Poopy butt but not "poopy butt"

[PickledOlives]

At least I don't think so.. when she poops cecals she's always laying down or sleeping and doesn't bother to get up, so it gets smeared and squished on her butt. I always look to make sure she's clean and usually if it's on her I will watch for a little while and she cleans herself. For the last 2 or 3 days she hasn't been as usual. Yesterday when I got home from work I noticed that she had been laying in her cecals along with water she spilled and it had dryed on her, she didn't clean it. So I looked at her bottom and there was a decent amount stuck so I got a wet washcloth and tried to gently wipe it off, and pretty much failed but after that she started cleaning herself. Today there's still about half of what there was on there. I cleaned her cage yesterday to make sure she was pooping and she is what seems like a normal amount but I'm afraid that it's so crusty down there that her poop won't be able to get out and idk why she's not cleaning herself. And when she was younger (she's 8 months now) she always ate all her cecals right away now I notice that's she's not really eating them, how can I fix that? And should i wash her butt or am I overreacting and should just let her take care of herself in that department? It's not like caked on or anything, it's just about off but her fur is super crusty and getting matted. She's not over weight and eats a TON of hay.

 

[whiskylollipop]

How much pellets/veggies do you feed her? Sometimes bunnies ignore their cecals if they are fed a very rich diet. Another reason could be if she hurt a leg or the floor is slippery, making it tough for her to get into the awkward position she needs to to reach her bum. If she is pooping normally otherwise and this is the only time it's happened, it could just have been a one-off bout of upset stomach and not necessarily forgotten cecals. I would give her a gentle lukewarm butt bath (make sure she stays in a warm room until fully dried out) increase her hay and see if it happens again.

 

[squidpop]

:yeahthat: I would cut pellets way back and greens back some too and feed mostly hay and see if it goes to normal.

I give quicky butt baths by putting about 2-3 inches of water in a small plastic litter tray with a rolled up beach towel in the front of the tray. I put rabbits front end on the beach towel so keeps them dry and bottom in the water and massage fur to get poos off. My rabbits seem to sit still for this which makes it easy. After you need to get them as dry as possible.

 

[ladysown]

cut all excess hair off from down there (her butt region) and get her a bit thinner. Seriously is she's that lazy she'll be carrying too much weight and you need to put her on a diet or make her work for her food a bit more.

To get excess poop off, hold her over a bowl of warm water and just work it with your fingers... it will come off gradually.. and pulling a bit of hair loose with it won't cause her damage.

Then cut all excess hair off to help her keep herself cleaner.

Put her on a diet and get her in better shape.

 

[PickledOlives]

Thank you! I did the butt bath and I think most of it is cleaned off, she did cooperate surprisingly well for that, and I took away pretty much all pellets and that seemed to have helped. I'm only feeding her hay and good pellets. And she eats a ton of hay. I haven't introduced veggies yet cuz I didn't want it to make this problem worse. She is pretty lazy for a rabbit, she gets the run of the house and every toy and box imaginable, my other rabbit runs around like a maniac all day, but her favorite thing to do is lay around. The protein in the pellets is 16%, I thought that was pretty good? I just read about fly strike (omg horrible!!) so I want to get this fixed before it gets warm!!