Dirty Bottom

One of my five rabbits always has big lumps of poo stuck round her bottom - the other four are always totally clean there so I think I'm feeding them correctly. I soak them off in a bowl of warm water but it takes ages and obviously she doesn't like it. She is rather a greedy rabbit but it's difficult to restrict her diet as she lives with a neutered male. They have a huge pile of hay constantly, rabbit mix, small piece of bread and small amount of veg daily. I tried cutting the bread out but it made no difference. If I cut the mix down any more her companion would go hungry. Has anybody else had this problem with one of their buns please - is there some "medical" reason for it, as in a problem with her digestion. She is a little overweight but is very active - jumps on top of the hutch when out in her run for example and runs about. I would like to find a way to overcome this problem as I will be constantly worried about fly strike when the warmer weather arrives. Thanks for any advice.

We had this problem with our bridge rabbit. He lived on his own so we could monitor his food intake. We ended up giving him just hay for 2 days and then slowly built up the pellets. As soon as he showed signs of a mucky bum we reduced the amount slightly and stuck with that amount. we had no further problems. He ended up having enough just enough pellets to cover half the bottom of his bowl:shock:. (He was a tiny bun and his weight remained fine) He was fine on this, loads of hay, grass and a small amount of veg.
I have heard of this problem being caused by the type of pellet, and by not being able to reach their bum to clean it too.
x

By the sounds of it losing a bit of weight could be good for your bun. Although she may seem active if she is a bit too curvey then she'll find it hard to clean herself around her bottom end and to eat her caecotrophs. You could try by limiting her pellets (& definately lay off the bread). I know her companion may have to miss out on a few pellets too but I doubt it will do him any harm as long as they have plenty of hay and grass to munch on. Plenty of exercise outside will help as well.
In the meantime you'll have to carry on cleaning her bottom and I'd recommend using some rearguard as it is starting to get warmer.

I've got a chubby bunny too - he's getting older and doesn't seem to burn off the calories, so I give him just a small amount of veg (slice of carrot, piece of brocolli, small leaf of spring greens) a day, fresh hay twice a day, and 2 level teaspoons of pellets twice a day - I use science selective pellets as they're high fibre.

If you feed a mix there will be low fibre and high protein in it, compared to science selective (which I have to get online - can't find it in petshops and excel pellets also can cause sticky poops)

The bread is too high carb as are carrots or fruit, so to make her better I'd cut those out, and reduce her mix to just a handful morning and evening between the 2 of them - they should eat it all rather than having it available 24/7, in which case they usually don't want to eat all their sticky poops, and end up sitting on them. If you want to change from mix to pellets then do it slowly over a fortnight, so it doesn't upset their tums.

And another way to clean off lumps of poop, which I find brilliant for my long haired piggie is dry cooking cornflour, rubbed and massaged into the dirt with your fingernails - the dirt will slide off, but you need her to sit still as it's a bit fiddly - better than getting wet though

I have this problem with one of my buns too..... she is a cashmere so it's a complete nightmare. She does not eat her cecal pellets, has nothing except hay, a very little veg and her pellets. I even shave her fur short in case that is something that is putting her off eating her ceacotrophs. I have had her on excel but I think this may be a major factor so after cutting them down to a very small amount and it still happening I am now in the process of changing her on to science selective. I only give her minimal veg now and only spring greens, a little bit of parsley and small amount of brocolli...i found giving her things like kale, carrot and even a tiny piece of apple makes the situation worse. She has been relatively clean for the last few days so maybe the pellet change is helping. Your bun definitely needs to lose some weight though and it would help to put rearguard on her now as i have noticed quite a few flies around recently. You can also try putting cornflour on her messy bum and trying to clean her up this way. If you are literally soaking your rabbits bum please make sure you dry her with a hairdryer on a low setting afterwards. Leaving her damp just makes her more of an attraction to the flies.

Sometimes its not diet, believe me I know... my bunny has mucky bum and so far I havent found the answer!

She is not overweight, diet has been ruled out, doesnt appear to have dental problems, etc etc.

I have been thinking about bringing the bunnies inside due to worrying about flies, and also am booking a thorough check up at the vets as I cannot believe she has to live her whole life in a state.

Good luck with your bunny - hope you find the answer.

fluffiebunnie said:

Sometimes its not diet, believe me I know... my bunny has mucky bum and so far I havent found the answer!

She is not overweight, diet has been ruled out, doesnt appear to have dental problems, etc etc.

I have been thinking about bringing the bunnies inside due to worrying about flies, and also am booking a thorough check up at the vets as I cannot believe she has to live her whole life in a state.

Good luck with your bunny - hope you find the answer.

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Hi,

Maybe she just doesn't eat them. What type of food do you have her on?

I shave my bunnies fur right down as if she were short haired (she is a verl long haired bunny) and the vet shaves her underneath, my clippers aren't that good. Think I'll invest in some so I can trim her underneath myself. It does help, she may look like a little sheared sheep but I don't care as long as she is more comfortable!! :roll:

She is now on Oxbow Timothy pellets, but she was on plain water and hay for three weeks with no difference to her messy bum. So I know it doesnt matter what she eats.

Will have another vet appt. and get them to cut all her fur off (its not that long) as well as have another look at her...

oooh yeah that's a good point about the Rearguard from the vets - the flies will be out of hibernation the first mild day we have, any time now, so if a bunny is 'at risk' it needs to be rearguarded ASAP :?

fluffiebunnie said:

She is now on Oxbow Timothy pellets, but she was on plain water and hay for three weeks with no difference to her messy bum. So I know it doesnt matter what she eats.

Will have another vet appt. and get them to cut all her fur off (its not that long) as well as have another look at her...

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Oh dear, she must just be lazy and not bother eating them. I wonder if longer haired bunnies are more prone to this. None of my standard coat bunnies have this problem yet my cashmere does, my adult lionhead does as does my 4 month old lionhead.... Sometimes I see her eating them but most of the time she just leaves them lying around. It's a constant worry during the summer months!!! I use vetrazin on them which is exactly the same as reargaurd and made by the same company but it's sold for sheep and comes in massive bottles. Reargaurd is great but it's very very overpriced and the only downside is that you need to know someone who keeps sheep to be able to get hold of vetrazin! oh and it makes their fur go pink but at least you know it's on properly!!:shock:

From my own experience, I would agree with the majority here. Like many rescues we get a number of rabbits in each year with sticky bottoms, the majority of these are usually fed on excel or museli type feed. some are also over weight.

If you have 2 rabbits together the easiest option is to take out the slimmer rabbit for top up feeds and then to give a reduced amount of pelelts for the other 2 to share.

I have usually found reducing the amount of pellets to below 50g each rabbit and changing them on to either SS or Oxbow Bunny Basics has done the trick and giving lots of normal hay.

For those buns who have continued to have a sticky bottom, adding a probiotic to their water and cutting further back on their pellets can often work over a period of time. For these buns the rich grasses / hays are best avoided.

I don't know if this is relevent, but my Charm has a sticky bottom too.

Charm never grooms his bottom, and now he has no front teeth so even if he were to miraculously decide to groom there he couldn't pull the sticky poos out of his fur to eat like rabbits do. The direct result is a weekly shower. Trance him and get in the shower together. It doesn't take too long if you stay on top of the situation, but if it's not a problem with the diet, and it's not a medical problem, maybe she's just not grroming herself?

Wow, I didn't expect such a massive and helpful response - thanks so much everybody. I'll cut out the bread and give them a much smaller amount of mix - it's impossible to get pellets round here for some reason - I'll have a look on line for some. Soon I won't have to give her any veg daily as the grass will be growing. Sometimes I wonder if giving different veg every few days triggers the problem - after all wild rabbits only have grass to eat, the same all the time. I'll focus on that too. I give cabbage, cauliflower and carrots, never apple or lettuce as these trigger runny poos. I think a lot of the problem is her being too fat to clean herself, along with needing less mix. Their bowl is always empty and they go mad for the new daily supply, so I'll feel mean cutting them down Again, thanks, you've really helped me think things through. Karen xxx