Slight Diarrhea/leakage?

[Crittercrazyjen]

My 2 year old 2.5 lb lionhead rabbit, Theo had a bit of what looks like diarrhea stuck in the fur on her rear end. Just for reference, she's a spayed female who shares a large cage with her 1.5 year old daughter. I cleaned Theo's bum up already, and I plan on calling my vet first thing in the morning when they open tomorrow. I just want to know what I should be doing in the meantime. I had her out to play, and I picked her up to trim her nails. When I turned her over on her back, I noticed the diarrhea-like substance stuck in her fur. I had just cleaned out her cage right before this, and I know for a fact that there was no diarrhea in her cage/litter pan. There are no fecal pellets or spots of diarrhea on the floor in the area where I was playing with her, so it seems like whatever it is, it just got all over her fur on her bum. There wasn't a whole lot of it, just enough to get her rear end fairly dirty. It was dark brown and very liquid. When I cleaned it up, I did notice that it looked like there was a bit of lighter colored mucus mixed in with the brown liquid. I did check to make sure it was indeed coming from her bum and not anywhere else. I've had this rabbit since she was 3 months old, and I've never had this problem with her before. any advice? What, other than keeping an eye on her, should I be doing until I can discuss this with my vet tomorrow morning? Thank you very much for any help!

 

[Maureen Las]

Did you feed her anything that was not'the usual' ..like a different veggie?


if you can get benebac which is a probiotic and give her one dose of this it may help stabilize the gut flora

benebac is a probiotic sold at both petsmart and petco or you can use probios (an equine product) sold at most farm and tractor supply stores...


is she having normal fecal pellets now?

 

[Crittercrazyjen]

I haven't fed her anything out of the norm. Just her pellets, timothy hay, and a bit of cilantro. I just checked, and all the fecal pellets in the cage look normal so far. I just put her back in her clean cage about an hour ago, so there weren't that many pellets so far to judge by. I will try the benebac and see if that helps.

 

[tonyshuman]

That's interesting that nothing different is going on with her diet. Production of mucus in the feces usually means some kind of intestinal disturbance is going on, whether it's a reaction to a new food, bacterial imbalance, or the beginning of gas or stasis. It may go away on its own, but I would make sure I have all the GI-related stuff to have in your bunny emergency kit on hand: canned pumpkin puree (if you're in the US, can't really get it elsewhere), simethicone baby medicine (gas med, liquid), pedialyte (unflavored is best), feeding syringes, and probiotic (benebac).