Pooey bum

One of my bunnies has started to get matted fur around her bum over the last few weeks. I noticed she was looking a bit scruffy around the back end, but she quite often gets mucky running around the garden and cleans herself up fine, so didn't think much of it. Also the other rabbit has started to loose her winter coat, so I thought this was probably happening to Suzi too. When I went out today, I noticed she was a bit pongy, so investigated further and I have spent this morning cleaning her up and cutting out clumps of fur. I feel really bad that I hadn't realised it had got so bad. She doesn't mind being stroked, but is a bunny who doesn't appreciate being picked up and cuddled, so it was hard to spot (obviously I will now be making a point of checking regularly).

All the poos in her hutch are normal and out in the run she sometimes leaves the odd little bunch of grape poo, but this is pretty infrequent. However, I am worried that this was all caking around her bum, so I hadn't noticed a problem developing. I have now put her onto hay for today and will give her a few pellets tomorrow, but am planning to lay off the veg for a few days to see if this helps. I am now petrified this will happen again and leave her vulnerable to fly-strike (and also terrified to think that if she had got fly-strike, I wouldn't have noticed). Also she doesn't seem to have a problem cleaning herself or moving (she is happy to sprint around the garden and jump up on top of the hutches), however after I'd washed her, she straight away started to clean her feet and legs, but didn't show any interest in her bum area.

Other than keeping a very close eye on this from now on, is there anything else I should be looking out for or doing or anything else that might have caused this?

is she a litle fatty like our bif i wonder?
And bif also gets majorly stressed so lots of soft poos especially after shes consumed her veggies and stolen half of berties pile!
I know shes hell to catch too and we dont like to chase her but sometimes we just have to to check her bum..the routine we have is to clip the fur around her bum to help the matting then use some warm water and some bunny cleaner..i use diluted squeaky clean..and some clean cut ups of old towels..perfect for bathing bunny bums! one holds her the other does the dirty work..but if shes really bad a bunny bum dunk is theonly option.
even house buns need checking for flystrike..
cut down on vegies and pellets and encourage more hay but if shes like bif that wont cure it but help it a bit..wash bunnies bum with pet tea tree oil shampo and spary once dry with rear gurad..on the hutch put some insect netting so flies cant get in and hang sprigs of lavendar rosemary etc to deter flies..in the run is another matter im afraid..anyone elsegot any tips?

Pooey Bums often happen when a Bun has molar spurs (sharp spikes on their back teeth) Has she had her teeth checked by your Vet?

Too many pellets and not enough hay mean the Bun wont eat all their caecotrophs.

I would take your Bun to the Vet for a check up (teeth and any signs of arthritis making it difficult for her to reach her bum) and also look at reducing the amount of pellets she has to encourage her to eat more hay.

Janex

Ozzy had a very messy bottom when he began with his teeth problems so I think it'd be worth getting your bun checked out by a Vet

Since he's been having his teeth rasped down the problem has gone away

XxX

She's due for some jabs, so will be off to the vets for a check over. I'll get that booked in this week!

She loves her hay and eats far more than my other bunny and also eats the same amount of pellets and veg - so is possibly being over-fed. She eats loads of hay out of her litter tray, whereas the other bunny only has a nibble from the hay-rack. It's probably worth cutting down for both of them, from what I've read on all the feeding posts anyway, especially as the weather gets better and they get more time to graze in the garden!

I used some of the insect spray over the summer last year, but I guess if there is a problem I'd be best using it year round with Suzi.

Thanks for all the words of wisdom.

My bunny suffered badly with poobum when I got her. She had excess caecotrophes and she ended up in quite a mess.

She is now on a good diet and eats tons of good hay, fair amount of veggies and a tiny amount of Science Selective pellets. This has stopped her excess caecotrophes and she is much cleaner down below. The ony problem being matted poop in her fur (which the vets did cut a few out and did a quick clean up) and stained fur - she is white underneath.

I hope in time she will look cleaner and I do keep an eye on her. I did bottom baths and tried baby wipes (which I didnt think did any good). Would love to see her squeaky clean though.

I also worry about flies in the summer and will be looking for fly screen material to go over the hutch fronts, and will even consider doing the whole run to keep her safe.