Messy bum (again!)

Hi all,

My rabbit Holly is getting a continuous messy smelly bum and I am not sure what the best thing to do is.

Their diet is as follows:

Morning:

Handful of SS pellets between two
Half carrot each

Evening

Handful pellets between two
Greens x approx 2 leafs

Constant supply of fresh hay throughout the day.

Alfie is absolutely fine bum/poo wise.

Last night her bum was messy again and matted which I tried to cut off this morning so I fed Alfie seperatly and did not give Holly any dinner apart from hay and water - Holly was going mental being locked in shed without Alfie and was sniffing around her bowl waiting for me to fill it - I felt v guilty so hand fed her three pellets

This morn I gave them about 5 pellets each - Alfie had half a corrot but did not give any to Holly.

Not sure what the best thing to do going forward.

Do I not give her any veg as its water based and may be causing the problems?? - or do I not give her any pellets and just veg - I have been reading some very conflicting advice!

Also - her bum gets very matted and cutting it off distresses her so much I hate doing it but it has to be done. i very nearly got my husband's beird trimmer to shave her!!

Sorry for long winded message but I have got to get this sorted as its been going on for a very long time,

Thanks!

It doesn't look like your feeding too much veg:?

I've never had any probs with sticky bums and SS, until I did a swap around with the buns living area's and Billy and Emily spent half an hour in a carrier while I was cleaning the dog crate out. I felt guily so gave them extra pellets and Billy did some excess ceacotrophs the next morning, so can only put it down to the SS.

I do generally only give 1 handful per 2 buns once a day.

Nicola

Use a damp flannel or baby wipes to get most of the mess off, then cooking cornflour to clean her up - just put some in a pot and massage it into the dirty fur a pinch at a time, getting down to the roots - it will all dry and fluff up so you can slide the dirt off.

Usually they do this if they are sitting in their poops - some bunnies prefer to do it, turn around and eat it - how much room does she have as if she's a bit cramped she may just accidentally get it on her as she turns around to eat it?

Also is she overweight? This is another major reason they can't get to it before it squishes.

Diet wise I don't think you need cut her pellets as she doesn't eat much, but I would split pellets into 2 dishes so you can see if she's gobbling more than Alfie.

And I would cut out all veg for a couple of days, and when you start it again don't give more than a slice of carrot - carrot is too high carb and really just for a treat - mine only get a couple of inches of carrot a day, and a medium leaf spring greens (some huge leaves will be too much - one of my bunnies got squishy poops after I gave one big leaf each last week)

:lol: Talk about 2 posts giving totally opposite advice :lol:

Cheers guys!

Cornflower sounds like a good idea - thanks Elve, got them both booked in for Myxi jabs next week so get her weighed and checked over.

I don’t think she is overweight at all, but she really does gobble up her food and makes such a noise while she eats! Using two bowls is a good idea, will try that too.

The both live free-range in a 6x7 shed, but her usual sitting spot is often left dirty with poo.

Based on both your advice, I think I will cut out all veg for her, and feed Alfie seperatly and see how that helps. Its quite worrying esp since I don’t think I over-feed them pellets.

Every now and again there is often a big bit of poo (the ones they are suppsoed to it!) about 4cm's long!

Not sure if there is issues with her teeth that could be causing problems.

Do they have to go under anesthetic to have their teeth checked??

When she got spayed the vet said one of here teeth were a little sharp so she filed it down - could this be the problem??

Thanks everyone!

PS The picture is Holly - does she look overweight??

elve said:

:lol: Talk about 2 posts giving totally opposite advice :lol:

Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol:
I was just commenting on my experience with my buns recently

I only give carrot about 2-3 times a week and only a small piece really, only because they have loads of different veg and I give them usually 3 different types a day so I alternate it. they always have spring greens though, 1 leaf each.

Squishy had constant problems with a messy bum as a baby. It turned out he had mallocluded incisors so wasn't eating as much hay as he should be, once he had them removed he never had a problem again.
Excess caecotrophs can be down to too much protein in the diet - what pellets do you feed? Are they both definately getting a fair share rather than her scoffing them all? Squishy also improved when moved to SS rather than Excel.
Agree with Elve about carrots only being treats really - carrot tops are much better for them (my rats get the carrots and the buns get the tops!)

Thanks everyone - interesting re the carrots, they sometimes get quite a large carrot (half each) - I need to stop that I think and maybe feed something else in the morning or just carrot tops - they get greens in the evening.

They are on Science Selective - Holly does scoff her pellets a lot more than Alfie does so maybe she is getting more pellets than she should be.

How many SS pellets approx should they get each morning and evening - I am going to feed in separate bowls tonight and wanna get it right - they are medium sized lops.

She eats lots of hay too which is great but something is messing her little bum up!

Im on a mission to get this sorted!

I've just weighed out how much SS I give between 2 buns per day and its about 30g.

I wonder if it may be the SS or one of the types of veg she is eating as you don't seem to be feeding her too much, shes not overweight (although as said before, you can't rule out teeth). Maybe she has bunny IBS.

Could you restrict her to hay only for 2 days. Then gradually introduce food back only one food at a time and monitor the results over a couple of days.

Hi, my first post, lovely to find so many people who love their rabbits.:wave:

When I mentioned that my rabbits had messy bottoms the vet suggested cutting right down on feeding pellets. I'd been cutting down on fresh food as this seemed the obvious cause but apparently the amount of fresh food I was giving was OK. She also said that hay should be the main part of their diet. I followed her advice things improved.

Ben's mum - your large rabbit picture brought a tear to my eye
as that one looks exactly like Pippa who I had to have put to sleep in August. She was 5 yrs old and sadly got a tumour, survived for 6 weeks after her operation. Thankfully I still have Fudge but he still seems to be missing her.

Welcome Cheesy!

Thanks for the advice - right, im going to cut right back on pellets and vef to see if that does the trick!!

Dirty bunny

My rabbit had a messy bun for 4 years.It was only when she got gut stasis that I was told from the vet she was allergic to rabbit mix.I had her on this because she won't eat pellets.Her carrot and apple had to be cut right down too.She eats dried herbs now.When teeth are ruled out the food could be to blame so get advice.Messy bum should not be happening.

Sometimes mushy poop can be due to a problem with parasites, so it might be a good idea to have your vet do a fecal test to rule that out.

Most often the cause of cecal dysbiosis and the mushy poop, is a rabbits diet. Sometimes a sensitivity to a particular veg can cause it, but most often it is due to too many sugars and carbs in a rabbits diet, from treats and/or pellets, especially if the rabbit is eating a good amount of hay each day and getting enough fiber. The messy bum could be from the sugars in the carrot, as that is quite a bit of carrot for a rabbit to be eating. You could try cutting that out of her diet to see if that helps. If that doesn't do it then you may need to try reducing pellet amounts. If the messy bum is extremely bad, you may need to cut back to just hay until it clears up, then gradually reintroduce pellets back into the diet(you may not be able to feed as much as before), then gradually introduce veggies one at a time, back into the diet. But it would probably be good to eliminate carrots and any other sugary treats from her diet.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=3012
http://www.sawneeanimalclinic.com/downloads/chronic_intermittent_diarrhea_in_rabbits.pdf

I'm not sure that someone asking for advice in 2007 would be expecting a reply now!