Would probiotics help with mushy cecals?

FORUM

What are we about? Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules.

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 9sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 16 years ago by MimzMum.

Viewing 9 reply threads

Author

Messages
- 02/13/2010 at 7:20 PM
  MimzMum
  Participant
  8029 posts
  Even though I’ve taken pellets out of Fiver’s diet, he continues to have mushy cecals. He steps in these and smears them all over his hind feet and I have to keep cleaning them. It’s got to make him miserable.
  
  He gets a small helping of green leaf lettuce in the evenings now instead of his bowl of pellets. He eats 3rd cut timothy hay, only every once in awhile do I add a little 2nd cut or oat hay.
  
  I’ve cut down his treats by half. (Oxbow veggie cookies) He doesn’t eat naturally sugary things like carrots or apples or banana…doesn’t like them.
  
  Would probiotics help to regulate him? Or does he just need some more time to normalize? This has been going on for a few months now, off and on, and I’ve only started changing his diet in the last two weeks.
- 02/13/2010 at 11:31 PM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  Certainly wouldn’t hurt to try him on them.
  MM, is it definately cecals or mushy stool? Like, do you see formed cecals that he then treads in?
  How does he do cleaning himself up? Maybe you can take out the soiled bedding and let him sort out the feet so he’s less stressed. They do a pretty good job.
  
  I read that calendula tea (marigold) is like a prebiotic…Supposed to aid in balancing the gut. I think dandelions have this quality too. I’m trying to find more on this. I’m not certain but I think the book “Rabbit Heallth in 21st C” has a section on beneficial herbs. Do you get marigolds in the herbal hay?
- 02/14/2010 at 12:12 AM
  MimzMum
  Participant
  8029 posts
  Thanks Jerz! I have tried giving him the hay with the marigold in it, but that stuff sends my allergies through the roof. And it wound up making his mushy cecals worse for a time, so I haven’t tried it again.
  Definitely the cecals. His fecals are the normal, round, rabbit raisin type. Nothing different there.
  But instead of having a little ‘grape cluster’ of cecotrophes, it’s just mush. Flat, no definition and gooey as all get out.
  I’d leave him to clean himself, but this stuff is nasty and sticks to just about everything. It takes a good machine washing to get it out of the bedding as well.
- 02/14/2010 at 1:08 AM
  BinkyBunny
  Moderator
  8776 posts
  Mimz – is there a reason why he only gets lettuce? It’s been a long time since I’ve lived in Alaska, but are other greens not available like Parsley, cilantro, mint etc. (I apologize if I have missed past posts where this was explained)
  
  It can take a month for a bunny’s system to adjust to a new diet.
  
  Bailey had a very sensitive digestive tract – Some greens would cause poopybutt, but you can see what we did on the diet page down on “alternative” diets. Definitely a trial and error. And though yes, it still took a while for her body to fully adjust, I could see the difference by the severity of poopybutt soon after what she ate.
- 02/14/2010 at 8:27 AM
  RabbitPam
  Moderator
  11002 posts
  I may be way off here but had a question more than a suggestion: is the later cut hay a little too gentle for him? If he ate first cut, or oat hay, would the cecals be more firm?
- 02/15/2010 at 6:35 PM
  MimzMum
  Participant
  8029 posts
  BB, he gets green leaf because after trying him on things like romaine, endive, carrot tops, kale and radicchio (not all at once, mind) I find this is the only one he can handle without major messy bum. And I can only give him about a 6 inch strip of the greenest part from the top of the leaf, well-dried.
  
  Pam, I thought as you, maybe he wasn’t getting enough fiber with this stuff. I’m also going to pull the remainder of the hay out to see if maybe it’s going bad. It doesn’t smell moldy or anything to me, but this was a 45 pound box and I’m about 3/4 of the way through and the qulaity is starting to get a little brown and dusty.
- 02/15/2010 at 6:46 PM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  MM, what’s Fivers weight like? Does he have any trouble grooming himself, getting to his cecals etc? Rumbum has extra padding but he keeps himself impressively clean. So other than weight, could general mobility be a problem for Fiver?
  Could you take a fecal and cecal sample into the vets to be tested?
- 02/15/2010 at 7:06 PM
  MimzMum
  Participant
  8029 posts
  He was a little heavier before we started the 3rd cut timothy, but he’s thinning out a bit now. He can get to the cecals, but he’s so used to turning around to get them now, he tends to step in them anyway.
  The Yukon Quest finally ended today and the vet I normally take him to will be back in state before long. I’d really like her to look at him, since she’s the rabbit savvy on staff.
  They could probably send the samples out in the meantime though.
  Today I noticed he’d firmed up a bit again too. I haven’t tried the probiotics yet. He’s also eating his fecal pellets as well, which I don’t know if that means anything, but I just saw him do that today. And I can get him to eat his cecals if I hold them in front of his nose on a tissue.
- 02/15/2010 at 7:39 PM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  eating fecals…Some do it. Jersey I see sometimes, but you know much less now and I attribute that to her eating oat hay. Once I mentioned eating fecal pellets on the forums and BB asked about her hay eating habits (which at the time were really poor). From memory she seemed to notice these two things correlated. So upping his fibre with hay intake may just help with this all as Pam mentioned. Can’t force feed them the stuff though! How long has he been off pellets now? I would have thought he’d be devouring hay.
  
  Meant to ask, do you see the cecals before he steps on them? are they unformed then?
- 02/15/2010 at 7:59 PM
  MimzMum
  Participant
  8029 posts
  He does devour hay, pellets or no. Today his cecals were properly formed when I fed them to him. The last few days they were just a blobby mess.
  I’ve given him some Oxbow meadow hay to try today. It’s a bit more coarse than the 3rd cut. We’ll see if that helps.
Author

Messages

Viewing 9 reply threads

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.