Cecal Overproduction

[tanlover14]

How long is it okay to assume that a rabbit is overproducing cecals without it being a health problem???  I believe it’s Simba because I found a few poos stuck to his bum but granted, with all that fluffy hair he easily could’ve wandered through someone elses and got them stuck in his own fur.  

I’ve been noticing them for the past 2-3 days now and I’m wondering if I should be worried or when I should begin to worry.  I know Simba had this problem before and he was fine…. it happened for like two days.  We took him to the vet and within a few days he was fine.  She gave him some Metacam because she thought (something down below in his tummy area) felt sore.  She believed he got a kind of back-up in his system and so the overproduction of cecals was due to his body finally pushing them all out at once making it hard for him to keep up and causing the poopy butt type production.  No pooopy butt on anyone this time (we checked everyone).  I’ve just been noticing quite a lot of cecals laying around this past few days.

 

What does everyone think?

[Roberta]

Mine go through stages like this and it’s really hard to pinpoint a specific cause… I sometimes think season variations to the nutrient levels in the greens will do it, other times temperature changes causing them to eat more naturally.. It’s hard to say. I t could even relate to the medication he has been on, the gut resetting itself possibly.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Bindi often starts leaving cecals around when he needs a dental trim. Not sure what causes that to happen.

[jerseygirl]

Maybe due to the hay (orchard/clover mix)?

Is Simba still pretty congested? If it is him, perhaps it’s difficult him getting the cecals the conventional way if breathing is restricted so he does them then turns around to eat them after.
Some buns just always intermittently overproduce I reckon. Gooseman is one of those. What about Nora being younger? Dies she overproduced sometimes?

LPT I’ve heard that about dental buns (and ones with mobility problems too). I’m not entirely sure why… Maybe they just want to avoid doing things with a sore mouth asides from eating which is a necessity??
I’ve read they’ll also start to groom less.

[tanlover14]

He is still on and off with his congestion – still sneezing and discharge on and off. We have been doing the flushes which I guess is all we can really do at this point. Sigh…

I’ve never noticed Nora to overproduce at all, not while she was by herself and no notice since being bonded although it’s much more difficult to tell now. We did check her (and the Tans) bums also to make sure they didn’t have anything that looked like a lot in their anal glands but everything was clean.

We haven’t bought the Orchard/Clover mix yet so definitely not that!

I didn’t see any tonight so I’ll check again tomorrow. Hopefully it was one of the simple things suggested above.

Roberta, we haven’t changed his diet at all (they’ve been getting pretty much the same veggies for the past month). But true, our vegetables aren’t looking the best at this time of year… so maybe it does have something to do with that also.

[jerseygirl]

If it does turn out to be Simba, I’d be even more suspicious about his teeth. The sneezing, discharge, bouts of gut trouble, excess cecals or poopy butt on occasion… All these point to dental trouble IMO.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I second what Jersey said-all those are definitely signs of teeth issues, so might be worth a look!

[Author]

Messages