lots of soft poops / update - shes fine now

Hi Everyone,

I am hoping someone can help with some advice please. I got a new little mini lop girl a few weeks ago called Lily who is about 3 months old and since then she has been leaving a lot of cecal poops in her pen.

At first I though she was still just settling in but they kept coming - she leaves a few in the morning and a few in the afternoon (like little bunches of grapes).

Then I reduced the Supa Excel Junior pellets because most of the advice I can find says to reduce pellets and increase the hay - the two buns are now getting about 2 ounces of pellets between them split into two meals. I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do though cause all the books and websites also say to feed young rabbits as much pellets as they will eat.

These poops still keep coming and I'm starting to worry now that I'm doing something wrong because Enzo left a few cecals the other day too.

Apart from this they both seem fine. Lily is booked into the vets in a couple of weeks for her first vaccination so I am hoping to wait until then an ask the vet but I dont want to leave it until then if its serious.

I've heard that you can give bunnies a probiotic - would anyone know the name of one I could buy and how much I should give her?

Does anyone know what I should do and if its serious?

thanks

Well done, reducing the pellets it's a good move, I'm surprised it hasn't cleared it up. You could try switching to something like Supreme Science (change over gradually) as this is higher fibre and sometime the excel seems to upset some bunnies.

You can pick probiotics up from your vets or some pet shops. Avipro is one or fibreplex. The instructions are on the box for weight/dose.

What are their normal poops like? Are they eating lots of hay?

It may be a timing issue. Make sure at the time they usually leave them that they don't have pellets around and that they're not out exercising. Sometimes if there is more exciting things to eat or do they will leave them instead of eating them.

Tamsin

Hi
Hi there :wave:

Our mini lop had very excessive poops with excel but it stupidly took several weeks to twig the excel was the cause (cut out greens, gave probiotics -all to no avail). We then tried the Science Selective pellets and these had the same effect.

It was only after we swapped to Oxbow Bunny Basics T that the poops stopped regardless of the greens being fed.

I suspect in the case of our mini lop, his tummy couldn't cope with the alfalfa based pellets. The Bunny Basics T is timothy hay based (very high in fibre) and now we use this with our current three rabbits with no probs at all.

I know a lot of members have no probs with excel and SS but I would certainly recommend trying the Oxbow T with poopy bunnies. I know what a pain it is to be constantly picking up soft poos!

I think I will try a different food and mix it in with the excel pellets over a couple of weeks and meantime I'll get her some probiotics just incase.

I feed them at 6.30am and then again at 5.30pm but Lily leaves the poops sometime through the night for me to find in the morning and at around 3pm so there isn't any food lying around.

Theyre normal poops are fine - although Enzos are a lot bigger than Lily's but I am assuming thats because shes still a youngster hers are smaller. They both eat loads of Timothy Hay and Burgess Forage Excel (dried grass).

Is this something I need to get her to the vets straight away with - it has been going on for a few weeks - or can I wait and try the food change and probiotics over the next two weeks?

I don't think you need to take her to the vets with the excess poops. I don't think buns are in discomfort at all but it is a pain for bunny mummies. When we took Barney to the vet he suggested a hay only diet for a week but I didn't have the heart to do this.

In the end I just stopped the SS pellets that we were on at that point and then gradually introduced the Oxbow three days later. Our buns were a little older tho - 7 months - but there were no problems at all and have been none since.

Up until recently I have been working as a volunteer at a rescue centre where we had 8 babies (2 back to back litters of 4) and we had a similar problem to the one you are mentioning. Some of the bunnies were adopted quite quickly, but of the two remaining pairs both sets started regularly having uneaten cecals. Cutting out green veg etc didn't do the trick but they were moved on to Science and the problem immediately stopped.

Not able to say if it warrants a trip to the vets but I would recommend trying to get them weaned off the Junior at the very least.

Hi Duchess, by Science do you mean Supreme Science like Tamsin suggested?

Also, I though that the Burgess excel Junior/Dwarf would be ok as they are both dwarf breeds (mini lop and lionhead). Is this too rich for their little tums?

I'll check out my local suppliers for the Supreme Science and Oxbow Bunny Basics T to see which of the two are easier to get hold of.

Thanks very much everyone for your advice.
Hopefully it will clear up soon now I know what to do.

Cheers everyone

My Vet told that this happens if a rabbit is overweight, I put Guinness on a diet and it worked.

Buster had this problem when he was little. Only problem was that he will only eat Burgess but I moved him onto adult and now no more soft poo

update - everythings ok now

Hi again everyone.

Little Lily is fine now. I bought some Supreme Science Selective and have started to mix it with the excel pellets.
I also tried to get some probiotics from the local pet shops but they didn't stock it.
I called my vets to ask if they sold it and they said that the vet would have to see her before she could have it. I took her to the vets and a thorough examination and £20 later we were off home with a 5 day course of BioLapin. (Vet says she seems to have slightly long teeth for such a small bunny and to get her eating as much hay as possible but it could just be that she might be prone to teeth problems.)
I syringed fed her some probiotic straight away and put the rest in her water and when I checked her in the morning there were no soft poops to be seen - yay!

I checked her again when I came in from work and theres still no sign of any so it seems to have done the trick.

Thanks again for everyones advice