Will more fiber help?

[neri18]

I'm not sure which area to post this in, so I apologize if it's in the wrong one. Feel free to move it Pip has been having problems with leaking off and on (mostly on) for about a month. It started out of nowhere and it just won't go away. I think it's due to megacolon since his poos range from large and more oval shaped to just a pile of mush. They used to be more normal, but it all changed just out of the blue. They're always very moist now and he has the leaks as well. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes just a few spots on the floor. I took him to the vet (exotic specialist) and he said there wasn't any sign of any bacterial infection and his xray looked good. He said I was doing everything right as far as his diet so most of his initial suggestions didn't apply to me. Pip gets unlimited Timothy Hay and I give him some meadow grass as well to add variety. He gets a little over a 1/4 cup of pellets a day, which he may or may not finish depending on his mood. Some days he's more into the hay. I also give him a small salad each night which usually consists of green-leaf lettuce, dill, mint, and sometimes thyme or cilantro if it's available. He doesn't get many treats. He likes craisins and small pieces of papaya or pineapple. He's an indoor rabbit and never goes outside. The vet shaved Pip's butt and gave me some cream for his 'diaper rash' from all the leaking. I can't give him enough butt baths to keep it clean. The vet said he wanted to try more fiber in Pip's diet to see if that would help and gave me two packs of critical care. He said he wants to slow down the food moving through the intestines and the added fiber might give the liquid more to mix with and more time to be absorbed or whatever so Pip doesn't have constant leaks. He also has some gas and his stomach will sound sloshy now and then. It's not too bad right now. Pip still eats and drinks fine. I haven't been able to get him to eat any critical care yet. He's still mad at me for dragging him to the vet and won't really come out from under the bed yet. Does this extra fiber sound like it might work to everyone else? Does anyone know of any higher fiber diets or food I could try so I'm not constantly forcing critical care into him? I'm not sure if this will help, but it's worth a try and if not the vet can try something else. I'm just going a little crazy with the leaking and wondering why it started up out of nowhere. I would love any and all suggestions at this point I feel so bad because his butt looks so sore and he can't be comfortable dealing with this either, even though he still has a normal appetite and appears healthy otherwise. Help!

 

[LV426]

I'd cut out the salad mix completely at this point. More greens can make for a looser stool. Also I'd cut out his treats for now. The sugar could be causing a gut imbalance. If you still want to feed him greens cut out the green leaf lettuce. Give him dandelions or collard greens. But honestly I'd stick with pellets and timothy hay and no greens, treats, or grasses at this point. Also maybe add in a teaspoon of whole oats and or whole wheat (whole because the outer husk will add in fiber and the bran coating will be intact). See if that clears up his problem. If it does then you may be able to slowly re-introduce greens back in his diet but stay away from lettuces of all forms.

Also I'd lay off the critical care for now and see how the reduction of greens and treats goes. For one critical care is more for animals that aren't eating and need an energy and calorie boost and I'm not sure that will help. I'm not a vet by any means but it just seems a bit odd that critical care would fix the problem.

Another thing to look at is also giving him some benebac regularly. It's possible his gut bacteria is off kilter.

 

[kirbyultra]

I agree with the above post. Try eliminating all fresh greens and all treats for about a week to see if he stabilizes and improves. My bunny Penny is a monstrous eater and at first I gave her a ton of greens but resulted in mushy, inconsistent stools and a slow leaky butt, but no where near as severe as what you are describing for Pip. I would find evidence of the slow leak when it got bad and there'd be liquid fecal droplets on the floor. After removing all greens she improved drastically. I fed her carrot tops, romaine lettuce, parsley and wheat grass almost every day at the time. I tried taking away one or the other every several days and found that none of them really jived with her. I'm still switching and trying different veggies to see if there is one that is easier on her gut but it's a work in progress. So far the only thing that really works well is giving her only 1-2 leaves of whatever it is my other buns are having. Reducing the amount seems to give a good balance between controlling her output and satisfying her crazy hunger.

At the shelter we had a bun who would poop piles no matter what she was fed -- and a volunteer FINALLY figured out that it was her pellets that was not working with her AND she was not to have any greens or treats. Poor girl can have the occasional leaf but she did 100 times better on this diet. We switched her to a particular brand which worked well with her.

BTW if you take away greens and treats, it's almost a guarantee that the bun will compensate by eating more hay to keep full. If your goal is to up intake of fiber, this is pretty effective.

 

[dixonsrabbitry1]

I agree with the two posts above. cut out the greens and veggies. Those are more then likely what is causing the problems. Offer plenty of fresh hay. Increase the pellets to what the rabbit will clean up in a day. 14rth of a cup is too little. What brand are you feeding? Chances are he doesn't like,nor do well on them.Or he is picking the treats over them. Sometimes rabbits will do that if they are fed too many "goodies."If he doesn't start cleaning up all of his pellets within a couple of weeks after everything else is cut out, then you may want to look into getting another brand. Otherwise, cutting back to just the hay and pellets should fix the problem. He may go through a phase where he acts hungry. Don't give into it.

 

[LV426]

Just a mention on the pellets. Make sure it's a quality pellet. No more than 15% protein and no less than 21% fiber is good. If it has colored bits or things in it then it's not good. He will pick out the colorful junk food and eat that first. I use Mazuri but if you can find it or even just a good quality pellet from a feed store that will work too. Too often foods bought in pet stores are just full of junk food. Corn based pellets or pellets with corn kernels in it are one of the worst offenders.

 

[neri18]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll cut out the greens and treats for a week and see what happens. He didn't get a lot of treats to begin with, so that won't be hard to cut out. I'll hold off on greens and see if it makes a difference. I don't think he dislikes his pellets. He's never had a problem with them. Some days he just eats more of them than others and he's more into his hay. The pellets are just a timothy hay pellet, they don't have any other processed colored bits mixed in. I can check the fiber/nutritional content when I get home but I think they fall within the guidelines mentioned. His stomach wasn't gassy or sloshy today and I didn't see any leaks on the carpet, but his poo was still pretty moist. Hopefully the diet change will work. I'll just have to figure out what part of his diet is causing it. It just has me confused because I hadn't changed anything that might have caused it. It was just out of the blue one day, and I don't remember anything that might have been going on to cause any stress. Thank you for all the tips though and I'll be sure to keep you guys posted.

 

[neri18]

It's been about a week and I haven't given Pip any fresh greens. The leaking seems to have stopped, but it was sort of slowing down too when he went to the vet, so I don't know what the deal was. There haven't been any spots on the carpet and his poops are firmer and much less mushy, and they're more normal sized as well. The sloshing sound in his stomach is gone and his digestion sounds normal, and much less gassy. Maybe he just suddenly can't handle fresh greens. I feel bad because he loves his salads, but he seems to be able to eat some meadow hay without problems, so that makes up for it. I'll keep him off the greens and hope that the problem doesn't come back again. *fingers crossed* Thanks again for all the helpful advice and replies

 

[LV426]

Glad it worked out. The green leaf lettuce was probably the issue. If you want to give him a salad use things like wheat grass, dandelion and clover. Try small amounts at first and see if his leaking issue comes back. I find that supermarket greens tend to cause more runny stool issues than natural grazing foods.