Excessive cecoptropes and diet

[Morgan]

Hi everyone! My poor little dwarf bunny has been having problems with cecoptropes getting stuck in his fur. This has been happening for almost a year now on and off. As soon as I notice it, I’ve cleaned him off and given him a little trim in the area to make sure it was all clean but it’s stressful for me and the bunny so I’d really like to figure out how to fix the problem. At this point I’m 99% sure it’s diet related. After a visit to the vet we tried cutting down on veggies and pellets and the problem went away for a little while but then returned with a vengeance and I’m not sure why. Recently I tried cutting out everything but timothy hay and there have been no problems!! But I’m worried that a diet of just hay and water won’t give him all of the nutrients he needs. His droppings look completely normal and his behaviour has actually changed for the positive with the diet switch (with him being more active throughout the day), but he’s also lost quite a bit of weight. He was admittedly overweight before the diet change and I think the weight loss has brought him down to a healthy size so right now I’m not too concerned, but I’m worried that continuing to feed him only hay will eventually lead to unhealthy weight loss. He seems happier lately so I’m reluctant to do anything that will cause the problems to return, but I also don’t want to accidentally starve him  

[jerseygirl]

Well done on correcting things so well with the hay-only diet! It takes some tough love, and that’s not easy with these beggars.

It is important the weight loss doesn’t happen too quickly. You could add in some other types of hay to see if that helps maintain good weight. Mix in some oat or wheat hay with his timothy perhaps. For other nutrition, maybe occasionally give oxbow supplements? I think sherwood may have a product also. Keep in mind, rabbits don’t need a ton of nutrition. They were designed to be able to process lots and lots of low nutrition food, and make the rest themselves.

You may actually be able to bring in more of the food he had before (limited) after his gut has had time to re-set and become more balanced. That can take a few months. You could even give a probiotic like benebac to help things along.

His droppings look completely normal and his behaviour has actually changed for the positive with the diet switch (with him being more active throughout the day)

That’s awesome.

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