I cut Guppy

[sweetbluebun]

I had posted about Guppy’s cecal overproduction here before, and it had gotten a little better (ie less cecals coming out).  Well today it was cecal central all over the xpen and there were 3 bunches stuck to his bottom.  The cecal bunches were so big that they were covering his pee hole, all of this resulted in a very dirty bunny bottom.  I tried combing them out, but the cecals were matted into his fur and the only way to get them out was to cut out the bunches.  I put Guppy on a towel and lifted up his bottom and proceeded to cut.  I got most of it out when the scissors snagged on a particulary small bunch.  I kept cutting and I felt Guppy jerk, the horrible feeling set in and I knew I had knicked him.  I inspected closely and I saw the little pink skin and a very slight gap.  I rushed him to the vet’s and he was looked over, luckily they said the cut was very small and it didn’t require stitches.  They clipped all the hair around his bottom (which is probably what I should have done – taken Guppy there to be cleaned – rather than doing it at home myself).  The Dr gave me a bottle of baytril and it’s sitting in my fridge.  He’s supposed to get it 2x a day.  I’m a little nervous about the baytril, I was too frazzled at the vet’s too remember but I read somewhere that antibiotics can cause stasis?  I’m not sure if I’m remembering it correctly.  Poor Guppy just ran right under his cardboard box and he hasn’t come out since we got home (about an hr ago).  I’m going to let him rest for a couple of hrs before attmepting to get some baytril into him (we’ll see how that goes). 

My poor little bunny He’s only 3 months old and I just feel so terrible about what I did to him  

[Deleted User]

awwwwwww! I feel so sorry for him! What you could do is get him a healthy treat. When my bun came home from the vet after his neutering, i gave him a healthy treat that he loves! You could do that to your bun as well. Also, to gain trust (since he is probably afraid of you right now), you can hand feed him his food. And for the cecal’s, get him on a timothy based diet immediatley!! For two days you should feed him only timothy hay!(except for the treat) My friend who is a bunny expert told me to do this when my bun had a lot of cecals as well. Other than that advice, Good vibes for Guppy! )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
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[jerseygirl]

Some rabbits just have sensitive stomachs and require a special diet. Binky Bunny has some info about her bridge bunny Bailey in the diet section. She needed special attention with her diet. So you saw little improvement in Guppy’s situation through diet modification? Have you ever had his stools tested before?
Did the vet prescribe the baytril for the cecal issue or to prevent infection from the cut? Don’t feel too poorly, you were obviously seeing to his needs and these things can happen. Best of all, you got him to the vet afterward!

[kralspace]

aawww poor Guppy, he’ll calm down, don’t worry. My Lola would sometimes carry a wad of smelly cecals stuck to her bunny butt and I gave her a bunny butt bath every week or so in the bathtub. Sometimes the wads were hard to get out, had to let them soak a bit and work them off with my fingers, but Lola got used to in and would just sit there glaring daggers at me until time to get out. She’s lost a bit of weight and can clean herself pretty well now so we don’t have the problem much anymore.

[Beka27]

i believe baytril can cause a lack of appetite which might be why you’re thinking stasis. it’s important he continues to eat. did the vet say anything about the cecal overproduction?

please don’t feel bad about cutting him. you were trying to help him, and it’s hard to see down there with all that fur. it was a mistake… now you know that if you have any problems in the future, you can take him in to get trimmed.

[sweetbluebun]

Thanks so much for the support guys, I really needed it. Now I know that rabbits and scissors don’t mix, I am NEVER going to go near him with a sharp object ever again. The vet didn’t seem overly concerned with his cecal overproduction, and she said as long as he’s not having runny stools he should be fine (he hasn’t had any runny stool). She told me to just give him hay for a few days to see how that goes (just like what Lemon said) and to slowly introduce the pellets again starting with 1/8 c then work up to 1/4-1/3c daily. She told me not to eliminate them completely because he’s too young and he needs the calories to grow, but she did say I could mix the alfalfa with timothy pellets, so I will do that too.

As for Guppy, I checked on him this morning and luckily he had pooped and eaten quite a bit. He seemed back to his usual spunky self and he wasn’t afraid of me when I put him in my lap for his dose of baytril (it was prescribed to prevent any infection from the cut because it was right his bottom -where it can get easily infected). His wound was covered in tissue glue and looked pretty good (no oozing or redness). All the fur around his bottom was gone and it felt a little cold to the touch (I guess it’s hard to keep warm down there with out it). But other than that, he seemed perfectly fine. I think I will do a combo of the bunny bath and maybe 1x a month trips to the vet to get his bottom shaved down. The vet told me to bring him in every 6 weeks to get it done and I think I might do that along with bunny baths every week. Kralspace could you tell me how you them? I don’t want to hurt my little guy again!

I will watch Guppy very carefully now that he’s on the baytril, to make sure that he eats. Thanks so much everyone

[Beka27]

is he getting timothy hay or alfalfa right now? you might want to give timothy if you’re not already and just add in some handfuls of alfalfa, but have tim hay be the main hay.

as far as regular butt-baths and shaves… i’d only do it if it were necessary. obviously, it would be much better to solve the cecal problem.

can you remind us of what his daily diet is and what amounts? what type of veggies is he getting, and any treats?

[kralspace]

We had a thread several months back about the different ways to bath’ the butt’….lol.

What worked with Lola was to draw a couple of inches of warm water in the tub, put a thick towel in the bottom so she didn’t slip around and plop her in. The first time she tried to jump back on me a couple of times, then settled down to just stare and glare at me while she soaked.

Sometimes the cecal wad was pretty hard and stuck in the hair so I had to gently use my fingers to work it loose in pieces but it eventually came off. I didn’t use soap, just warm water then picked her up out of the tub in a towel so I didn’t drop her.

Then we’d go to the couch and a dry towel and Lola would go into this frenzy of running back and forth while I dried her off, stopping to savage the towel on each pass…lol. She’s a rex so it took a while to completely dry her fur but it was summer then. I know some people use hair dryers to dry them off.

[sweetbluebun]

He had been on a diet of timothy hay and about 1/2 c a day of alfalfa pellets. Right now I’ve got him on strictly the timothy hay, and I will probably be adding a mixture of alfalfa and timothy pellets again tomorrow (starting at 1/8c). He’s only 3 months old, so he isnt getting any veggies yet (my vet told me to slowly start introducing those at 5 months). He did leave another big cecal pile last night (5-6 bunches) but since he’s shaved down there, it was neatly bundled together instead of all over the place. Beka, I think you’re right I really need to do a diet fix, because ultimately that would be the best solution. Thanks for the alfalfa hay tip, that’s a really good one, I’m about to go to the feed store to get a bale of timothy (I finally found one in my area!), I hope I can find alfalfa there too.

Kralspace – thanks so much for the bunny bath info, I will definately be giving Guppy those in the futre!

Guppy update – Luckily he’s bounced back pretty well and he even let me pet him without getting scared! I rubbed his cheeks and he got sleepy, it was the sweetest thing. He’s been bouncing around and eating and pooping well – today is the first round of baytril so I will keep a close watch on how much he’s consuming. I’ve been keeping Cheeky away from him, I don’t want any little outbursts tearing Guppy’s wound (it’s covered with tissue glue) but I’d rather keep him calmer rather than bouncing all over.

[Beka27]

you can start introducing some veggies now. not sure why your vet is saying to wait until 5 months? did he give you a reason or “just because”? 8-12 weeks is a good point to start introducing, even if he’s not getting full veggies for a couple months longer. try some basic parsley or romaine and see how he does.

you don’t have to do both alfalfa pellets and alfalfa hay. i would suggest you pick one or the other to do. probably best to keep with timothy pellets and hay, and then just supplement with some alfalfa hay. i wonder if you might see a big improvement by cutting back on the alfalfa a bit. even tho he’s young and it’s recommended they recieve some alfalfa, it’s not absolutely required. and then introducing the basic veggies will go a long way to get him on a proper diet.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

{{VIBES}} I’ve found that some rabbits cannot tolerate pellets at all, and some just can’t have veggies. It will definitely take some tweaking on your part. Maybe keep a food diary, and record everything you feed him and how he is; Make changes slowly so that you can be sure what caused cecals and what caused dry bum.

[sweetbluebun]

Thanks for the advice guys, so right now I’m on day 4 of the new diet (recommended to me by my vet). He’s on a mixture of timothy and alfalfa pellets (1/6c) and timothy hay sprinkled wit a bit of alfalfa hay that I just bought yesterday. So far so good, only 1 cecal bunch left per night but I’ve had this kind of situation before. I reduced the pellets and the cecals stopped coming (or at least less frequently). I think I will do the food journal to see what Guppers can take, because he just seems too sensitive to handle unlimited alfalfa pellets. I have been leaving a few snips of romaine in his xpen, but he hasn’t touched them. I think I’ll pick up some parsely from the store tonight and see how that goes.

A by product of less pellets has been that Guppy’s potty training has been coming along much better. I guess the alfalfa pellets made him go alot because he’s been very good about pooing in the litterbox now (he eats ALOT more hay now too).

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

That sounds really promising!

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