Gunky poos

[susie bun]

Bertie used to do wonderful golden boulders but no more! I thought a dental last year would sort him out but it took a long time for good hay-eating to resume. He has rediscovered hay in the last couple of weeks but his poos are not much better. Most are ok but he is prone to gunky clumps of poo (not caecotrophs). He’s on metacam for arthritis. Not sure if I should give more fibreplex or profibre pellets.

 

[susie bun]

Just to emphasise, Bertie’s hay eating is much improved since the last time I posted about this issue but poos are no better.

 

[Omi]

It's great that his hay-eating has improved. Maybe it's something else he is eating that is causing the issue. What veg does he have? I find that, certainly the colour of my bunnies' poos, is directly impacted by what vegetable matter they are eating. At this time of the year they eat a lot of hay, minimal forage and hardly any fresh grass. When it comes to summertime, I don't think their hay consumption is necessarily less, but they have lots more forage and also fresh cut grass. This results in their poos being much darker in colour. I haven't seen any gunkiness though, so maybe there is something they are eating that is causing that.

 

[susie bun]

He has kale, parsley and mint most days. These have been his main green for 6 years.

 

[Omi]

Whilst he has been eating those three foods for 6 years, I would think it worth doing some experimentation. I would start with the most likely culprit, which in my view would be the kale and I would remove that from his diet for say a week and watch for any changes in his poos. You could add more mint and parsley to make up the same quantity of green food. Kale might be something that he has tolerated well in the past, but it is known to cause problems for some bunnies. Also the kale that you are sourcing at the moment might be subject to a chemical wash or might just be a different variety. The key thing would be to notice if removing it had any effect on his poos.

Hopefully, Bertie wouldn't notice the change

 

[InspectorMorse]

Metacam can cause some GI disturbance for some Rabbits when used long term. Although they are less prone to this than other species.

I agree with doing a process of elimination with his diet. Also, do you wash the veg and herbs before feeding them ? The rinsing they get pre-packaging can contain chemicals which upset gut flora.

Fibreplex and Pro-fibre pellets won’t do him any harm, but they might not do much good.