• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

  • Please Note - Medical Advice

    Please keep in mind that posts on this forum are from members of the public sharing personal opinions. It is not a replacement for qualified medical advice from a veterinarian. Many illnesses share similar symptoms but require different treatments. A medical exam is necessary for an accurate diagnosis, without which appropriate treatment cannot be given.

    You should always consult your vet before following any suggestions for medication or treatment you have read about. The wrong treatment could make your rabbit worse or mean your vet is unable to give the correct treatment because of drug interactions. Even non prescription drugs can do harm if given inappropriately.

    We are very grateful to members who take time to answer other members questions, but please do be clear in your replies that you are sharing personal experience and not giving instructions on what must be done.

    Urgent Medical Advice: If you need, or think you might need, urgent medical advice you should contact a vet. If it is out of working hours phone your vet's normal number and there should be an answer phone message with instructions on what to do.

Messy Back End!!!

B

BunnyLise

New Kit
I hope you are not eating whilst reading this..... :)

I have a house rabbit that is litter trained and usually really clean. Just recently though and on quite a regular basis we start to smell her and find quite a large amount of faeces has collected on her back end under her tail. It is obviously softer than usual when this happens but it's not diarrohea. I put it down to something she is eating so have been taking things out of her diet to see if it makes a difference but just when I think I have cracked it, it happens again.

Her diet is mainly Excel pellets but she also has nuts and raisins (made for rabbits) in her treat ball and some fresh fruit and veg occasionally. Not forgetting her hay that she nibbles on.

I also thought that it may be something she is eating outside in the garden when she has her daily run but it has still happened after not letting her outside for a couple of days.

Has anybody got any ideas or is it just a case of doing what I am doing and trying to work out if there is something in her diet that upsets her stomach??
 
If she is overweight or an older bunny (getting a bit stiff) she may be struggling to reach down and clean herself. Otherwise I guess it is just a case of elimination. If she has a fluffy bum, it might help to trim off excess hair and use rearguard to help deter flies.
Hope this helps.
 
I found my dwarf lop used to get a sticky bum and all we could put it down to was her pellets. She was fine on excel for years, but in the last 2 years of her life it seemed to affect her. We really reduced the amount of excel and there was an improvement. It might be worth gradually swapping to a higher fibre pellet such as science selective or oxbow (I didn't know they existed at the time) and seeing if that makes a difference. It'd be worth taking her to the vets to be checked out though, just to make sure there aren't any dental or other problems that are stopping her from eating her sticky poos. Good luck with it though - mucky bums aren't fun to clean!
 
definitely no fruit or nuts for bunnies - and excel has a reputation for causing too many caecal poops as well - these are the poops they need to eat so too much protein (ie from nuts and pellets) will cause too many caecal poops for them to eat them all. Also if they have constant access to food they will not eat them - they really only need hay, fresh twice a day, and a handful of pellets, and a handful of veg - hay is meant to be nearly 80% of their diet.

She really needs to be rearguard treated (get it from the vets) as she will be very much in danger from flies - the maggots get laid and eat the rabbit alive, so you need to sort this problem out before letting her outside again.
 
I agree about changing the pellets, they may be the cause. If not, Smokey sometimes produces excess when she is a bit worried for some strange reason, is anything stressing her?

When Smokey had big bottom issues before I changed her food, I asked the vet to clip the fur around her bum quite short, which helped with the cleaning.
 
One of mine had problems and we did the same as you. He was not a hay eater so difficult to get him to eat more for the fibre. We changed them to Oxbow Bunny Basics and it was like a miracle!!! No problems since then.
 
Thank You

I just wanted to say thank you to everybody for all your help and suggestions.

From reading up on it, all of your help and speaking to the vet I now know that I was feeding her far too much - oops :roll: It's hard to believe that I am not new at keeping rabbits isn't it (the others were never house rabbits though - so not sure if this makes a difference).

So... I have cut down on her pellets, upped her hay (we now have another box full of it as well as the usual in her litter tray), limited her veg and the treats are going to be a rare occurance too!!! My boyfriend has also been warned as she has him wrapped around her little paw when it comes to treats!!!

I am happy to say that there is a visible difference after just 36 hours.

We also had a trip to the vets to be on the safe side - her teeth are fine, her back end has been clipped and cleaned and we have some fly strike medicine for when it gets warmer.

So....one lovely clean bunny and one v happy owner :) Thanks again.

Oh........one more thing - it was so great to find this site and realise that there are so many more bunny nuts around than just me :) x x
 
Glad she has improved Lisa. One of my french lop house rabbits has the same problem if she eats just a small carrot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Poorly Freja :-(
2 3 4
Replies
69
Views
2K
joey&boo
joey&boo
roxyroller88
Thymoma
Replies
14
Views
490
InspectorMorse
InspectorMorse
B
Rabbit stressed? Choosing to stay out in cold & cecotropes
Replies
8
Views
322
Omi
O
Back
Top