Runny stools.

[ahrat]

My house bun, Hootie, got into some butter today. My roommate had it on a plate for her bagel, and didn't clean it up. Hootie helped himself to quite a bit apparently.

He was acting kind of weird when I was about to leave for work today. He didn't want to come when he was called, and he didn't want to really move. I eventually got him at least in my room (thank god). When I came home from work, there were piles of very, very soft stools everywhere. Some on the straight up moosh side.

I don't know when what pile was left where, but some are softer than others, so it's either getting worse or better.

I cleaned the mess up, and went to clean him up, but he did a pretty good job of keeping his rear clean. I have him in the cage now. He has a full bowl of hay, some pellets, and a little oats. I did see him drink a little, but I did want to make sure he got some more water in him, so I did a sugar mixture and syringed him as much as he would take from me, which was quite a bit.

I can tell he's a bit off.

Is there anything else I should do? Should I be worried? I know runny stools in rabbits is never a good thing.

 

[JBun]

If it is just mushy poop, then it may just clear up as the butter clears out of him. If he is having profuse watery diarrhea, you need to get him to a vet. You will need to closely monitor his eating and drinking. If he isn't eating on his own and it's been several hours, you need to get to a vet. But if he is eating then just closely monitor it.

You will need to be careful about the sugar water and oats as well. Excess carbs and sugars could just contribute to the mushy poop problem, and if in excess it could actually make it worse. If he had a lot of mushy poop and you felt he was dehydrated, then initially it is good to give electolytes, but continuing to give sugar water probably isn't good. The best thing is a balanced electrolyte like pedialyte, and only give when needed. As for food, hay only is usually the best thing to help get the digestive tract back to normal function, as long as he is actually eating the hay. A very small amount of pellets might be fine too, but I usually stick mostly to hay when my rabbits have digestive upset.

If at any point you are concerned that he isn't doing well or his condition worsens, get him right to the vet.

 

[ahrat]

It's been almost 24 hours since the butter incident and he's barely eaten, if he has, so off the the vet we go. Had to make calls for an hour before I found a lady that was just about to walk out of her office that is 30 minutes away, but she agreed to wait for me.