More soft droppings

[Megabunny]

Ok, all you people who have experienced the pleasures of poops sticking to their buns, I know I’m impatient but I just need hope that things will improve. I wrote about this not long ago, but wanted to run the latest past you.

Gracie is two years old (fuzzy lop) and I don’t know how long she had this problem as she was a mess when I took her in. I’ve had her two months and gradually got her in the habit of eating more Timothy. She now gets  a sprinkle of pellets off and on throughout the day plus 1-2 Timothy w/ carrot treats and lots of hay to dig through and munch. I also shred carrots and mix a little w/ chopped Timothy to give her something yummy but encouraging more hay. 

Gracie has one time a day where she just blasts disgusting poops that stick and hang off her. Stinky and awful, despite my trimming of her fur. Daily bathing and lots of cleanup. This poor little thing. She seems quite good the rest of the day.  Does this sound like what others have seen and even though it’s only once a day should I remain relentless in my hay or start giving her something else to fatten her up?  Would like to spay, but not feeling she’s in prime shape for it, so I postponed her appointment

[Bam]

I suggest cutting out all carrot completely. My bunny Bam’s stomach can’t handle carrots. If you yourself like red apples you could try and replace carrots with apple-peel for encouraging her to eat hay. The rest of the apple is too sugary so you should leave that to yourself. I’ve dried lots of apple-peel for Bam because he tolerates them. (Red peel has more antioxidants than green or yellow so they’re healthier).

It isn’t nice when your bunny has sticky butt all the time, for a while I even thought it was more or less the rule for buns to have sticky butt =/ The smell, green and pungent, I can almost feel it as I’m writing =( But it CAN right itself with lots of hay and patience, Bam’s did.

[Megabunny]

Thanks so much. It’s worth a try yes, I do feel like this is just her forever norm, but I hope not. I’ll google how to dry them and give it a try.

[Bam]

You can dry apple-peel in bits or even long curls in the oven on very low heat, on a baking-tray with baking-paper on it. But they can be given fresh, I just dried lots of peel because I’d lots of apples in Sept/Oct. If you dry and chop them up small, they can go in the hay as an appetizer. My other bunny likes them as well but it feels like a waste to give it to him, he thrives on anything, he seems to have a gastric tract made of steel.

I’m guessing your bunny will be kind of sensitive always, just like Bam – even now he’ll get sticky poop from time to time, but it always clears up within a day if I put him on hay only for the rest of that day a. I’ve only had to give him one butt bath this fall/winter, which is a huge improvement.

I so wish you the best of luck!

[Megabunny]

One more question Bam? Are the peels likely to be better than the rest of the apple’s sugary part because of the sticky butt or the calories? She needs to put on weight. I was going to get her spayed but feel at this point she wouldn’t be strong enough to handle anesthesia. hay isn’t going to help her put on weight, I assume. She still gets quite a bit of pellets, though I try not to. But she attacks them when I break down and put them in for her. I really feel I’m putting in considerable amount of hay. Can’t believe my hubbie is putting up with the mess, though I try hard to keep ahead of it. I feel like I could spend every waking minute chasing around these bits of hay. He understands the importance of hay, though, and knows how important these bunnies are to me, so I’m very blessed to have his support. I haven’t worked out a permanent cage so she has a smallish cage with hours in a gated room. But I cannot fit a litter box in her cage and the hay is everywhere

Anyway, back to topic, do you find the rest of the apple is bad for her stomach or just worried about the calories? I’d love to give her something fattening that would agree with this tummy

[Bam]

I think it’s the sugar-content in the rest of the apple that isn’t good for the tummy. I don’t worry about calories anymore, Bam isn’t over-weight anymore. I give him veggies like cabbage, kale, fresh herbs etc.

 

If your girl is continously losing weight, maybe she’s not absorbing the calories like she should. I don’t know enough about rabbit metabolism to have any idea. In a dog you’d suspect the pancreas (enzymes participatting in the break-down of food into nutrients) or perhaps the thyroid. 

 

I so hope you’ll be able to cure her.

[Megabunny]

Sounds great. Thank so much for all the info

[Bam]

You could perhaps try an all-hay diet for some time, you could check with your vet if that would be an ok action to take. It’s often recommended here, three months on hay only is said to fix the most stubborn stomach-provblems, when no causative disease can be found. You could perhaps entice her to eat more of the hay by serving it in smaller wads placed right in front of her. I read an article on medirabbit about the gastrointestinal tracts of rabbits, and it says rabbits tend to ingest more cecals if they are given a diet high in indigestible fibre. The conclusion towards the end of the article reads as this:

Many of these problems can
be avoided if captive rabbits are fed a diet consisting primarily of fibrous
vegetation, such as grass, hay, and fibrous weeds. Feeding of fruits, grains,
and carbohydrate or fat-based treats should be avoided. Pelleted feeds,
although convenient, should be kept to a minimum, and where pellets are used those manufactured by an extrusion process,
which retains the long
particle length of the indigestible fiber, should be chosen.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_dis…Davies.pdf

It’s quite a long article but it explains the workings of the bunny stomach well. 

[Megabunny]

Wow! I’m so clueless about this I knew I could count on someone at BB to help. I’m going to read the article later. gotta go to work to support all these bunnies’ diets through the winter. :-). But wanted to jump on and tell you how much I appreciate all this advice. Gracie is an incredible bunny and I’m so glad to have help. She got through yesterday well. I’ll take what I can get! Any other thought you get, please send them along. And thanks again for the link

[Sarita]

I think the all hay diet may be a good idea as well with approval of your vet. Pellets can sometimes be problematic as well for some rabbits. Having long silky hair I think can sometimes be problematic because that fur just seems to be a poop magnet.

[Megabunny]

Buy you’re not kidding about being a magnet! Those sticky ones cam be found on her belly, her side… Ick. The vet said mostly hay but said I could give little sprinkles of pellets throughout the day because she seems to be starved when I give her them. She said sparing amounts if veggies but I’m trying to do little of that since Bam’s experience w/ carrots. Would like to change things one at a time.

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