Excessive soft poo ....U/D I *think* it's sorted!! (post 21)

Artie has a problem with too much soft poo. It does improve with less greens but still has days where he leaves little/not so little piles or has a sticky bottom.

I've tried not giving him any greens for a few days and then trying gradaully more and he does fine for a couple of weeks then has a bad day again (not necessarily having a different diet that day either). I feel so cruel not giving him any greens as it's the highlight of his day

Is it just that his diet needs controlling, or could there be an underlying health problem I need to be aware of? He seems absolutely fine in all other respects.

My other dilemma is that I plan to bond him with Esme and she eats her greens very slowly over the course of a few hours, so the chances are he'd eat her share too, given half a chance :roll:

Any advice appreciated.

:wave: What exactly is his diet? How much hay/grass does he eat? What dried food does he eat and how much? What veg is he given, how much and how often? Has he been on antibiotics recently?

The answers to these will give us a better idea of what might be causing it. Other factors can include dental, spinal or weight problems, all of which can prevent the bun from being able to bend round and eat the caecatrophs directly from the anus. But as it's been coming and going it seems more likely to be diet related so would be interesting to see what else he is eating

He gets Excel pellets, a few morning and evening. I've tried him on Science Selective but he didn't like them much and it didn't seem to make any difference - so put him back on Excel, I think he gets about 20g of Excel x2 a day but will find scales to confirm. His greens are mainly spring greens which he gets early morning, some midday and late evening. I've cut down by about half the amount he used to get so he probably gets half a medium-small leaf each time. About a 1/4 of the time his greens are curly kale, interestingly he had kale last night and left loads of soft poo this morning - I've not noticed a link before but will monitor if kale could be worse. He does get grass/dandelions in the summer for some meals instead of spring greens. I did try cutting right back on the pellets as well but that didn't seem to make a lot of difference, but I'm too worried about not giving him enough food if I cut something out.

He's always been a good hay eater but I don't think he's eating as much as he did in the past. He's had his teeth checked and vet is convinced his teeth are okay (has a small spur but vet doesn't believe it to be a problem). When I've seen him eating hay he doesn't look as if he has any problems with eating it.

Vets have also told me he's not overweight. He appears very agile (jumps onto/off shelf quite easily, races around) so if it's a spine problem it's not obviously bad. He's just over 4 years old.

I would try and cut down the fresh food and try different types of hay..... Honey had alot of soft poo when i first got her and i cut her pellets right down and only gave her fresh food once a day every 2-3 days and i found this really helps.... Ano u might feel like ure under feeding bcoz i did but aslong as they eat lots of hay it should be fine ??

Your bun's diet should be 90% hay. Is that what he's having?

He has unlimited hay. As I don't measure how much he has it's very difficult to say how much he has in relation to other food.

I've tried different types of hay and he's now getting the one he eats most of, munching away as I type, he does eat a fair bit of hay though.

I give him fresh hay daily.

I'm just more scared of cutting the other food down too much as there can't be much nutrition in hay.

If he is a healthy adult with no problems maintaining his bodyweight he really shouldn't need two pelleted feeds a day. Have you tried cutting out all pellets and putting him on a hay & veg diet with a probiotic supplement? A course of Fiberplex may help to clear up the problem initially too.

I've also heard that a select few rabbits can find pellets too rich and actually do better on less nutritional mixes.

Are his soft poops actually ceacals or are they soft, unformed 'squidgy' looking things?

Have you read about megacolon before: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/search.php?searchid=1902937 ?

Sooz said:

If he is a healthy adult with no problems maintaining his bodyweight he really shouldn't need two pelleted feeds a day. Have you tried cutting out all pellets and putting him on a hay & veg diet with a probiotic supplement? A course of Fiberplex may help to clear up the problem initially too.

I've also heard that a select few rabbits can find pellets too rich and actually do better on less nutritional mixes.

Are his soft poops actually ceacals or are they soft, unformed 'squidgy' looking things?

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I'll try cutting the pellets down vastly/altogether. Though I've kept reading about probiotic I don't actually know what it is/does/where to get it I'll look into Fiberplex also.

I have to confess all my rabbits were on a Burgess mix until I lost two earlier this year and Artie was then transferred on to Excel. He did have a bit of a problem with caecals previously but not as bad as in the past few months.

Mostly the soft poops are ceacals but this mornings and a few times they have been a horrible squidgy mass. (He's not unwell in himself though)

I have read some of the info on megacolon and not sure but I think I will take him to Frances Harcourt Brown in the new year for her to give her verdict as his round poops are smaller than my other bunnies and he's the biggest bunny :?

i would honestly try completely vutting out veg and see how he goes!! this is what really helped honey hence the reason she only gets a wee bit every few days one bowl of pellets and loadsa hay!!

Our Misty when we got her was fine with both types of poo, then the pleb of a vet told us to give her the excell pellets (for adult rabbits,Misty is only 19wks), her toilet habits changed, and we got the squidgy mess as well. So we put her back on the mix feed now with loadsa hay and she seems to be returning to normal.

Im reluctant to cut out pellets. All mine have two pelleted feeds a day, fresh greens and un,imited hay. I found when i cut down the pellets i had 3 cases of GI stasis in two weeks. Now their back to their normal feeds, they've been much better (touches lots and lots of wood)

BwfcAngel said:

Im reluctant to cut out pellets. All mine have two pelleted feeds a day, fresh greens and un,imited hay. I found when i cut down the pellets i had 3 cases of GI stasis in two weeks. Now their back to their normal feeds, they've been much better (touches lots and lots of wood)

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It's so flipping complex, isn't it?

I did cut pellets right down to try and sort it out and there was one day I *thought* he had the beginnings of stasis but later I thought I had been over-anxious but maybe it was? All the vet could find was a small spur, temp, gut sounds etc were okay.

I think perhaps I'll find another high fibre pellet, or maybe try Science Selective again.

Maybe it actually is dental and the only think wrong is he isn't eating as much hay as he should :?

I shall try the pellets solution and the fibreplex Sooz suggested and get the opinion of an expert vet and go from there. I've read quite a bit today about Excel causing smelly pooh as well, and he does have his 'fragrant' days, bless

Bunny Buddy said:

I'm just more scared of cutting the other food down too much as there can't be much nutrition in hay.

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if you read Dr. Hancourt-Brown's book, somewhere in there, she tells you their main diet is hay only. Rabbits needs the fiber in the hay to their sys., and to trim down their teeth.

Dr. Susan Brown, 1 of the contributer in this book called "the 5 min. vet consult: ferrets and rabbits", states that their diet should be 90% hay

Happy Hopping said:

if you read Dr. Hancourt-Brown's book, somewhere in there, she tells you their main diet is hay only. Rabbits needs the fiber in the hay to their sys., and to trim down their teeth.

Dr. Susan Brown, 1 of the contributer in this book called "the 5 min. vet consult: ferrets and rabbits", states that their diet should be 90% hay

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Yes, I know it needs to be 90% hay but he needs other food beside hay, what if I don't give him the other 10% he should get by cutting it down too much? I need to know I'm not cutting down on anything vital before I mess about too much. I'm actually taking him to see Ms Harcourt-Brown in the new year, so I'm sure she will give good advice. She's hopefully be able to tell me if she thinks it down to weight\spine etc before I assume it's just a diet thing.

For example if he does have a dental problem and I cut his other food to make him eat more hay and he can't eat hay then the poor little man will get really sick

He had no pellets but had kale last night and no sticky mess this morning, so hopeful at the moment ....

Obi our house bun has this problem too, however it used to be much worse than it is now. Before we would have loads of soft poops while he was on excel. We didn't want to cut out is pellets as he is a gummy bun to can't forage like the other so we tried excel light instead. (We would of tried SS, but no where stocks it around here).

On the light feed his soft poops dramatically reduced so it was well worth changing over, plus the light feed has a higher fibre content which is always good. We do have to slightly limit his veg but we always give him a little, sometimes more. In my mind he enjoys it so much that i don't mind the odd soft poop. It doesn't bother him either. We tried the fibreplex but really it didn't help. I've asked my rabbit savvy vet and he has his teeth checked on numerous occasions. We think it's just the way he is.

Don't get me wrong we don't encourage it, every time we find a soft poop stuck to the floor we reduce his veg intake and it improves, like you he can go for days with nothing and then the odd one will pop up. We have found though that celery doesn't seem to effect his tum, where as kale does on occasion!

If i were you i'd change over to the light excel feed, it shouldn't taste much different to the normal excel and see what happens. Try not to worry too much, i can see your doing your best.

Gem in pembrokeshire said:

If i were you i'd change over to the light excel feed, it shouldn't taste much different to the normal excel and see what happens. Try not to worry too much, i can see your doing your best.

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Thanks for all that Gem, it is reassuring. I did try him for a short while on Excel light as I got it into my head he was a bit tubby, though he only ever got as far as 50/50 with other pellets as he'd seen vet by then and I was told his weight was okay. As I remember it he didn't mind the light version but Esme barely ate any.. she ate the normal pellets and left the light ones :roll: I could try that straight away as I still have 2/3 of a bag left, I didn't realise it was higher fibre, and i can get it locally too. Esme might just have to get used to it if it helps Artie!!

I spoke too soon saying there wasn't any horrid poo this morning .. it was stuck to him

Misty's splodgy poo reduced quite a bit when we reduced the excell pellets and we gave her loadsa hay. Last nite we gave her a bit of parsley and when we got her up this morning there was the lump (always in the same spot) of squidgy looking caeco's again, for the past 3 days she has also got literally one layer of rabbit mix which she always eats in her bowl, we put in maybe 4/5 pellets with this.

Has he been dewormed? That was my problem with my bunny and his squidgy poo when I first got him, & I had him 6 months before I finally learned about the panacur on here and treated him. After I panacured him he never had a problem again and it's been about 9 months now.

cassiebun said:

Has he been dewormed? That was my problem with my bunny and his squidgy poo when I first got him, & I had him 6 months before I finally learned about the panacur on here and treated him. After I panacured him he never had a problem again and it's been about 9 months now.

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He was last panacured about 6 months ago, he is due to be done again.

Thanks for that info, I'll start a course of panacur as soon as I can get some.