Help – Bunny Butt Problems

[clarinuto]

My bunny is routinely having poop build up on her bottom.  My wife and I need to use scissors to remove it from her bum every couple weeks.  The vet is stumped about why she has randomly stopped cleaning herself.  The best guess right now is that she injured herself somehow and either doesn’t have the mobility anymore to clean herself or is in pain and can’t.  We tried putting her on pain medication for a short time to see if we could help the situation, but it hasn’t gotten any better.  Besides the poop build up on her bottom, the back half of her is noticeably less kept, so it does make sense to me that something mobility-wise is occurring, but I’m not sure what to do about it.  Any help, similar experiences, expertise is appreciated. Thanks!

[Mikey]

Since youve noticed that she has mobility problems, what tests has your vet run on her?

[clarinuto]

She did an x-ray that didn’t really show anything, she felt her spine and could feel that there was some tension on one side, but those are the only tests that she’s done so far. Any recommendations?

[Azerane]

Is her poop mushy? Even if she wasn’t cleaning, I don’t think that poop should be getting stuck down there so much unless she is sitting in her cecals.

I agree with perhaps running some other tests, though I’m not sure what to diagnose the mobility issues, but also perhaps encourage her to eat more hay to help firm up her poops more so that they’re not getting stuck so much.

[clarinuto]

Her poop doesn’t seem to be mushy and I don’t find cecals lying around, but there was a time where I was concerned she was not eating hers. She seems to be doing okay currently. Her diet is mainly Timothy hay from small pet select, an eighth of a cup of pellets from Oxbow twice daily, and a salad every evening. Her greens are usually romaine, cilantro, mint, kale, and some other lettuce (dandelion greens, collars greens, turnip greens, etc. ). The poop that gets stuck is a big hard glob. It is the consistency of normal poop, but stuck in her fur and larger. I am assuming it has to be somewhat moist when it starts to stick, but I never see them like that. Very frustrating.

[Azerane]

Very strange, maybe at times she’s sitting in her litter tray for long and peeing on poops makes them mushy enough to stick. I don’t know, unless you notice those larger poops happening at a certain time of day

[Author]

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