Bunny not producing as much poop as she should?

[Lostris]

Hello everyone.

This is my first time posting on this forum. I didn’t see anything like her circumstances in my search for an answer.

I have a 5 month old Holland Lop doe named Freya. I got her at 10 weeks old. She’s been doing great for a while. She ate a lot of hay, pooped a lot, always had appetite and energy for binkies, and showed lots of affection. Once she’s six months, I will get her spayed.

Couple of days ago she didn’t finish her favorite Oxbow Young Rabbit pellets. She normally gets 1/8 cup two times a day (so 1/4 cup a day).

Then she didn’t poop as much as she normally did, and would go onto 3-4 hours when she didn’t produce anything despite eating hay. The poop I saw was still large, but less of it and just a bit wet-looking (not at all like cecals are) compared to her normally dry-looking feces.

Her hay intake did go down a bit, but I started hand feeding her (which helped get her interest back in). She gets a mix of 1st and 2nd cut timothy hay from Smallpetselect. I decreased pellets gradually over the course two days. Currently, she’s not getting any pellets and is eating tons of hay instead. She also gets some parsley. She’s only gotten tiny bits of fruit on several occassions, kust to see what she may like. Most of it she would reluctantly eat. She’s bizzare in that regard
I noticed her hay intake is higher when my boyfriend and I are home. We have a nanny cam set up to keep an eye on her.

I noticed she started to molt, which could be a part of the problem. I keep brushing her several times a day. Her poop doesn’t pearl or show more than a strand here and there.
I massaged her belly – it seemed to help and she passed some gas.

Water intake is good, she has a water bowl I change/top off daily.

So the question is – should I be alarmed by the decrease in number of poop pellets? She’s stil pooping, just less. She’s eating tons of hay, drinking, is active, playful and and affectionate. I don’t know what else to do before taking her to the vet.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Rain]

Goodness gracious you have been doing a great job! I’m my own Netherland Dwarf who is four months has off days sometimes I which he eats less and just doesnt poop much but a day of only hay and water fixes it. It doesn’t sound like she has any dental problems because she is still eating. Hmm. If you said there is less poop and that she is having some gas trouble(rabbits don’t usually hpass gas) then I think there is definitely something up with her stomach. If she starts slowing down and not eating or pooping at all then it’s GI stasis. She might just be getting a lot of build up of gas or maybe something blocking her system. If she is molting then she might be swallowing fur and it gets stuck in her gut. Grooming is good yes so you’re doing great with that. Make sure to do it every day and very thoruoughly. The main thing is that poop pellets decreasing IS alarming because it’s not quite normal and healthy for rabbits. They usually have a built in poop factory that poops every couple minutes or so. I would definitely go to the vet and tell the doctor your bunny is pooping less and has gas. Just to be on the safe side. Do you know exactly how long this has been going on without getting better?

[Lostris]

Haha, thank you! It’s been a long time since I had a rabbit, and I didn’t have an issue like that before.

It’s been going on since Monday night. She has never completely stopped pooping, just produced less.

She has pooped more since the post. Nice, big pellets, but it’s still not the quantity she produced before. It seems to be going in the right direction. I just worry.

I’ll keep an eye on her, if it doesn’t keep getting better, I’ll take her to the vet.

[Sirius&Luna]

Did you give her any different vegetables? Some veg does cause gas in some bunnies, so it’s good to identify what your bun is sensitive too so you can avoid it in the future.

Otherwise, it sounds like you’re doing everything right. As long as she is eating and pooping, then I don’t think you need to be too concerned. If it drags on for more than a few days then a vet visit is in order, but unless she totally stops eating and pooping I wouldn’t say it’s an emergency.

Some members here give their buns baby gas drops (simethicone) when they notice their buns have gas. I haven’t personally, as I’ve never noticed gas symptoms in my buns, but I have some in stock just in case, so might be something to add to your bunny medicine stock!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Yes, gas drops are a good idea. At any rate, they can’t hurt and may be helpful.

Along with your grooming, a good method to take off lots of excess fur during a molt is wetting your hands, shake off the excess and run your hands along bunny. Rub your hands together to remove it and then repeat until no chunks of fur are coming off. This works great to get a lot of fur that brushes don’t and bunny would otherwise lick up. Also great to do hard to groom areas like bellies and underarms.

[Rain]

ha funny but the same thing is now starting with my bunny! His fecal pellets are smaller than normal yet he eats and plays and runs like every other day! What could be happening?

[LittlePuffyTail]

Is your bun shedding, Rain?

[Rain]

Oh sorry i had a separate thread for it( I didn’t want to like take over someone else’s thread with my own problems that’s horribly rude of me)

[Lostris]

Rain, no worries I hope your bunny is doing better.

LittlePuffyTail, I only introduced Freya to collard greens and parsley, and she likes both. I’ve read somewhere that the former can contribute to gasiness, so I withheld that for a while.

I would like to thank everyone for their input. Freya is now feeling better.
We kept with the brushing, handfeeding, and belly massages. We took away food pellets for three days and gave some parsley. She produced really nice poop pellets and kept doing so. She was active all throughout and even flopped next to me a few times (as of now, it’s still an honor)! Her symptoms went away pretty fast.

I have heard about the hand wetting method to remove hair. I should try it. Her adult fur is coming in slowly and I hope to make the transition easy for her.

[Author]

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