Poop stuck to butt and infection

[frost1375]

I'm not sure whether to post this under diet or health problems. But, it seems to happen when she eats vegetables. I have a rabbit, not sure how old she is because I rescued her. She's been having problmes with her poop. It's been a lot better these past months until just recently. I know she has a lot of excess skin down there near her butt and private area. She also seems to be sort of a messy bunny. For the past few years that I've had her, she just gets poop stuck down there and it builds up really bad. The first time it happened, it was so bad. I never even thought of checking her down there. It was so badly infected under the poop that it took so long to get her skin back to normal. Ever since then, I've changed her diet and that seems to help. She eats Oxbow Bunny Basics T pellets and I get her hay from American Pet Diner (recommended by vet). I also stopped giving her fresh veggies because they seem to be the cause of her problems. I was away for a week and my mom must have given her some veggies because when I came home, she had a really messy bum and it's pretty infected down there. I've been washing the area several times a day and putting an antibiotic cream on the area that was prescribed to her before. It seems to be getting better, but I'm just wondering why vegetables would do this to her. Aren't rabbits supposed to get fresh veggies anyway? And she loves veggies so I feel bad that I can't give her any. The vet tells me the problem is because she has so much excess skin underneath and wants to do surgery on her, but I don't believe that's the case. Has anyone else had similar problems or any advice for me? I'm thinking of taking her to a different vet but I wanted to get some advice first. Thank you in advance for your responses.

 

[kirbyultra]

Hi frost. So sorry this went unaddressed for so long! I'm going to move this to the infirmary as I think the imfirmary mods might be able to give you more information regarding the repeated infections and surgery to remove skin. I've never heard of excess skin unless the bun is obese -- so perhaps someone will have better advice for you.

 

[tonyshuman]

Hi, I am a bit puzzled. First, is the vet rabbit-savvy? Second, is the messy/infected bum due to the urine, or the poop? The urine can irritate the skin on the bum area and that can cause red skin, which could get infected. There are also some areas of the anatomy where the poop can get stuck and cause skin irritation, but they're not as large an area as the urine scald.

Prepration H and baby corn starch can also help keep the skin calm and/or dry down there as well, after butt-baths. Make sure you dry her off as much as possible after washing too.

Could she be too large to reach her bum, or have flaps of skin in the way? I once pet-sat a bunny that had a spinal deformity and was obese, and as such couldn't reach his bum area to clean up himself (they clean with their mouths, yuck).

The bunny I pet-sat also couldn't eat his night poops, also called cecotropes, which are a special kind of poop that is produced in the cecum, which is kind of like a 3rd intestine where bacteria break down coarse fiber into digestible components that are then passed out through the anus and the bunnies then eat them. Cecotropes are normal for bunnies to have, but they are also commonly not eaten if there is a problem with the diet--too many pellets, introducing veggies to the diet too quickly. Also a bunny that cannot reach his bum to eat the cecotropes will not eat them and will instead get them all mashed on his rear end, causing skin irritation.

Mushy feces (the normal kind) can also occur from introducing veggies to the diet too quickly. At this point, since she seems to have lots of problems with veggies in her diet, I'd just go to a hay, water, and limited pellets diet.

Is she spayed? How many pellets does she get a day? Does she eat the hay much? Does she have normal poops, uneaten cecotropes you can see (they look like blackberries and smell like awful onions), mushy fecal poops?

Do you have a picture? Don't worry, you won't gross us out. I've seen just about everything when it comes to rabbit health. :yuck