Digestive support/allergies

[Hoolia]

My boy seems to have a way sensitive gut or allergies. Darkish poops and not well-formed cecotropes. I use Sherwood Digestive tablets to help supplement, but I’d like some thoughts on how to help. My other rabbit on the exact same diet is fantastic, great poops, no cecotrope mess ever.

I give a small number of greens daily, but I think I need to cut them out completely. He eats 90% of his cecotropes, but he seems to get a poopy butt or just poopy area from a partially uneaten cecotrope at least once a week, sometimes twice. He also occasionally seems to get goopy eyes and sniffles, we’ve gone to the vet before for it, but it’s always super mild and I don’t want to give more antibiotics and possibly messing his gut up more. He’s had good poops before, but it seems over the past couple of months, the less then ideal poop habits have been more regular.

He’s the tiniest overweight, but not absurdly so, the normal amount of rex chub/excess skin. We’re working on that, but it seems that there’s a little more going on.

Here’s his diet in full:

-1 Sherwood digestive pellet in the morning

-1/8 cup pellets once a day in the morning (Oxbow Garden Select)

-Small Pet Select Orchard Grass Hay constantly

-1 cup of greens

-Small sprinkle of herbs and dried veggies (usually mint and a little dried parsnip and carrot)

 

Anyone else have a bun with a sensitive tummy? I’m going to cut out greens completely starting today, but I feel bad for the lack of variety.

Should I switch hays? I know orchard grass has more protein than timothy, but I didn’t think it would cause a large shift.

I know some dried herbs can cause some weird poops, are there ones that are helpful for digestion?

After my last vet app. he talked about an old school tactic of a kind of poop transplant, taking a rabbit with really healthy poops and making a slurry of that and feed that back to the one with digestive issues to try and replace gut flora the way a probiotic would.

On the topic of probiotics, is there one that is helpful to rabbits? I’ve heard mixed things on how lots of the pet available ones aren’t actually useful to rabbits.

[Hazel]

His diet sounds great, there’s nothing that jumps out at me that would be likely to cause any issues. I would try what you’ve already considered and switch to a different hay. Hopefully that will make a difference. 🙂

[DanaNM]

Agree that the diet sounds good overall, but some buns don’t do well with any pellets at all. So you might try adding in a second hay (maybe not completely eliminating orchard) and taking away the pellets and treats.

Bene-bac is a probiotic that some members have had success with regarding poopy-bum. Since your bun lives with a healthy bunny, they would likely already be exposed to all of that bun’s gut flora. For just occasional poopy bum, not sure I would go the poop-shake/slurry route just yet.

Also, what greens are you feeding? Some buns do better with more natural types of forage (wild grasses, dandelion greens, sow thistle, narrow and broad leaf plantain are a few examples). Some buns also do better with dried veggies and greens vs. fresh ones, so you might try some dried greens as well.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Hoolia]

Okay, when this batch of hay is about at half I’ll see about mixing it with timothy. We’ve given him the same pellets as we always have, the kind without any soy or wheat in it and he’s not always had a poopy bum, but definitely going to cut out sugary treats for now.

I haven’t yet tried bene-bac, but that seems like a cheap enough option that it couldn’t hurt to try and boost his gut flora. I do think this started with a respiratory infection we had a while back that he took antibiotics for and has just flared up his gut now. didn’t really get any kind of probiotics after that.

We’ve been doing a spring mix that has arugula, baby romaine, mustard greens mostly. I could try growing some dandelion and use yard grasses/plants instead to see if that helps calm things down. For now, I’m going to entirely cut the fresh stuff and see about reintroducing more natural forage after we can get this sorted. I’ll stick with dried herbs in small amounts.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[LBJ10]

Some bunnies don’t do well with pellets, some don’t well with veggies. It’s a process of elimination unfortunately. I agree with the others, try cutting things out to see if the poopy butt improves.

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