Fur matting problems, HELP!

I have a 2 year old "Netherland Dwarf Rabbit" and he's been having problems with soft stool matting around his bottom and sticking to his testicles :roll: And its hard as a rock! And we cant cut all of it because we dont want to cut his skin or his little area.. :roll:

My mom wants to soak his little bottom in warm soapy water, and scrub all the poo off. But if its possible to do that what is a good soap to use, "Dawn"? Im open to ANY help! lol We mostly got it all off this time but there still some nasty's there.. :roll: And it keep happening! And it dont smell to pretty either

But I think the reason hes having some kind of diarrhea is his diet, so were gonna change his food gradually to a rabbit pellet/mix. And also hes not getting out of the cage much, so I just bought them a big 'o' play pen.


But any idea's on how to get the matted poo off his bum? Thanks alot guys! :roll:

Do not use soap when cleaning your rabbit's bottom. It will most likely cause irritation.
You can soak it in water though or use a damp cloth. Sometimes the only way to solve this problem though is a trip to the vets. The vet can clean up your bun's bottom and figure out the poo problem! It might be his diet, but making sure never hurts!

xxx

We used to have this problem with Squidgy - he'a a nethie too. It's a dirty job, but needs doing! We used to soak his bottom in warm water, and then massage the lumps until they break up. Yuck!
We've changed his diet now. He has 50g pellets divided up through the day (most go into a treat ball), a small portion of greens in the morning, and a handful of other veg at night plus umlimited hay. We've swapped him over very slowly onto this diet and he's thriving on it.

My thoughts also would be to soak his bottom in warm water and with gloves on break up the matted mess. Is your rabbit overweight and unable to keep himself clean? What sort of food (pellet / mix) is your rabbit on and how much do you feed? You would probably be better to change your rabbit over to a pelleted food and reduce the amount that they are having, so that the majority of their diet is hay.

yeah, hes a tad overweight :roll: He looks like he can lick his tummy okay, but Im not sure. Hes currently on "Kaytee Fiesta for Rabbits" His brother is smaller than him but hes still has somewhat of a tiny tummy. But their dad was alot smaller than their mamma ( their mamma was about 3-4lbs about his weight now)

But we feed in a small ceramic bowl full once a day, (maybe 1/4 -1/3 cup?) And unlimited timothy hay. But he LOVES dry white bread, but we noticed that, that gives the runs too so we give no more than a bunny mouthfull a day.

So we dont understand why hes got such weird stuff goin on with him, his brothers at okay weight ( 2-3lbs) and can eat alot of bread or a yogert drop but not both treats a day (once a day of course! :angel: ) And we've tryed introducing them to some vegtables/fruits, but of course they only like fruits so their a once a month treat (whenever we have a good fruit like apples, strawberriers etc.)

Thanks again for the help guys!

Jacob has had a mucky bum in the past, too porky to wash properly is the stark fact.

I got him onto scisnce selective which I must say is working very well, greenstuff and hay.

Regarding cleaning, I got a little bottle of cleaner from the vets, it's what they use. I put a little bit in warm water and to be honest I usually just flannel wash him. The vet said to wash him, dunking him in, every day. I thought this was excessive, his delicate balance of oils would be lost, he could get sore and frankly he takes virtually 24 hours to dry. NEVER try and take the hard bits off as you pull the skin and bunny skin can tear, that;s why washing is so much better. They do wriggle though so keep hold as they are liable to twist their backs which can be lethal. The more hands the better though my two are all I have!

I have used the hairdryer before but it's noisy and scares the hell out of me as I so worry he is burning and scared. It was all too much.

The change in diet has made a huge difference, I flannel and also carefully trim bits away, this takes out the long hair that the dirt clings too so helps longterm too. You do have to be VERY careful, I put my fingers between Jacob and the scissors or you could ask the vet to trim it away. If bun is in a warm place he doesn't need all the long hair anyway and helps keep clean until diet changes do the rest.

If no hairdryer is used I dry and dry again, using microfibre towels as they claim to take more water out, and then make sure we're extra warm. As I don't usually have the heating on at night that means a morning bum treatment! Keep checking as water still remains and gets very cold so keep drying. With a bath they have got very wet, flannel less but see how you get on.

If you do use a cleaner rinse well, and then again and remember buns will smell like a vets!

I think that part of your problem is that your rabbit is overweight and will be less able to keep himself clean, I would cut out all bread and yoghurt drops as these are fattening and cut out all fruits keeping him to green leaves / hay / small amount of dried foods until he has lost weight.

Does he live by himself or with the other rabbits? I don't know what foods you have available where you are, have a look at the labels on foods and find a pelleted food which is high in fibre such as 22 - 26% and slowly wean yours over to that and reducsing the amount you give them. You could try putting some of their pellets into a treat ball so he has to work for his food. This page has a list of the foods we have in the UK and their fibre content, you may be able to compare this to what is available locally.

I am not sure about how much exercise your buns get, if you could increase the amount of time they have out, this may also help him loose some weight.

You need to get this problem sorted out ASAP before the weather improves and flies become a problem for him. I would hate to think of him getting fly strike.

Administering some probiotic may also help, it certainly won't do any harm.

Thanks for all you awesome help guys! Yeah, I bought him some " Kaytee Timothy Complete for Rabbits" Lastnight :lol: :lol: It should be here in a couple days, I guess we think the same :lol:

So I'll start him on that, cut the treats, let him out to exercise more, and wash off his lil tushy! lol Thanks again for the help guys!

Do let us know how he is getting along.

We cut our buns out when it's dried, we also shave their bun using hair clippers, our vets did it but it got to the stage where we were going every two weeks so we thought we'd do it ourselfs.

What about Johnson baby oil? In the rabbit handbook I read, if a certain part of a rabbit is dirty, you can rub baby oil and clean w/ dry paper towel.