How stressful.

This sounds really similar to an experience I had with a foster bun, who had what the vet deemed “cecal dysbiosis”. Which is really more of a description of a condition than an illness in itself. It basically describes an imbalance in the cecal microbial community, and a failing of the cecum to function properly. This bun had weird shaped poos, huge egg shaped ones, mushy ones (big splats of soft stools), bouts of extreme gas, and it was just so so stressful.

With this bun, he seemed to do the best on ciscipride, and without it he would slip into stasis. Pain meds helped him, but it was really hard.

When I was going through that experience, I tried probiotics (bene-bac), as well as vet-prescribed “poop shakes” from a healthy bunny (I would grind up healthy cecals and fresh poops into his critical care). I’m not sure if either of them helped.

I basically had to focus on keeping him fed and hydrated (as the soft poops were definitely dehydrating), and pushing fiber.

Has the vet done an x-ray of his cecum? That would be my next step in your case. In my bun, the cecum was super distended. In his case, the vet suspected a genetic cause, associated with his coloration, but that bun was only about 3 years old. In your bun’s case, I doubt a genetic cause would onset so late in life, so I would keep hope that his balance could be restored.

I’m sorry Bernard is having these troubles. Like Dana says, this could be cecal dysbiosis. True diarrhea in a rabbit is differentiated from cecal dysbiosis by whether there are any “normal” poop as well as runny, mucosy or gel-like stools. If there are no normal, formed poops, it’s a veterinary emergency.

The cause of cecal dysbiosis is not always clear, but molting and age can of course be factors in Bernard’s case. It’s highly unlikely that you have caused this in any way.

I do think increasing CC could be beneficial, because it does have more fiber than greens. Fiber is very important for buns with cecal dysbiosis, because fiber is food for the type of beneficial microorganisms that the gut is dependent on. You could increase the CC over a couple of days and see how he responds. Keep giving the meds the vet gave you when you think he needs them. They’re all good meds for rabbits, the emeprid and ranitidine make the intestines move, and and ranitidine also protects the stomach lining from the Metacam which can be a little bit hard on the tummy. The Metacam is needed to keep Bernard’s pain level as low as possible, because pain causes buns to lose their appetite.

Here is a good article about intermittent soft cecotropes in rabbits: http://rabbit.org/intermittent-soft-cecotropes-in-rabbits/

If this doesn’t get markedly better in around a week, it should be investigated further. We’d be happy for updates.

How stressfull
Hope he gets better soon

I had the care of a rabbit with similar problems and they mostly went away when i cut the greens down, only once a day and no more than 2 times size of head and no brassicas if you have lemon balm, feed as an apestif and digestif. Give the medication the vet gave you when he needs it brush twice daily and try half a tube of vitiman E every other day. Semi dryyour own grass and feed friequent fresh grass along with hay. Cut pellets to eightth cup once a day and feed half a pinepple skin or peice of papaya, half before and half after pellets. Give plenty of water, and two capfuls of coconut water daily if available

I’m glad to hear you’re already seeing some improvement. Please update as often as you like!

{{{Bernard}}}
I’d love to hear updates also. Hoping you can get him right.

Is he showing signs of pain after the emperid at all?
Are you hearing more gurgly, gut sounds?

The protexin pro-fibre pellets might be worth a try, or introducing to him once he’s through this, if you are reluctant to do so now.
http://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/pro-fibre-for-rabbits.html

I do wonder how much hormones come into play when a rabbit goes into a big moult. And whether it disrupts some of the normal gut function. Particularly the timing mechanism for the hard & soft stool phase.

We also see they can act “out of sorts” before or during a moult. And some will seek out inappropriate fibre more, like paper products. That becomes problematic as the smaller fibre particles can lead to some cecal impaction.

Im finding this interesting as my 8 yr old male bun is going through big moult and also had some gut issues. Not the same as Bernard’s case, but as I said, it makes me wonder about what is happening when they moult.

Luckily he is producing solid/ normal poop aswell as this liquid which has stopped now the evening has gone on and gone into more well formed poops which are quite wet and large!

Is that some of the fecal poos looking wet & large? Or larger, single cecatrophes?

I have used the probiotic pellets Jersey referred to. I had a bun with a difficult gut (frequent poopy butt aka ISC). He had the protexin pellets and another probiotic by the same company. I still have almost a jar full of the pellets and give them to the bun I have now as treats. They seem very yummy and since they can be given to healthy buns as a general digestive support, they wont harm him.

The fact that it’s his fecal poops that are malformed and wet indicates that there’s something else going on besides cecal dysbiosis. The gut has its own complex nervous system. Like Jersey, I have been wondering about how hormones aka signal-substances are affected by molting, since gut troubles are so common with molting buns.

Running about is very good. Nightly munching is a very comforting sound for a bun owner!

Glad to to hear the updates, and it does sound like there’s been an improvement.

The way my vet explained it to me with my dysbiosis bun (Pippen), was that his cecum was failing to properly sort the digestible nutritious stuff that is usually formed into cecals out of the bulk fiber (that makes up the regular fecal pellets). So what you end up with is a big pill of wet irregular poops (he never had normal uniform fecals). When I would break open a fecal from Pippen, it was all made up of very fine and wet mush, rather than chewed up hay. Granted, he wasn’t eating much hay, but even when he was, his poops looked like a weird cross between a cecotrope and a regular fecal.

In Pippen’s case, this seemed to be in line with cow pile syndrome, or megacolon (the genetic condition).

All of this is really on the cutting edge of rabbit medicine, so there isn’t much known about it.

I agree with what bam and jersey have said, about pushing fiber and CC, and continuing the meds. Encouraging movement can also help stimulate the muscles of the gut, so running around is great. You can also try massaging along the spine to stimulate the gut muscles.

That’s good new! Hopefully he is now turning the corner toward good health.

Glad to hear he’s improving! Keep up the good work!

Yay! Great to hear about the improvements!

And “long” posts are not a problem!! It is nerve-wrecking to have a poorly bun, and posts with a lot of info in them do help other bun owners.

Posted By Bernard on 1/14/2019 4:57 PM

Hi Easter, until Bernard has finished the moult and back to eating hay and his pellets I would feel uncomfortable cutting the greens back to once a day and only a small amount as I’m mostly trying to keep him eating for himself with only as little critical care input as he needs, I tried yesterday to give him only 2 lots of greens and today has been his worst for pain and wet poop and I feel like not having is late night feed might have affected him as he wouldn’t have eaten through the night . Once he is back to his normal self his greens will be only once a day! As of tomorrow I will be doing CC in the morning and evening to try and boost fibre intake. Thanks for your advice I’ve never heard of giving vitamin E so will look into this!

I’m so sorry  it sounded just like cinnamon’s illness but it seems not. I hope he is okay I feel so bad!!