets between when I woke up and went for work, so when my bf got up they were begging so mercilessly that he thought I hadn't fed them pellets, so he fed them again!
 
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