1 month on and still sticky poos!

By tomorrow Mrs Perkins will have been with us a month. And each morning I come into the room the bunnies share with cats almost dredding what I might see. I am NOT a morning person (damned clocks moving about) and this is just at the worst time of day for me.

She is now only eating hay/straw and the food from the rescue (supa excel but I am not moving her untill her tummy is settled). Shes down to 1/4 food of what she should have, Wilson has his food 'upstairs' and can get to it without her being able to get to it.

I have had a few days of one poo but mostly it looks like shes painted the floor in it. She runs about lots so oftern they are all stuck down and all over. Though she has staining on her feet/bum there is nothing to clean up on her.

Whats weird is the last few days they have still been wet when I go in in the morning (b4 10amish) and today when I put her in the top of the hutch (she cannot get down from there) there was two piles of three poos and each pile had 1 normal poo in and two wet ones (too much info! )

Is probiotics the way forward now?

(if this is any use to the info - since she has come here shes gotton harder and harder to pick up. No matter how I try she will flip herself out of my arms. I try and pick her up quickly and shes halfway down before I have gripped her properly, this is all very unsafe ;-(( but maybe showing behaviour?)

I have an order for some recovery from bunnymail which has probiotics in it, should I try this mixed with her normal food or get others from the vets?

I have checked with the recuse I got her from, they said to give her a month as some animals just need settling time. They had no problems with her previously.

I found that almost half my bunnies produced excess ceacal pellets on supa rabbit excel. Once changed to Science Selective, it cleared up.

My baby bunny Magic the same thing. He was on excel when I got him. I always found lots of squashed ceacal pellets. I have now slowly (over two weeks) changed him to Oxbow 15/23 and it has greatly improved, most days perfect now.

I would therefore suggest to change your bunny slowly to Science Selective and you might well see a difference.

Vera

Oh Dear!! - not a nice early morning start for you then Mrs! -

Sorry to hear Mrs Perkins Tum seems to be out of kiltter - you will get some great advice on hear I'm sure re how you can help but just to let you know I had similar problems with Zac a recent rescue bun who joined our merry gang!

On advice from good bunny folk on here I took him off all commercial food for a month to let his tummy clear - plus I've been using Avipro Probiotic (available from Vetark) in his water. I think Bunnies can safely live on just good quality hay providing there are no other underlying health problems and this is what I did with Zac -just made sure he had fresh top ups of lovely fresh hay to munch night and morning and now a month on sure enough his poos are lovely (ain't it sad when us bunny mums are sooooo obsessed with how good their poo is??) - nice big marble hayish coloured (also tooo much information me thinks)

I've have gradually now started to introduce just a small amount of commercial food - I too switched from Supa excel to Science Selective
and all my bunns seem much better on this. Once Zac is o.k with his commercial feed I'll start to introduce small amount of veggies - fresh herbs etc but I'm told slowly does the trick.

My bunns also have a small amount of Avipro all the time in their water - Not sure if this really helps but it seems to do no harm.

Hope this helps

Over and Out

Hi.

Any of mine that have this problem I have also moved to Science Selective. Just like magic there is no problem after that. You may have to get your local pet shop to order it for you but it is well worth giving it a try


Mogs

Sorry to clarify shes on something (dogson or something like that) + supa delux (ie the mixed stuff) hes on supa the pellets.

I did try science select, and everyone keeps going on about it. I am not going to go into it but I am not putting my rabbits on science select. I really cannot say more, sorry but I thought I should say this now.


She will seem to eat some allen and page. I was going to try the oxbow stuff. What made you go for the higher protein version of the Oxbow?

The thing I am worried about is that its very hard to tell when a rabbits losing weight, especially as she is a lop with the extra fur (dewflap and 'skirt'). I am taking her in for her jabs next week so I might get her weighed then.

HI,

When you are trying all these food changes are you doing it gradually as it takes 10days or more to change from one food to another??

Perhaps hay and water diet would be good for a while, they can live on this and see how it goes.

I've tried to find your previous post to check what happened with science selective but I can't if it's not too painful give me the out line and we might be able to see what went wrong.


Mogs

What made you go for the higher protein version of the Oxbow?

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Magic is only 10 weeks old... He will be going onto Science Selective when old enough. (Oxbow is not viable for 7 bunnies, also I found that two of mine got sticky bottom once put on it).

Just a question: why don't you like SS? If there is anything in it or about it that I should be concerned about, I would like to know as I only want the best for my bunnies.

Vera

I haven't actually started the change over at all now. I was on the first few days of the change (adding a small percentage to the food I already had) when the problems seemed to start.

I really don't remember the problem at the start of bonding, infact I am sure it wasn't. I think 3 days into bonding I started her with him on veggies on top of her food and the problems started then. But I stopped all that ages ago and went back to her original food.

I haven't had any problems with SS, someone else has. The problems they had (that I cannot go into) are enough for me to not want to deal with that company.

AmberUK said:

I haven't actually started the change over at all now. I was on the first few days of the change (adding a small percentage to the food I already had) when the problems seemed to start.

I really don't remember the problem at the start of bonding, infact I am sure it wasn't. I think 3 days into bonding I started her with him on veggies on top of her food and the problems started then. But I stopped all that ages ago and went back to her original food.

I haven't had any problems with SS, someone else has. The problems they had (that I cannot go into) are enough for me to not want to deal with that company.

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So was it a problem with the company? not the actual food? my buns are on ss i recommend it to quite a few people ive never had any problems with it and mine never have a soft poo.

Hi Amber,

OK so it's the Company and not the product which you object to.

I would keep off the veggies, which you are doing and have a chat with your vet.


Try feeding only hay if you can and see how you get on

Bye for now

Mogs

Right, how to word this so the person doesn't get into trouble......

Its the food they had problems with. Nothing either way was proved (one set of tests came out one way another other way) but while the problem was happening and the company denying it they moved 1/2 they bunnies to burgess and the problem went away. I am not talking about the sticky bum kinda problem here.

I have known about this problem for about 6 weeks, and when people have said their bunnies on it I have been stuck at if I can say anything. I had just a week beforehand gone out of my way to get hold of some of it and then decided it wasn't worth the risk. But the problem could have been down to how the food was bagged and so they might have sorted the problem out. The thing is they are sure noone else got the problem, and their tests and the councils/companyes tests all came out differently so there is no absolute answer to the situation. The fact noone else has had a problem might be something it might be nothing. But it was only breeding rabbits so most poeple probs wouldn't get it as a problem.


Erm I am waffling in a way to try and not say anythink that might get people into trouble.

Mogs is right Amber, in the circumstances, i would take her off everything except hay, and add probiotics to her water.(definately no dandelions either sorry)
After a week, and IF things settle down, add one thing at a time back to the diet..ie the dried food, and if the problem returns, eliminate the food cause permanently.
This is the elimination method, and it is the only way forward.

However, should she still have loose droppings after a week on hay only (and I mean hay only, no alpha alpha, no grass) then she needs to go to the vet, as it may be a bacterial infection.

I think you will find with a hay only diet (which adult bunnies can quite happily live on ) she will be much better..we have rabbits in the Sanctuary who cannot tolerate Dried rabbit food at all, and live on hay only ..we add vitamin drops and probiotics to their water to keep them in tip top condition.

I would guess its the dried rabbit food causing the problems, so remove that and everything else, give her time to have a clear out of her guts on the hay only diet , and then reintroduce a bit of dried food each day to see if the problem returns. It it does then you know the cause and can take preventative measures.(ie avoid dried rabbit food altogether)
Hope this helps :wink:

my buns have been on it for more than a year now with no probs what so ever so im sticking to it

bluebunny said:

my buns have been on it for more than a year now with no probs what so ever so im sticking to it

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Marie some bunnies cannot tolerate dried rabbit food, so we are just looking at Ambers rabbit specifically.

I am glad you do not have these problems with your own rabbits Marie , the diet issue can be difficult to resolve in some rabbits :?

Seems funny how it just happened ie she was on that food before hand.

Should I go and get some vitamin solution now as I would want to start the all hay tonite? YOu can tell she knows its coming shes thrown her food bowl everwhere ;-(

I would not worry about rushing out and buying the vitamin drops immediately, as there should be enough nutrients in good quality hay.
I would try the first week of hay only and probiotics in water, and if things improve then add vitamin drops later.
This way you will avoid confusing what is causing the problem.

It is odd that these problems should arise when the dried food was tolerated before, but it can happen that bunnies suddenly have problems with a food they have always had.
We cannot be sure what is going on till you have tried the elimination diet.
It may be something else like dandelions that is making her have runny droopings, but you can only take it one step at the time.

After a week, you will see how things stand and be better placed as to decide what to do next.
try this approach first, and then have a chat to your Vet if things remain the same on the hay only diet...there are other possibilities for gastric upset including 1) bacterial infection or 2) worms
But see how she goes on hay to start with before considering other possibilities.

Good luck, and please keep us posted

Adele said:

bluebunny said:

my buns have been on it for more than a year now with no probs what so ever so im sticking to it

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Marie some bunnies cannot tolerate dried rabbit food, so we are just looking at Ambers rabbit specifically.

I am glad you do not have these problems with your own rabbits Marie , the diet issue can be difficult to resolve in some rabbits :?

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Adele i wasnt refuring to ambers bunny,i was talking about the fact she said someone had expressed a problem with the ss food,i was just saying there had been no probs with mine.

Sorry to butt in, but I'm having the same problem with Evo at the mo...... and I'm actually wondering whether its the Oxbow food that I'm giving Evo. I decided to switch to it when Evo started having his tummy problems, because of the higher fibre content than Excel, but only since then has he produced the excess sticky poos.
Can anyone recommend any other food that I could try Evo on - he was fine on Excel, and likes the Oxbow bunny basics, but won't touch either Science Selective or the Excel lite.

Can anyone recommend any other food that I could try Evo on - he was fine on Excel, and likes the Oxbow bunny basics, but won't touch either Science Selective or the Excel lite.

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How about pellet free diet altogether?

Vera

LurcherGirl said:

Can anyone recommend any other food that I could try Evo on - he was fine on Excel, and likes the Oxbow bunny basics, but won't touch either Science Selective or the Excel lite.

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How about pellet free diet altogether?

Vera

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Yes we advocate a pellet free diet for adult bunnies too Vera, they really do not need it, and in many cases it causes more problems than it is worth.
I do not understand why people feel it is an essential part of the rabbits diet, I just wish folk could see how well our rabbits are here, and they do not have pelleted food at all.