Mucky Bum

Hi All

Wondering if you can help me. I have a 2 year old girlie bun who constantly seems to have a mucky bum. She doesn't eat much hay (but the rescue that I got her from said she never has) - I'm keeping her clean but want to get to the root cause of it.

Fresh food makes her worse so she's currently on P@H pellets and permanent amounts of hay.

I clean them out daily so she's not sitting in her own poop. I'm going to take her to the vets later to see if its anything dental wise but would be grateful for any suggestions.

I'm panicking as we approach Spring and Summer because of the flies

Ive read advice on here before to say cut out the pellets for a bit, and just provide a few different types of hay.

What dried food is she eating?

P@H adult nuggets - I've tried cutting down on the pellets but she still doesn't seem to eat any more hay.

I've tried all the different sorts of hay - long, short, alfalfa, meadow, P@H stuff but nothing seems to take her fancy.

She's bonded with her husbun and he's absolutely fine :roll:

I have the same problem with one of mine - he won't eat hay.

I now use Oxbow Bunny Basics T (expensive but are hay based so do improve the situation :roll: - I order mine from the vets to avoid postage charges), I am also just trying Pro-Fibre which is a pre and pro biotic made by the same people as Fibreplex. Any of these may help, however it is best to get to the root of the problem so it could be his teeth, you could also have a "sample" sent off to see if there are any parasites (my bunnies was clear).

You may also need to rearguard as it is getting warmer. Hope this helps. Oh, I also put mosquito netting around their run/cage to keep any flies out. As mine are free range a lot of the time it defeats the object really :lol::lol::lol:

Good luck.

Thank you - I rearguard anyway during Spring and Summer but I would rather get to the root cause as I've just had to wash her which REALLY stresses her out.

She absolutely stinks too, even after bathing her which is not pleasant and her vulva looks a bit sore. Can I put sudocrem on it or will she lick it off ? :?

Vets appnt at 2.20pm so will see what advice they give me - is it possible it could be the cold weather as she wasn't like this last Summer and she was fed the same diet then? - obviously unless it's teeth or some other problem

I would try changing to Science Selective pellets, they are supposed to be a bit better for buns with mucky bum.

I would give he a spray with some "Fly guard" or "Rear guard (if the vets offer it)" to help protect against flystrike.

Hi
Just come back from the vets - he said reduce her pellets and 'make' her eat her hay - naughty bun :lol:

He said she can afford to lose some weight so reducing her pellets won't be a bad thing anyway.

He checked her front teeth but didn't want to check her back ones (with any instruments) as she was terrified as it was. He palpated all along her jaw line though, took her temperature, ears,eyes, nose, bodily condition etc.

And he said she may be a bunny that's prone to runnier poos. The only thing I've fed her differently this week is the gorgeous bunny biscuits that I got from Liz. It may be that I need to feed Todd seperately to Trixie as he loves them - and he's not got a runny bun

I did explain that she doesn't even eat the grass when she's on free range :shock: and he said she probably doesn't realise she's a bunny :lol:

Does anyone else have a bonded pair where one has different dietary requirements ? I feel guilty that Todd doesn't have veggies because I'm worried about Trixie eating them although I'm hoping to get her to a point where she can have tiny amounts

Hi, if the vet is happy that she is healthy, no dental problems and can afford to lose a little weight I would cut out everything completely except Hay and Water. Regular meadow hay by the bale (farm shop/horse feed store £4 a bale) is fine - some may find Alfalfa too rich in my opinion but many people feed Timothy, Green oat or other varieties. It the other rabbit requires some pellets you can hand feed them to him (he only needs an eggcupful anyway).

I would fill the litter trays with hay, also fill hay racks, boxes and toilet roll tubes. Refresh the hay 2 or 3 times a day - they don't like it old and trodden on. As a guide rabbits should eat a pile of hay about equall to their body size (not weight) a day. I give mine a handfull each 3 times a day - they are good hay eaters so I just pop it in their hayracks and their litter trays are filled with it too - changed everyother day.

You should find that buns bum goes back to normal after a few days but it could be that if she is overweight and the problem is caused by her being unable to reach back to eat her "special poos" it could take a bit longer until she has lost enough weight to be more agile.

Once the bottom is beautiful again you can very slowly introduce a good high fibre pellet like Science Selective (I would avoid Excell as many find this produces problems) a few at a time over 2 weeks until you reach a maximum of an eggcupful - providing there are no problems you can do the same with veg - stopping and omitting any veg that produce a problem.

My bunnies had this for 2 years - I didn't realise it was abnormal at first, I thought it was just cecotrophs. I tried every single kind of dried food on the market, but it only stopped when I cut out dry food altogether. They're now on the 'hay + veg' diet, and their droppings are fine. I would definitely recommend you cut right down on pellets, and perhaps stop feeding them all together after a while? Science Selective also tends to have the best results with sensitive-tummed bunnies too. What type of hay are you using? I'm shopping for really good quality stuff at the moment, to try and tempt them to eat more. Perhaps you could experiment with different kids/brands, until you find one she yums?

OT I know, but have you considered adopting a friend for her? Bunnies love a playmate!

Hoppit! said:

OT I know, but have you considered adopting a friend for her? Bunnies love a playmate!

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She currently lives with her husbun - Todd - they are a loved up pair

Thank you for your advice - I'm going to reduce the pellets and will continue to try with different types of hay - when I collected her from the rescue, they said she wasn't fussed about hay and to keep an eye on her so I knew from the outset that she was trouble :lol:

Doghouse135 said:

She currently lives with her husbun - Todd - they are a loved up pair

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Yay! I love bonded bunnies! :thumb:

Me too -

Cute photo

I clean them out daily so she's not sitting in her own poop.

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Excuse me if I'm wrong, but this sounds like they're not litter trained...?? If so, have you thought about it? It would make cleaning much easier for you and maybe help with the fly problem too.

Also, you've obviously tried different types of hay (who knew there were so many...!!!) but just in case www.thehayexperts.com do a taster pack of five different kinds. My two used to love the Alfafa King timothy hay but currently they like Burns green oat hay.

I have a similar problem with Daphne. Annoyingly, she's off to have her front teeth removed on wednesday and she's long furred so it's an absolute nightmare! :roll::lol: Her husbun, Pharrell, is absolutely fine though.

I get worried about flies on summer too. I heard they can lay eggs on the bunny, and the eggs can hatch within six hours. So potentially she could be fine when I leave for work but have flystrike by the time I get back. :shock: Last year, I got some old net curtains from a charity shop, cut them to size and pinned them over all the wired parts of the hutch and run. Did a good job of keeping the little nasties out and put my mind at ease too. :wave:

Hay Help please

Muppet2 said:

Cute photo



Excuse me if I'm wrong, but this sounds like they're not litter trained...?? If so, have you thought about it? It would make cleaning much easier for you and maybe help with the fly problem too.

Also, you've obviously tried different types of hay (who knew there were so many...!!!) but just in case www.thehayexperts.com do a taster pack of five different kinds. My two used to love the Alfafa King timothy hay but currently they like Burns green oat hay.

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They use a litter tray but I meant that I clean that out daily

The only hay I've seen her enjoy so far is the Herby Harvest from P@H which is a lot 'rougher/stalkier' than the hay I bought previously.

I have ordered a sample pack from the Hay Experts but can anyone advise me on a stalkier type of hay please ?

Oh - meant to say, her mucky bum has cleared up since reducing the pellets. P'raps she's been eating hay when I've not been looking :roll: