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  • 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.

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    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.

Snowball having strange mucousy diarrhea...

This problem has been going for I don't even know how long... deffinately more than a month.. When we purchased snowball (along with another 5 bunnies) they were all between 3 weeks old and a month. She was the smallest of all of them. When we brought her home she seemed healthy and normal but then things charnged... After a while we noticed her bottom was always soiled with feces. She lived in an outdoor enclosure with her fellow bunnies and they are free to roam in a fenced off area. For a while we just didn't have the time to take care of her messy bottom problem but a couple of weeks ago I was determined to fix her. I put her in a cage and brought her inside, washed her messy bottom (no sign of fly strike) and did a whole lotta research regarding bunny diarrhea issues. At first I thought maybe she was eating too many alfalfa pellets and maybe too many fresh dandelions (I don't understand how this can be bad but oh well...) and she just needed to get her digestive tracts back on track and she could go back outside but I was wrong... Since I had her inside the cage and could carefully monitor her I noticed that not only did she have diarrhea but it was also coated in a clear jelly/mucous and sometimes she would only poop that... I have been feeding her oats, timothy hay and sometimes a little carrot and apple. I have been giving her a salt sugar water solution. Her fecal texture has improved now they are looking more like normal rabbit droppings but occasionally she does soft ones and again... The ammount of mucous she has been making has decreased but I still see some a few times a day.
From my research the closest thing I can find to what she has is mucoid enteritis. She is only skin and bones now and has a big belly. What I read about mucoid enteritis is that they die very soon and she has been like this for a LONG time. I know if she keeps going and does not get better soon she probably will die. Today I went to the pet store and purchased benebac and dritail and have begun treating her with this today...
What do you guys think? Does it sound like mucoid enteritis? Anyone else have any experiences like this and did your bunny survive? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

(also she has lost all her fur around her genital area and her tail, I guess thats due to that area being soiled with feces constantly, do you think it will grow back?)
 
Baby Rabbits should still be with there mother at 3-4 weeks of age. They are not usually weaned until 8 weeks, 6 at the very earliest.

You need to consult a Vet to obtain a full examination of the Rabbit. No-one can accurately diagnose the problem over the internet.

'Not having time to sort out the messy bottom' is really not acceptable. I am not going to apologise if this reads as harsh. When taking on any Pet we commit to a responsibility for their welfare.

A soiled Rabbit is at high risk of Flystrike. Flies lay eggs on the soiled areas, the eggs hatch and maggots emerge. The maggots procede to eat the Rabbit, killing him/her in a few hours.

Baby Rabbits are at great risk of gut problems, those weaned too soon are at much greater risk.

Serious, contagious and more often than not fatal protozoal infections (eg Coccidiosis) are very likely factors to consider. This can cause severe enteritis and death. It can be a long protracted illness too and all you describe fits with that. It causes extreme suffering.

The only thing we can advise you to do is to consult a Vet. There is no alternative.
 
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