1. Help with Sensitive Tummy/Mushy Droppings! 2. Raspberry Leaves?

[ams1786]

Hi all! Looking for some help with bunny stomach problems.

I have a single female rex, spayed, around 1.5 yo. She’s not obese and is fed a decent diet: around 1/3 cup plain timothy-based pellets, grass hay (she eats less than she should, but it’s something), and water. However, she seems to have a very sensitive tummy and I’ve been having a problem with mushy droppings. 

It’s not regular but it happens fairly frequently – sometimes once a week, sometimes once or twice a month. I don’t know if other rabbits have it this frequently but it seems like it happens too often. I’m not sure if they’re cecal or fecal pellets but they’re rarely in her litter box; I tend to find them in places she’s been sitting and they’re just smushed and messy so I can’t tell what they looked like. The problem is this is she’s a climber and loves to sit on chairs/carpets/couches…and it’s getting super messy.

I don’t know what’s causing it, as there are no other problems and she’s had this quirk as long as I can remember. However, there are triggers and too many vegetables is one of them. Feeding more than a small portion can cause problems, as can feeding vegetables every day. At the moment, she’s getting way less than the recommended amount. Is it possible some bunnies just can’t handle vegetables and is it healthy to cut back that much? There have also been a few times she’s found a cookie or something and that’s caused it, but there are also plenty of other times that are a mystery.

I’ve found a bit of oats can help clear it up, and I’ve been giving her the Oxbow Digestive Support Tabs and Papaya Tablets daily – since I’ve started she’s definitely gotten better. But it still happens, and I’d really like to know if there’s anything else I can try and what’s going on! I want to ensure she’s healthy, though she seems otherwise fine when it happens, and to be honest the mess is also just really icky and I’m worried about the furniture (is that bad to admit??). I’m not in a position to now, but I’d also like to get her a friend at some point in the future and I really want to clear this up (if possible!) first. 

As it’s quite irregular and she has no other symptoms, and she’s been like this for so long, I don’t think it’s anything medical. However, I’ve read that rexes can have sensitive stomachs – is it possible it’s just her?

Also, don’t know if anyone knows about this, but I read that raspberry leaves can be good for stomach problems. Don’t have any plants near me, but does anyone know if this would be safe? 

http://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Leaves-Dried-Pound-Bulk/dp/B002U95FW2

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/bulkherb/r.php

Sorry for the long post but wanted to include all relevant info!

[Deleted User]

Sorry ams1786 – I can’t help you out with the tummy upset, poor girl – I’m sorry. I just haven’t had the experience (lucky Henry/me). The raspberry leaves? You got my attention. I feed my boy ‘mulberry’ leaves – I have a tree that I planted 2 years ago growing in my yard. Luckily for me, another BBer did my research for me (I couldn’t find the info for the life of me either) and as much as they are good/healthy (mulberry leaves) to feed buns, it wasn’t suggested it was a tummy reliever – but then again, as simular as the two leaves sound, maybe the raspberry does have benefits that the mulberry doesn’t? I’d try and investigate this further (if your good at internet searches – I’m obviously not). Gee, I hope your girl feels/gets better soon. Sorry I couldn’t be of any help, but thought I’d stick my 2 cents in – I’d look into the raspberry leaf, who knows? Cheers ams1786.

[Bam]

I give my bunnies fresh raspberry leaves during the vegetative seasons. both wild and the garden varieties. I’ve also dried leaves to feed now in the winter. I don’t know about the beneficial effects on their stomachs though. They eat them happily, especially Bam whose stomach always has been troublesome.

Another traditionally used remedy for stomach-problems is mint. I’ve given my Bam dry mint “flakes” sold as mint-tea when I couldn’t get fresh mint.

[Sarita]

Honestly what you are describing sounds perfectly normal and what you are trying to do with supplements and oats and everything else is not the answer.

Overproducing cecals is not really indicative of a gastrointestinal problem. It just means your rabbit is getting the nutrients she needs and some rabbits just don’t eat all their cecals – it’s a problem more for us because we have to clean them up.

Vegetables and hay are the most basic foods for a rabbit as they are not processed so no, normally the problem is pellets. I think you should get back to the basics – encourage more hay, reduce the pellets, and continue with greens.

[Megabunny]

Hey Bam,
What else do you dry? It sound like something I should try for all my guys for the winter months. You told me about your apple peels. Can you dry anything long and low temp in the oven?

Good luck, AMS. I’m going through the same w/ mine except its DAILY I would love to let her run around, but because she’s messy most of the time, I have to keep her confined to a room I can easily clean…linoleum, which she hates, so she stays on a towel I put down. I call it her island. But then she has a big box of hay that she can jump in. I give her sprinkles of pellets throughout the day because she seems so hungry, but the hay really seems to be the way to go. But it’s hard not to give something else. I can’t see my Gracie being in w/ a second rabbit all the time because her stomach is so touchy. But you have to freshen the hay frequently by fluffing it up and changing it out because they are pretty fussy and what looks like should keep them happy for days and days will not keep them happy long.

Bam said she gives red apple peels and her bunny cannot tolerate carrots. So I’m not doing carrots except a bit of dried in her Timothy treats. Largely hay diet seems to be the common denominator for all the stomach concerns. I’ve bought pretty much every kind I can find for variety, but mostly Timothy.

I don’t blame you for worrying about the furniture. It’s stinky and disgusting and you have to have limitations, much as we want to let them rule the roost.  My hubby is pretty tired of all the chew marks on things, plus all the wires he’s had to fix. Yes, I’ve tried to bunny proof but my big guy is VERY destructive.  I have to watch him now at all times when he’s out.  I carry around a book or my iPad or something.  I need a life!

[Deleted User]

I had to laugh Megabunny, all the wires your hubby has had to fix – so far my hubby has replaced the cord on my precious 21 yo heater, thrown out a fan (not happy – heatwave here, frazzled face), etc., and put half our furniture into our ‘bunny no no room’ with baby gates and fencing wire thread through to protect it all. Then, on top of all that – they want us to ‘fluff’ their hay!?!?!? Sorry, my apologies for laughing – I have too, to stop myself from crying! Lol!
Wishing both you and ams1786 better bunny tummies.

[Bam]

I dry lots of stuff, but I think most leaves and herbs are better dried hanging in a closet, with or without a paper-bag around them. I’ve dried nettles, dandelion greens, ground-elder, apple-leaves, plantain (plantago, not the banana), raspberry-leaves, strawberry-leaves, willow-leaves, hawthorn-leaves and -berries, rowan-berries, African marigold (tagetes erecta) and common herbs like mint, tarragon and oregano. It’s mostly stuff I grow myself, but sometimes in the winter you can find big bunches of f ex mint cheap and dry what can’t be consumed at once.

I give it as a healthy supplement during the winter, when nothing grows outside.

My bunnies have chewed off several low-voltage cables, so I’ve cable-covers on all cords that can’t be tucked away out of reach. They’ve also eaten rag-rugs (Bam) and fleece-blankets and Yohio has more or less perforated all my duvet-covers. Clothes (with people in them) have been subject to attacks. Yohio chewed the corners off of a bathroom cupboard and made big holes in a very good leather overnight-bag.

Plus I fluff hay and I fluff more hay =) It’s kind of the price you pay for the favour of having rabbits in your life =)

[Deleted User]

Chewing clothes – with people in them, hysterical! (I really got to stop complaining about my Henry), that is so funny! (again, sorry for laughing). Oh, that reminds me Bam, how did you go with your (wonderful) mum’s floor’s?
But the funniest so far – after causing all that destruction, fluffing their hay?!?!? No one but a bunny lover would get that! (no wonder I only bunny talk on BB – anyone else would have me committed by now, lol!). Good on us!

[Megabunny]

LMBO!!! (My grown kids are horrified when I use LMAO)

It’s 7 am here and I’m sharing these stories w/ my hubby and he thinks we are all nuts. BTW I have wrapped my cords with protectors, but my big guy got on the couch, leaned over and nibbled on the phone wire where I hadn’t wrapped. I saw him jump on a rocker ottoman and try hard to figure out how to get to the TV remotes that were out of reach. And when I’m not looking he jumps in with the Guinea Pig and eats her food and poops giant poops! And then there were all the wires we had sectioned off, but someone moved things and Gus got back there and I didn’t know it for a few days. Yikes!

And Henri, a bunny no no room? Give your hubby an extra big hug. I adore mine, but that would never fly. :-). I think we’d have the whole house in one room. I don’t think the poopy butt bunny would chew, but she can’t run out of her room!

Well, gotta get ready for work. I’ll go with a smile on my face. It’s yucky cold winter here, AndHenri! Say hi to the kangaroos for me!! We loved Australia when we visited several years ago.

Mega bunny

P.S. There’s a HUGE bunny at the shelter with a giant dewlap that they’ve given a horse stall to. She’s about 12 pounds…not that huge for giant bunny lovers but I want her but can’t fit another giant anywhere. It’s hysterical to hear people’s comments, though, when they look in the stall!,

[Megabunny]

Oh and Bam. I can’t wait to collect leaves to dry this summer! Do you think I can also feed the leaves to what we call Black Caps, not quite blackberries but more accessible for me

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