Mucous instead of poo (cecals)

Hi,

Sorry my first real post is asking for help, but it has to be done.

A rabbit that I recently helped rehome is having gut problems.

On Monday she passed clear mucous instead of, presumably, cecals (because she went to eat it, but was stopped by her new, and very excellent, owner).

On Tuesday she went to a vet at a rabbit savvy practice, but didn't see the rabbit savvy vet, so was sent home with panacur and some critical care.

Today she is passing increasing amounts, but also does have (as far as I know) normal fecals too.

I know that mucous instead of poo is pretty serious, and have been researching the obvious options of cocci and mucoid enteritis and anything else that comes up, but I was just wondering if anyone had any wisdow to share, or if anyone could give me anything else to look at and think about
and research. Also, other than a fecal float test, is it worth asking for other tests like bloods?

Floppy (the rabbit) is going to see the rabbit savvy vet at that practice tomorrow, and as I am taking her, I want to go armed with as much info as possible.

Floppy is 4, spayed, and, until this, appeared healthy. Floppy's previous owner was ignorant and allowed Floppy and her partner Barney to escape (At the start of August) (she didn't follow my advice on how to make the hutch/run safe), and they got out. Barney died, probably from shock, but Floppy could have eaten something that upset her, and maybe made her more vulnerable to possible gut problems (after she escaped she plucked her belly bald, but that is now regrowing and she is doing excellently in her new home).

She seems, at the moment (again, as far as I know), to be acting normal, and eating, and doing all normal things that bunnies do.

Erm, I can't think of anything else I should have put in, but any questions, feel free to ask

Thank you in advance!

Just wanted to add, that I just got this from her owner.

i have saved some different types of her poo. she has a lot of oval shaped large solid ones, then she has roundish firm ones which are sticky and lots stuck together and have stringy moucus on them or she has ones that are just like jelly and clear with white and black sploges in. the sploges look like birds poo. none of these are her cecals as she has been eating them but she also trys to eat all these poos as well. the jelly ones she seems to do at dawn and dusk.
she is not as active today. i had her in with me this morning. she played a little then laid down for the rest of the time. she is still eating normally and drinking the same. her poo doesn't smell nasty. she done some poo yesterday that was curled up like a coil. i pulled it apart and it looked like it had straw or large pieces of hay in it.

Click to expand...

Is the Bunny a broken coloured lop ?

This question isnt as daft as it probably sounds !!

Are you thinking of mega colon or something like that?

She's a dwarf lop, but she's not broken, she's a lilac self.

Sky-O said:

Are you thinking of mega colon or something like that?

Click to expand...

Yes

Do you know when the problem started ?
Is her weight stable?
What is her diet ?
Is she drinking a lot ?

I'm going to have a stab at those answer, but given she's not my rabbit I'm
not entirely sure.

Do you know when the problem started ?
They noticed it on Monday. They are very vigilant with their animals, so I would suspect that is when it started.

Is her weight stable?
The lady that owner her before was feeding her a ghastly diet and she was really fat and her fur was awful. Since living in her new home she has been slowly slimming and her fur is getting shiny too. It has been a deliberate slimming and she is currently just hovering FINALLY around a healthy weight. When she was with her old owner she had excess cecals galore, but since being here those have settled down and now they are all being eaten.

What is her diet ?
She has minimal pellets, unlimited hay and the odd rabbit safe treat every now and then. She has been having critical care these past few days. I have asked if there is any possibility she has maybe eaten something like say chocolate off of fingers, or something like that, but I don't have an answer on that yet.

Is she drinking a lot ?
As for this, I don't know, but I aksed her owner about her behaviours, and given she didn't comment on it, I would presume the intake is normal.


and thanks for the replies and suggestions. Anything is worth a shot.

Was she having the CC because she became Anorexic aswell as passing the mucus?

Does she actually eat a lot of hay ?

Has she had a thorough Dental examination?

She's been having the CC in a effort to sort out the gut. It's not being forcefed, and she is eating it very willingly.

The dental sounds like a good idea. She said that she hadn't been eating as much hay as normal, but wasn't not eating it, if you know what I mean.

Could lack of hay irritate the gut enough to produce odd mucousy poo?

Sky-O said:

Could lack of hay irritate the gut enough to produce odd mucousy poo?

Click to expand...

If her guts are empty much of the time then mucus with the 'currant-like' poo (as opposed to in/on the caecotrophs) can occur.

Personally I'd rather give Fibreplex than CC if the Bun is not Anorexic.

An abdominal examination by the more Bunny savvy Vet may elicit more information.
As the Bun is 'well within herself' I would guess that the problem is diet related rather than an active disease process. Certainly intestinal cocidiossis giving clinical symptoms in an adult Bun is not common.

However,I am wondering about her Liver function. If she was morbidly obese then she may well have a degree of Hepatic Lipidosis (fatty liver). The Vet may be able to detect an abnormal sized Liver on abdominal examination. If the Bun is admitted for a GA/Dental a full blood profile would be helpful.

I have a Bun who had dreadful mucusy poo and all tests came back 'normal'. He also had a GA/Dental which revealed very little to cause concern. In the end the Bun (Harry) was treated as for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. He responded brilliantly to SALAZOPYRIN. He no longer requires the medication as after 3 weeks on treatment and 2 weeks 'weaning' off it he has been totally asymptomatic for several months
He did subsequently manage a compound fracture of his hind leg resulting in an amputation but thats another story.........:roll:

Thank you VERY much for your help.

I will be passing all this on.

And your bun sounds like such a case, but I'm glad he is better from this Sorry about this leg though. With some they just like the attention they get when they are not 100%.

i dont mean to put a morbid tone on the thread but i experienced this with a rabbit shortly after i purchased her, and all the vets wanted to do was pump her with drugs to keep her alive, which in turn made her very lythargic and even more ill. it seems that she had a developing gut problem that was never seen to while she was with the breeder and by the time i got her it was already pretty much too late, i only had her for 6 months before she passed away.

I'm really sorry about your bun. That sounds horrible for you to go through, although it does sound different from this case.

I can't believe I didn't update this. Sorry.

The bun went to the vet last Thursday and that was the savvy vet. He gave her a thorough examination, and we discussed the diet (this time the owner invited me in so I heard the whole thing).

Basically, at her last home she was on a completely inappropriate diet and had stopped eating hay, now she was on a better diet yet still not eating enough, so basically it comes down to diet and so they are changing it. If she is not better or worse then they have to take her back in 7-10 days to look into it further.

He said she showed no signs of being physically ill (such as coccid, enteritis, clostridium, etc), and when the owner showed me the poos it did indicate a gut struggling. There were some mucousy ones but the fecals were more like sausages and how mine get when they are moulting.

I have yet to talk to the owner again, but the fact she hasn't called me will generally be a good thing. Hopefully all is well. I'll try and update more when I next speak to her.