Bea’s excess cecotropes/mushy poops – help!

[Lindsay]

When we got Bea, the people who had been looking after her said they had been giving her small amounts of veggies. This set off alarm bells for me because I’ve always thought you shouldn’t introduce any veg until 12 weeks and she’s only 8 weeks. She seemed in good health though so I wasn’t too worried.

When we got her home though, I noticed her droppings were on the small side and getting stuck to her fur. Since she’s long haired, I want to make sure she’s clean back there as a priority, since I don’t want her to get matted or attract flies. We’ve been giving her lots of hay and limiting her pellets (Excel Junior pellets) and her normal poops are much bigger and healthier looking (I think maybe since she’s quite timid maybe she got less than her fair share of food, too, compared to her siblings).

However, yesterday, she had some excess cecotropes which got into a mess on her backside. We gave her a dry bath (cornflour) and combed all the mess out. She cleaned off the rest herself and was looking great. Just to be on the safe side, we took her to the vet to check her over. He had a look at her teeth and all over and said she looked healthy and it was probably that she had a bad diet before and it would settle down now we were giving her the right food.

She was fine for the rest of the day, and this morning, but when I checked on her just now the bottom of her cage and her litter tray had a fair few excess cecotropes, some of them pretty mushy (not liquid, just not formed like the “bunch of grapes” sort you usualy see). We just cleared her up again and I’ve put her back in the cage to clean herself and eat some hay (she’s mad on hay, so no problems there, and is drinking plenty of water).

I feel awful seeing her all messy and am worried about her getting diarrea. Is there anything else I can do apart from give her lots of hay and clean her up when she gets messy? Should I cut out pellets entirely for now or carry on just limiting them? I’d been giving her 1 or 2 tablespoons a day and unlimited timothy hay She eats easily her body size in hay every day if not more. She is otherwise fine – running around, bright eyed, eating, drinking, peeing and doing plenty of normal droppings. I just feel so sorry having to grab her and clean her up all the time.  We are going to take her to the vet again tomorrow if there’s still mushy poops in her cage. Any other ideas?

[Sarita]

It would be rare for a rabbit to actually have diarrhea. It will take awhile for her gut to get back on track – it wouldn’t hurt to cut out the pellets entirely and see how she does.

[Lindsay]

Thanks – yeah I will cut out the pellets I think until she’s doing better. Would it help to get her some of that fibre recovery paste stuff (http://hillcrestanimalhospital.co.uk/store/excel-fibrevore-recovery-paste-sp) or would it not do anything for her?

[Sarita]

No, just give her hay and veggies – whatever is a natural diet, no supplements.

[Lindsay]

OK, I’ll stick to the hay. I don’t want to give her any veggies though ’cause she’s so little and I don’t know how her tummy would react.

[Sarita]

I would gradually reintroduce pellets though.

As for veggies – the whole idea behind veggies in babies is this – you want to closely imitate what the mother was eating and normally if you get a rabbit from a breeder or pet store that does not feed their rabbits vegetables and only pellets that is what you want to feed the babies until they are older. So if you know the mother was eating vegetables it should be just fine to feed her veggies.

[Beka27]

Posted By Sarita on 05/19/2011 06:10 AM
As for veggies – the whole idea behind veggies in babies is this – you want to closely imitate what the mother was eating and normally if you get a rabbit from a breeder or pet store that does not feed their rabbits vegetables and only pellets that is what you want to feed the babies until they are older. So if you know the mother was eating vegetables it should be just fine to feed her veggies.

ABSOLUTELY!  This is what gets confusing with the whole “12 weeks or younger” thing.  Babies are going to start munching on mama’s food at about 3-4 weeks.  So if mom gets pellets, hay, AND veggies… the babies will have access to all of that from the get go.  Therefore, their system will already be adjusted to handle it when you get the bunny at 8 weeks.  

I would stick with the veggies the bunnies were already eating tho.  Don’t introduce many new things until a bit later.

[Lindsay]

Thanks guys! I can’t remember what veg they said she’d had or the mum was eating so I might call and ask. She’s plenty happy with just lots of hay at the moment anyway. Poor mite got a bit messy again and we had to give her a butt bath with plain warm water and cotton pads. She was very patient though. That was about an hour ago and at the moment she’s still clean. If she’s not messy again tomorrow I guess I might try introducing pellets a teaspoonful at a time.

Her normal poops are HUGE now so we must be doing something right. I think they’ve probably tripled in size from when we got her. Just hope the cecotropes get a bit more manageable for her soon. Monty got into the room while she was in her cage recovering from the bath and gave her a nose kiss through the bars. Cute!

[Sarita]

When did you take her off the pellets?

[Lindsay]

Yesterday evening.

[Lindsay]

Just to be clear, it’s 6:45pm here local time, so it was nearly 24 hours ago.

[Sarita]

I think you should wait longer because one day isn’t going to be long enough. At least four or five days, a week if you feel comfortable doing that long.

[Lindsay]

Thanks for your help. Bea is much much better and is having small amounts of pellets again. Luckily she ate tons of hay over the past week and is getting better at cleaning herself so I don’t anticipate any more problems.
Her normal poops are also HUGE compared to when I first got her and she has much more energy. It’s so good to see a real improvement in her health now I’ve got her on a good diet.

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