Bunny butt cleaning

[Lemonsoup]

Little Teddy (who officially weighs 980 grams now that he’s 10 weeks old) had his vaccination and a blood test at the vets this week (we’re super lucky to have a fabulous rabbit vet fairly local to us and Teddy was as relaxed as can be throughout). They gave him antihistamine prior just in case he had any sort of reaction to his vaccination. He was literally completely dazed & confused on the trip home. Fell asleep face first into his toy squirrel – bless 

They advised he might be a bit sleepy the next day, which he was. But what also happened is that some of his little poos and possibly a cecotrope (or otherwise just very mushy poo) ended up completely matted underneath him. So our gorgeous smelling bunny was not so gorgeous smelling.

I managed to get it all off him and clipped out the part that was too matted and stuck. Whilst he’s clean now from actual ‘matter’, he still smells a fair bit. And he seems to be getting more of his poo pellets caught up underneath him than usual. Not sure why.

So, my question is, do I need to do a wet butt wash to get rid of the smell or will a dry wash with baby cornstarch powder do the trick instead? And how to do I prevent the poo pellets from latching on? As he’s an English Angora, I gather it will require a bit of trim in this area. But it’s strange that it started just after the vet visit. Almost like he was too out of it do deal with his business and cleaning that night and the next day and then it got the better of him and he took one look at it and thought “nah, I’ll let the humans deal with this going forward”. 

[Muchelle]

It can be he was nervous and had some intestinal ‘turbolence’ + vaccine makes them really sleepy for a few hours… since his fur is long, I’d avoid bathing his little butt just cause I’m paranoid and drying perfectly thick angora fur can be challenging. For smelly emergencies I have a dry shampoo that was recommended by out vet tech, but I have to admit I only had to use it once.

If the only problem is the smell, you could try to use unscented puppy wipes?

[Lemonsoup]

Thanks for the feedback. Fortunately the super soft squishy ones have stopped. I had used sensitive baby wipes on him to get most of it off, but some was just too icky and sticky and really made him smell. So in order to avoid washing him, I really carefully clipped the area (he was super good and lay very still for me). I also purchased baby cornstarch powder (doesn’t contain talcum) – but by the next day, I didn’t have to use it as he was smelling much better.

I am still finding a number of poo pellets stuck in his wool each day – but at least they’re solid enough to simply gently pick out. And they don’t smell. I’ll mention it to the vet when I see her next. She may suggest a ‘hygiene’ clip for him.

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