Is this Cecal Dysbiosis? Does this need a vet?

[Tony]

Hi everyone!

I’m a new bunny owner (brought home 5 days ago, the bunny is supposed to be 6 months old) and quite anxious of her conditions today. 

This morning i found her quite lethargic, and saw some wet stools in her litter box (cecal dysbiosis?). Not quite knowing how to handle it yet, I cleaned her litter box and disinfect her cage (using water and alchohol and wipe dry immediately while the rabbit is safely placed somewhere else). Gave her a medicine recommended by the petshop if she has diarrhea just to be safe, cavia drops. I’ve been reading a lot of info about rabbit stools on the web since this morning, because initially i thought it was diarrhea, but the stickied photos in this forum section above tells me that it’s not diarrhea. phew.

This evening i found her stool are all soft again. I can’t tell quite well yet which is cecotropes, and which is cecal dysbiosis. I have stopped her pellets (she has a bowl full of pellets in her cage since day 1, and might be eating too much of that) and just places timothy hay instead. I saw her eating timothy hay and drinking water this evening. Having more energy compared to this morning. I ran a tissue on her behind, and there’s some stool dirt (like 3 stains on the tissue after running the tissue 5 times on her behind softly).

my question is, 

1) i’ve changed her diet to timothy hay 100% until her stool returns to normal. Is this the right way? I will also reduce her pellet treats to a few spoonful per day once her stool returns to normal.

2) do i need to bring her to the vet immediately for this?

3) do i need to continue administering cavia drops until her stool returns to normal?

4) do i need to do anything else or just wait till she gets better? I kept cleaning her cage floor of her stools as wet as it is now, it’s stuck on the floor quite often.

Thank you all for your advices and help

[Savannah]

Hi, I have two rabbits, I have had Stewie for almost a year and Willow for a couple of months now. Nothing like this has happened to my bunnies before but Stewie once didn’t eat for a couple of days before but I think it was because he didn’t like his hay rack. Have you noticed any weird positions from your rabbit? Is she laying down a lot? Is she energetic or is she really tired? Also since this never happened to my bunny what is rabbit stool?

-I hope your bunny gets better
Savannah

[Bam]

Cecal dysbiosis is copmmon in rabbits as you seem well aware of. It’s considered a diet related problem, but the bun shouldn’t be lethargic. If she is, she could have gas together with the soft poop, and gas is painful for a bun. Many bun owners, myself included, use baby gas drops (simethicone) for our buns when we suspect gas. It’s a med for human babies so it’s not sold in pet shops. You give one ml (cc), then 0.5 ml after one hour for three hours.

Switching to an all hay diet is good, but it’s not compeletely risk-free. You MUST make sure your bun actually eats the hay, and plenty of it. If she doesn’t she can actually starve. Her tummy needs to make enough of the the bacteria needed to break down the cellulose in the hay so she gets nutrition, and this takes a little while. If she’s not a big hay eater, you can try cutting back on pellets rather than cutting them out completely. 1 tablespoon per day divided into 2 servings should keep her from starving if she’s about 1 kg (2,2 pounds) but still not be too much for her tummy. You don’t have to do anything else unless you see her get worse. As long as she has normal poop as well as the sticky poop and she seems normal activity-wise, this is not a vet emergency.

It’s likely that her tummy issues is a result of her having moved to a new home. Even if it’s a great home, the change of environment alone is always somewhat stressful for a bun, and stress affects the bunny tummy.

If she gets poop stuck on her butt you can give a butt bath. You use just an inch or two of tepid water, preferably in a container that can be placed on the floor, in case she tries to jump out. My bunny likes to stand on his back legs and support his forefeet on the rim of the water basin when I give him a butt bath. I just gently scoop lukewarm water up the dirty area and let the dirt rinse out. You can use a little bit of organic perfume free soap if you really need to. Make sure to dry her behind properly after with a microfiber- or terrycloth towel so she doesn’t run around with a wet butt and get cold.

What do the cavia drops contain? (Or if it doesn’t say, give us the name of them and we’ll try to find out).

[Tony]

Posted By Savannah on 11/25/2017 11:23 AM
Hi, I have two rabbits, I have had Stewie for almost a year and Willow for a couple of months now. Nothing like this has happened to my bunnies before but Stewie once didn’t eat for a couple of days before but I think it was because he didn’t like his hay rack. Have you noticed any weird positions from your rabbit? Is she laying down a lot? Is she energetic or is she really tired? Also since this never happened to my bunny what is rabbit stool?

-I hope your bunny gets better
Savannah

Hi Savannah,

Yes the rabbit this morning is lying down on her stomach or side most of the time close to her water bottle. This evening she is more energetic as she jumps a bit in her cage. But i still think she lies down quite often. At least i saw her eating her hay while sitting more than once.

Rabbit stool is rabbit poop. I dont know another word for it. Im not a native english speaker. =)

[Tony]

Posted By bam on 11/25/2017 11:55 AM
Cecal dysbiosis is copmmon in rabbits as you seem well aware of. It’s considered a diet related problem, but the bun shouldn’t be lethargic. If she is, she could have gas together with the soft poop, and gas is painful for a bun. Many bun owners, myself included, use baby gas drops (simethicone) for our buns when we suspect gas. It’s a med for human babies so it’s not sold in pet shops. You give one ml (cc), then 0.5 ml after one hour for three hours.

Switching to an all hay diet is good, but it’s not compeletely risk-free. You MUST make sure your bun actually eats the hay, and plenty of it. If she doesn’t she can actually starve. Her tummy needs to make enough of the the bacteria needed to break down the cellulose in the hay so she gets nutrition, and this takes a little while. If she’s not a big hay eater, you can try cutting back on pellets rather than cutting them out completely. 1 tablespoon per day divided into 2 servings should keep her from starving if she’s about 1 kg (2,2 pounds) but still not be too much for her tummy. You don’t have to do anything else unless you see her get worse. As long as she has normal poop as well as the sticky poop and she seems normal activity-wise, this is not a vet emergency.

It’s likely that her tummy issues is a result of her having moved to a new home. Even if it’s a great home, the change of environment alone is always somewhat stressful for a bun, and stress affects the bunny tummy.

If she gets poop stuck on her butt you can give a butt bath. You use just an inch or two of tepid water, preferably in a container that can be placed on the floor, in case she tries to jump out. My bunny likes to stand on his back legs and support his forefeet on the rim of the water basin when I give him a butt bath. I just gently scoop lukewarm water up the dirty area and let the dirt rinse out. You can use a little bit of organic perfume free soap if you really need to. Make sure to dry her behind properly after with a microfiber- or terrycloth towel so she doesn’t run around with a wet butt and get cold.

What do the cavia drops contain? (Or if it doesn’t say, give us the name of them and we’ll try to find out).

Hi bam, thank you for the thorough information. I will try to answer as best as i could.

Cavia drops contains Sulfamerazine 3% . Its said to cure influenza, diarhea and increase appetite for rabbits.

How can i make sure that the rabbit eats enough of the hay? I did catch her a few times eating the hay i provided since i cut off her pellets (she was having like a baby bowl size of pellets before. Her hay stock did go down and i have to add more at night.

I found some medicine for rabbit that says relieves bloatedness and i could buy it tomorrow morning.

One more thing i find weird is that theres a lot of ants crowding her food. But i dont know which one is the ants looking for. I had 2 different pellets. 1 unnamed all green, 1 profood formula for baby rabbit 1-3 months old which the pet shop still suggests for her to continue eating. I also placed alfalfa hay, which she likes a lot but the pet shop says to give her just a little bit of it. I took all these away and just give her timothy hay as from what i read, timothy hay should be her main staple food. And the rest as treats? Is my way of thinking correct?

Can i ignore the poop on her bum for now? I dont want to stress her further. I left the cage door open every morning. She is taking little steps towards going out, but never did. The furthest she go is to just place her 2 front feet at the entrance. Im afraid giving her a butt bath will be too stressful for her at this stage. I just dont want it to get infected. Do i really need to give her a butt bath?

Thanks again for your help. I will note them down again.

[Bam]

You can brush out the poop with corn starch, if you need to get it off. You rub corn starch into the sticky poop, then brush and pick out the starchy poop. Or you can wait until it dries and pick it out with your fingers if there’s not lots and lots of sticky poop.

Ants pretty much like any food, especially if there’s sugar in it. Hay seems like the safest option for her right now, and if you cut out all pellets you can give a little more of the alfalfa instead. Plus the timothy. If you’ve seen her supply diminishing, she is eating hay and that’s great.

The cavia drops seems like rather a potent drug. Do you feel like it’s helped her?

This is a very good article about intermittent soft cecotropes:
http://rabbit.org/intermittent-soft-cecotropes-in-rabbits/

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