Bathing tips?

[Dymii]

Sprinkles HATES baths.  It’s a huge ordeal… we have to catch him in a towel and get him in the tub and it takes two of us cause one has to calm him and pat his head and hold his little front paws out of the water so he won’t freak out.. and the other gets to work on his chronic poopy butt. We have to bathe him at least once a month because he gets clumps of poop stuck back there, but sometimes he still smells bad when we’re done because the water has been soiled quite a bit. 

When I bathe him I use baby shampoo and just gently rub him with my fingers, and a cup of water to pour over and rinse off. 

Today’s bath was worse than most, and I had to keep him in the bath far longer than normal. He smells terrible because of all the debris I pulled off of him was in the water. I do not want to give him another bath tonight.. I may tomorrow but it’s so upsetting to him that I’d really rather not do it so soon again in the future. Whenever he gets a bath he’s usually withdrawn for the rest of the day–pouting or perhaps upset that these people he trusted chased him down.

My question for you all.. How can I make sure he doesn’t smell bad without hurting his feelings?

Notes on poopy butt: 

-He is part lionhead so he has that long skirt of fur around his butt

-He enjoys sitting in his litter space. I clean it daily but somehow stuff still gets by me apparently

-over the past several days I thought he was barely pooping because he’d been upset over something. Turns out it was all on his butt -_- but during that time he was in his litter room a lot, and he’d frequently tuck his head down like he was getting a cecetroph (sp?) so I was slightly less worried.

[LBJ10]

Has the vet explored the cause of his poopy butt?

In the meantime, what about doing a sanitary shave down there?

[Dymii]

No, vet mostly was like “you need to clean him more”. I think shaving would be a good idea, we’ll need to take him in for that. i worry because it’s 20 degrees F out right now.. middle of winter. I worry about him being cold. Last night we draped two fleecy blankets around half of his cage to hold in heat. His little tail was still a bit damp at bedtime.

What does it mean if he’s kicking his front feet? Kind of like flicking? Haven’t been able to find anything on google about it.. He was doing it during the bath last night and did it this morning once too.*edit–reworded my search, found out that’s common if front paws are dirty…and well, they kind of are after the bath*

He’s still sulking, but my husband got him to eat a couple of raisins this morning and saw him drink some water and eat a bit of hay. Last night we had such a hard time getting him into his cage.. He was lodged under the desk and I had to physically move him several times. He’s never like this and it’s very concerning.

[LBJ10]

Did you decide to shave him? I think it would be okay. Better than being wet.

[Dymii]

Yes, sorry I haven’t been around. 2 days after my last reply we had to take him to the vet with GI stasis. We had the vet do what they could back there. This is his third day there but he’s finally started producing pellets so we should be able to bring him home tonight or in the morning… So then I’ll see what his little butt looks like! I’ll also be asking the vet for tips on that. When we went in we were of course focused on the emergency problems, but now we’ll be able to talk about other stuff with him healthy again.

[LBJ10]

Oh no, poor thing. I hope he’s doing better now. And hopefully the shave will help things down there until you can figure out what’s causing the poopy butt.

[Dymii]

Sprinkles is home now. They decided not to shave his butt because he had urine scalding and sore spots. They did show us a way to pick him up and pick the poop off every other day. He will NOT like it but he’ll have to get used to it to prevent issues in the future..
They advised us on his diet, and gave us ‘critical care’ which is essentially powdered hay. We have to mix it with water and syringe feed him every 6-8 hours, plus pain medicine every morning.
When he got home he hopped around a bit and went and dropped some pellets under the desk and started to camp out. Sounds promising so we’ll see!

[lillian]

My lionhead-mix doesnt generally get poopy butt unless his stomache is upset, which usually happens with too many treats or changes in diet. Are his poops generally hard little round balls or are they usually wet? He may need a diet change that is timothy-based. I know the “gourmet mix” foods can cause tummy troubles, and we had to switch to timothy pellets to help stop some of the tummy troubles, as well as cut out a chunk of the treats and replace them with healthier options.

When my bun was going through stasis, we cleaned the litter tray a couple times a day, and used cheap materials that were okay for buns to keep their butts clean, and cleaned their cages daily.

For bathing, when i absolutely have too put the buns in the bath, i use one of the small “kitten” litter boxes, make sure the water is warm enough, then put my bun in with his paws on the edge of the box so they dont have to get wet. If the bath is too cold or warm, my buns will put up a major fight. When i do take him out, i have the towel ready and wrap him up tight enough that he cant escape without a fight, but loose enough to not hurt him. I will usually just leave him in it and continually pet his head to keep him calm til hes mostly dry, before letting him go to clean himself and play. If hes still wet before i put him in his cage, ill get a second dry towel and try to fully dry him

6-8 hours, lucky. I was put on 4 hours with my bun lol. I know critical care has been like a miracle cure when my buns get ill.

[Dymii]

His poops are usually hard little pellets, but sometimes he has the mushy ones. Since he’s come home it’s only been the hard ones but the doctor said that was to be expected. The vet did ask us to try to switch his pellets, and we’re going to try. We’ve honestly been trying for a while but he just won’t eat them. Once he’s eating normally again we may try it again… vet told us about some health issues that can be caused by eating alfalfa pellets.
Thanks for the tips! He did NOT take the first critical care very well at all. We only got about a third of the recommended dose into him.. and another third of it on him. >_< I'm hoping that if we do it enough times he'll just start accepting it.

Oddly enough, he seems to have forgotten that he’s litter trained. He’s just been peeing wherever he is. Anyone else experienced that?

[lillian]

Yea my bun did the peeing when on critical care too. Did it on the bed a few times which wasnt fun to clean. He got right back into his litter box when he got better. I think the meds might mess with their control.

It takes time with the critical care to find a method that works. I searched for a good 3 hours on the internet, writing every method i found and testing them with each treatment. No two buns act the same. Biggest thing is to just be patient. Dont get mad at the bun. Imagine how you would feel after all. First treatment took me over an hour with a big mess, and now it takes me about 15 minutes and only a little is lost.

One thing that i found that worked decently was using the bed. If my father was there to help, i would replace the pillow with him, if not, id place a thick pillow down kinda close to the edge but not super close. I would place 2 towels over it (2 in case he peed) where half was on the bed and half was on the pillow, put the bun on the part on the bed right up against the pillow, and drape the 2 towels over him. This prevented him from backing up quite a bit. I would use one hand, gently resting it on his head (and over his eyes), and use my thumb to, as gently as possible, pry the side of his mouth open. Other hand would be used for the syringe. Biggest issue with this was him bolting forward (athough covering his eyes helped quite a bit) and him going down with his head (didnt want to squeeze his head), but he has gotten a lot better.

Another thing that helped a bit was either feeding him in the midde of his sleep times, or letting him play and run around for a bit before the treatment to get some energy out. Of course, couldnt do this every time.

I think my biggest fear with the feedings was hurting him. Always try to be gentle ^.^ lol

[LBJ10]

Is he having trouble getting in the litter box?

[Dymii]

@LBJ10 I put a corner pan in his main cage that isn’t usually there, but he used to use it frequently. He just doesn’t seem to care about the litter box. I’ve seen him hop into it when he was trying to get away from us, and the way his cage is set up he has a separate cage that’s just for bathroom use also. He used to just jump into the bathroom cage, but since he’s gotten home we only saw him go in there one time, and he came back out pretty quickly.

@lillian Good to know! He fought us so hard last night I almost cried. He isn’t eating or even drinking otherwise, so if we can’t get this food in him he could go back into stasis.The first feeding my mom was there and she held him wrapped in towels on her lap while I fed him. Second feeding my husband was there and we started out like the first one but he escaped, so we ended up putting him on the ground wrapped in a towel, between hubby’s knees while I laid on the ground to try and feed him.
This morning we’re about to have to do another feeding as well as pain meds, going to try to do the meds first and see if he’ll cooperate a little more. I’ll spend my spare time at work today looking up tips, thanks for the idea. Hopefully it helps!

[Gina.Jenny]

Our first rescue bunny got really bad icky bun all the time, the smallest bite of anything green, even grass could set her off. I used one of those mini battery operated hair trimmers, the size of a chunky pen, and used that to keep her short and trim in that area, rather than shaved, plus non perfumed toddler wipes for a daily clean, followed by a damp square of kitchen paper, so that if she wanted to finish off cleaning, the wipe reside was mostly gone too.

[Dymii]

Hmm, that’s not a bad idea. As it is now, we had to fight him last night to get to even inspect his butt, and he wouldn’t let us touch it. But he’s fighting us every feeding right now, and I don’t want to add any more stressors….
The vet said they didn’t shave because bunnies’ skin can tear very easily and he was already sensitive. I might try the idea with those wet wipes though… Thanks!

[Gina.Jenny]

A sports bottle filled with warm water with a dash of puppy/kitten shampoo shaken in can also help on ickier days, a quick squirt, a wet wipe, another squirt, another wipe, repeat as needed, can save an all over soaking! A final rinse with clean water in the bottle and a paper tissue, job done, no sodden bunny after, just a clean damp rear end! This method is best if you dont catch the icky straight away, and it has started to dry into the fur.

[Dymii]

That sounds fantastic, Gina.Jenny! Thank you! I’ll try it tomorrow.

His tummy has starting making a few growly sounds but he’s eating a lot more now. Anyone have an idea?

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