Unknown red substance protruding from anus

[Revverress]

Today, I noticed a red... something protruding from my English Lop's anus. It is hardly noticeable unless I physically push back the skin around the anus, so I'm not 100% sure how long it's been there. It doesn't seem to cause any pain when I touch it, and it definitely seems that it's attached to her.

Nyx is 1.5 year old English Lop doe, unspayed. She is a large ELop at around 14lbs; though she could loose a pound or two, she is genuinely abnormally large for her breed, and I don't think her weight caused this issue. She has never had any health problems in the past except for sore socks due to her large size (she is housed on solid flooring). She has never been bred.

All eating, pooping, peeing, litter box and activity habits are normal. Nyx is housed in my garage, so I know no predators could have gotten to her. She does play supervised outdoors in a fenced backyard, but I've never had an issue arise from letting any of my bunnies play outside.

I am dropping her off at the vet's tomorrow, but I was hoping some background information could be found on what this could possibly be so that I am informed when I meet with the vet. Nyx is a special girl to me, and I would hate for this to be something serious.

Here are some links to a few photos I attempted to take. They're not super clear because it's hard to balance a 14lb rabbit and a camera at the same time, sorry! Ignore the crusties around the anus, that's just from her vents that need to be cleaned. The red thing is what I'm worried about.

Link
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[I_heart_Fraggles]

I would go to the vet asap. It could be a pro lapse of some kind. A untreated pro lapse can cause deadly infection

 

[Revverress]

The emergency vet clinic here won't see rabbits, and since she is behaving and acting fine, I want to hold off until tomorrow when my personal vet can see her. She is definitely going in first thing tomorrow though.

I think she has rectal polyps.. Anyone ever dealt with this before?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Not in our experience. ray:

 

[Maureen Las]

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/2008/11/rectal-prolapse.htm

Our Randy discusses rectal prolapse in an infant rabbit

 

[hadley]

My 8 year old rabbit has those.... they are ANAL POLYPS. They looked exactly like that when they started, and now, they are much more shocking to see.....

You have two options:
1) Surgery to remove them. There is a good chance they WILL grow back, however.

2) Leave them. This is what we did. They will grow in size over the years, and be uncomfortable for you bun as they get bigger. Our guy manages OK, but you can tell they irritate him sometimes when he goes to the bathroom. Also, because of the size now, he gets poop stuck to his bottom often, and urine burns his skin. He needs DAILY bum washes. The skin around it is raw and always irritated no matter what we do to clean it, or put ointments on it. He's lost a lot of hair on his bottom the past year.
For now he's still managing OK, but if they grow much bigger he will most likely have to have them removed or be put to sleep..
It's a lot of work to keep them clean and from getting infected.

 

[Revverress]

Thought I'd go ahead and update this... I did take Nyx in to the vet's that morning, and we saw a different vet than my usual bunny doctor (the only one on duty at such short notice). Long story short, I was incredibly unimpressed with the vet, and it's no surprise to me that her "treatment" (prescribed antibiotics and advised me to just watch the area) did nothing to reduce the size of the red substance. Unfortunately, things have been tough around here financially and I literally have no money for another vet trip at the moment... Nyx is still acting normal and the substance hasn't grown or changed in shape, so I feel she's alright to wait a bit for another vet trip (this time with my usual bunny vet).

Angieluv, thank you for the link, it was incredibly informative, though I definitely don't believe this is a rectal prolapse now.

Thanks for sharing your experience Hadley. I'm so sorry your bun is going through this, and I'll definitely keep your insight in mind when I discuss treatment options with my vet. Do you know what exactly causes rectal polyps? Since this is a rabbit I bred, I want to be extra cautious about health issues going on in my line.

 

[kirstin]

My rabbits have had this before. At least, I think it's the same thing as what you speak of. Sometimes, the shape of the rabbit's anus can cause it rub against things, which causes a redness that can look pretty shocking.

 

[Happi Bun]

It does look to me like a prolapse of some kind.

Rabbits are very good at hiding pain, it's part of their survival instinct.