newbabybuns
Warren Veteran
Apologies in advance, as this background post will be long! Lola is 4 years old and has started to have a problem with misformed ceacatrophs.
She would have them in the past when she had any pet shop stick type treat, so we totally cut those out, then she would have a daily fenugreek and then started having misformed ceacs so we stopped those, and then it seemed to be when she had carrot. (She would only ever have a small chunk or a few peelings, and not very often) so we cut that out out aswell thinking she couldn't tolerate the sugars very well now for some reason (this used to be a bunny who could eat a small amount of apple, or carrot or greens with no issues at all in the past) She has had a couple of episodes where her tummy has felt empty and needs to be prompted into running around to make it feel normal again - gas related?? so we cut out greens incase they were the cause and she hadn't been given apple for a couple of years now.
I feel I have got her on quite a basic diet now to minimise any problems.
Her diet now is:
Morning: Timothy hay (we use Timothyhay.co.uk 2013 batch)
Late morning/lunch: quite small amount of Supreme science pellets (she has been on these for years)
Early evening: Would have been more Timothy but is now meadow hay (Bob Martin)
Late night: another small amount of supreme science pellets, another batch of Timothy hay to keep them going through the night.
Occasional kale (this has been stopped while her tummy has been off)
Sometimes I swap the hay type around, but each time they get different to the last one that day. So sometimes 2 x Meadow, 1 x Timothy. When they are cleaned out they have both put back in together.
She is a great hay eater, which has not changed, and the past few weeks I have given them some Bob Martin meadow hay for a bit of variety alongside her normal Timothy hay. But her misformed ceacs have now started. When I say misformed they are lumps of mush, not even like the bunch of grapes type I have seen in previous bunnies. Although sometimes they are more formed than the mush.
Her regular bumbles are ok, and I have even seen her eat some ceacs this morning after finding more mush ones left overnight. So I am guessing there is an imbalance in her - I think this is correct - caecum and she would benefit from Probiotics.
But is there anything else that may cause this or in her diet? Is the hay too rich? The only difference is giving her the meadow hay again, but I would have thought that is fairly harmless? Maybe when it first started out of nowhere with her having none of what I would class as her normal triggers she had Timothy hay with the added dandelion/chamomile, but she has not had any for a few weeks now.
She is not craving paper and cardboard, like they sometimes do when they know something is off. She is otherwise acting normal.
Can the vet inject the probiotics rather than give it in the water? These girls are so sensitive to changes and I don't want to put it in her regular water bowl as she will just ignore it. She just one day decided she would not use her water bottle which we never got to the bottom of, so I don't want to put her off her bowl. Vet trips in themselves usually end with her leaving ceacatrophs as she is stressed.
I have noticed she has a lump of it stuck around her butt (hazard of being a lionhead) so will have to stress her trying to get that off her later. She hates being picked up so that is not going to be easy. Claw cutting a couple of weekends ago was a job to catch her and is a two person job.
Thank you in advance anyone who has managed to get through this post!
She would have them in the past when she had any pet shop stick type treat, so we totally cut those out, then she would have a daily fenugreek and then started having misformed ceacs so we stopped those, and then it seemed to be when she had carrot. (She would only ever have a small chunk or a few peelings, and not very often) so we cut that out out aswell thinking she couldn't tolerate the sugars very well now for some reason (this used to be a bunny who could eat a small amount of apple, or carrot or greens with no issues at all in the past) She has had a couple of episodes where her tummy has felt empty and needs to be prompted into running around to make it feel normal again - gas related?? so we cut out greens incase they were the cause and she hadn't been given apple for a couple of years now.
I feel I have got her on quite a basic diet now to minimise any problems.
Her diet now is:
Morning: Timothy hay (we use Timothyhay.co.uk 2013 batch)
Late morning/lunch: quite small amount of Supreme science pellets (she has been on these for years)
Early evening: Would have been more Timothy but is now meadow hay (Bob Martin)
Late night: another small amount of supreme science pellets, another batch of Timothy hay to keep them going through the night.
Occasional kale (this has been stopped while her tummy has been off)
Sometimes I swap the hay type around, but each time they get different to the last one that day. So sometimes 2 x Meadow, 1 x Timothy. When they are cleaned out they have both put back in together.
She is a great hay eater, which has not changed, and the past few weeks I have given them some Bob Martin meadow hay for a bit of variety alongside her normal Timothy hay. But her misformed ceacs have now started. When I say misformed they are lumps of mush, not even like the bunch of grapes type I have seen in previous bunnies. Although sometimes they are more formed than the mush.
Her regular bumbles are ok, and I have even seen her eat some ceacs this morning after finding more mush ones left overnight. So I am guessing there is an imbalance in her - I think this is correct - caecum and she would benefit from Probiotics.
But is there anything else that may cause this or in her diet? Is the hay too rich? The only difference is giving her the meadow hay again, but I would have thought that is fairly harmless? Maybe when it first started out of nowhere with her having none of what I would class as her normal triggers she had Timothy hay with the added dandelion/chamomile, but she has not had any for a few weeks now.
She is not craving paper and cardboard, like they sometimes do when they know something is off. She is otherwise acting normal.
Can the vet inject the probiotics rather than give it in the water? These girls are so sensitive to changes and I don't want to put it in her regular water bowl as she will just ignore it. She just one day decided she would not use her water bottle which we never got to the bottom of, so I don't want to put her off her bowl. Vet trips in themselves usually end with her leaving ceacatrophs as she is stressed.
I have noticed she has a lump of it stuck around her butt (hazard of being a lionhead) so will have to stress her trying to get that off her later. She hates being picked up so that is not going to be easy. Claw cutting a couple of weekends ago was a job to catch her and is a two person job.
Thank you in advance anyone who has managed to get through this post!
I haven't noticed any weightloss visually although she is so fluffy it could be masking it, she feels the same when stroking her, but the vet will have a record we can check by next week. 
