Young Pet Store Bun

[ariusshadow]

Hey! To those of you who remember me, I'm sorry it's been so long since I last posted here! But now I work at a pet store and I need some help.

We have a male dwarf hotot mix in the store. He's a few months old. Hard to say exactly how old, but he's not super-young since his testicles have dropped. He's normally on pellets and kaytee timothy hay. No veggies. These buns are not litterbox trained but are on carefresh litter.

I always pay close attention to the stool of the buns- of any buns. Knowing that these come from a distributor, I always keep a close eye on them. When they come in, I check on stomach squishy-ness, eyes, ears, teeth, gender, nails... you name it. He was normal for many weeks. He's been there... 3 weeks, maybe? Not /exactly/ sure. He came in with a netherland dwarf mix. They're in separate cages and have been since delivery and the nethy seems to be doing fine.

Few days ago, I noticed that the hotot's stool was mushy. Really super-soft but not runny. I made sure he has fresh hay and a little pedialyte in his water. The next night, he had a normal, healthy bowel movement. Today, I came in, and his stool was not only mushy, but slick-looking. As if covered in a slime. But these are NOT cecals! I know what those are supposed to look like. These are very small bowel movements of slimey, wet, mushy stools. But we're not at the 'runny' stage yet. The confusing thing is that he's still producing a little normal stool on and off.

I have benebac (gel), critical care, and pedialyte at my disposal. But I'm unsure about using anything without consulting the experts here since I don't know what it is.

Notes: The bun is NOT molting. There are no drafts able to get to his cage. He's rarely handled, but skittish. His stomach does NOT feel tight or extra squishy.

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

Any other symptoms. I'd try to vet this bun asap as "jelly like stools" are never a good sign.

 

[Pipp]

They seem to produce mucus when their digestive tracts are a little challenged, probably to line and protect the tract, that could be the slime.

What kind of pellets?

I'm not sure that diluted Pedialyte does anything other than flavor the water and make him drink more but if he's not really dehydrated, probably the increase in consumption is good enough. (The reason it works is it supposed to balance the electrolytes, doubt that the balance will be retained if diluted, but that's a guess).

What markings does he have? Some Hotot-marked rabbits are more prone to odd poops I think. Maybe somebody can expand on that.

The great equalizer is always hay and water, see if skipping the pellets for a day helps.


sas :clover:

 

[Nancy McClelland]

ray: Vet might be in order if it continues.

 

[LakeCondo]

I don't think a little one should be without pellets, but cut down by half & see if that helps.

 

[ariusshadow]

The pellets have no brand name I can find. They're given to us for store use. I highly doubt it, but they look like the FortiDiet Crunch. I remove all the lil orange crunchy pieces.

He's drinking decently. I'm constantly giving him new hay to make sure he eats it since some buns don't like nibbling old hay.

He's a small bun, with smallish ears (leading me to the 'dwarf' implication). He's all white with 2 or 3 very small random black spots. He has the 'eyeliner' of a hotot and almost all black ears, with a few small white spots.
I could be entirely wrong and he may just be a broken dwarf of some kind. But when he's not sick, he has the playful disposition of a dwarf hotot. He rolls and binky's and plays.

 

[fuzz16]

by law, the store would have to have a vet check out the bun.

pull pellets, and do just hay.

i worked ina pet store for two years, and youll see much worse than this. be prepared for that and dont put too much heart into every animal there or it will break. it was nicer working at a pet store that did not deal in live animals, which ive been doing the past couple years.

 

[ariusshadow]

No pet store here /doesn't/ deal with live. I try not to put too much heart into anything that comes through but to be honest idk if we even have a store vet... I've never heard of one if we do. If the bun's sick or unwell, we simply RTV (Return to Vendor) the animal, since we know the vendor well and know /he/ will care for the animal properly.

I went into the store today to shop, since I'm off. I limited his pellets to a small handful, since I don't personally approve of the thought of a young bun being without pellets especially when he's sick. He's probably already finished what's there, though. So it's not like he'll be having a lot of it.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

ray:

 

[Rusty78]

if he is new just changeing his diet can upset his system but becareful because if the loose stools continue or if they smell badly its can possably be Coccidiosis. Wich can spread to anything that is alive including you, please wash your hands very well.....

 

[Sweetie]

Coccidiosis - another protozoal parasitic infection - can also be dismissed as a human health concern. The species of coccidia found in rabbits are species specific and should not infect humans. A similar parasite, cryptosporidium, can affect both rabbits and humans (it causes a diarrhoeal illness) and theoretically spread from bunny to human. However, this is unlikely - you are more likely to catch cryptosporidium from inadequately treated domestic water supplies, or when travelling abroad.

Diarrhea in young buns is dangerous. They need to be hydrated as they are losing water because of diarrhea.

Do you know how old this bunny is?

 

[golfdiva]

Hershey gets like that if he eats something wrong, like say, too much banana. A little Benepac clears it right up.

How's the bunny doing?