Little brown spots? o.O

[Binkles]

Over the past couple of months, a few weird little ‘spots’ have appeared on my bed. They’re really tiny, maybe each a centimeter in diamterer at the very most. Like, literally, if you took a small-size (but not fine) felt tipped Sharpie and dabbed it really quickly to a peice of cloth, that’s how much it is. At first I thought they were dried blood from a tiny place where she nicked herself or something, but tonight I found a fresh one right after she’d been on the bed! It’s very brown, very liquid, and has that very skunky hormonal bunny smell that often is associated with cecals and other rectal functions.

Now looking back, I realize that the mysterious few spots of wetness I’ve also felt on the carpet in the past are probably the same thing, and from what I can tell they’ve mostly (if not all) occurred at night when she’s most active. (And the only time she’s on my bed.)

What IS it? Does she need her bladder expressed? Are these maybe signs of bladder sludge? But I thought that bladder sludge was a chalky grey/ white substance, not a dark brown liquid substance. Something to do with cecals maybe? I’ve watched her ingest her cecals at least three times in the past day or so. She isn’t acting any different. She’s a very happy hyper loving bunny. The only thing that’s been different lately that I can think of is that she’s been shedding. (Though not respectively heavy.) And her litterbox habits are emmaculate. She leaves a few poos around every once in a while, but what bunny doesn’t? All of her poos are consistantly well-formed. She’s had a few bouts of pressing her tummy to the ground for a few hours, but that’s to be expected of Little-Bit during shedding season. What’s going on?

[Sarita]

That sounds like a cecal to me.

If you are concerned you should take her to a vet for a physical examination.

[RabbitPam]

I agree. She may be missing a drop or two of cecal that’s in her fur and it is being left behind where she sits.
A vet can confirm.

[Binkles]

I’ll definitely put a phone call into my vet tomorrow, though I doubt she’ll have any idea about it. =x Perhaps I should ask Dana Kremples as well?

[MimzMum]

It could be cecal leavings (I’ve seen enough of those in Fiver’s pen) and I wanted to mention it could also be urine spots. Mimzy is also great with his litter box, but I often find just a few drops sitting right outside the box where he gets out. Apparently, I need to furnish him with toilet paper. >_<
Please keep us updated. I’ll keep Little Bit and you in my prayers that it turns out well. Perhaps she’s eating something a little too rich for her digestion (this is what sets Fiver off) and that could be why she’s leaving pieces of cecals if that’s what it is.

[Binkles]

Little-Bit’s pee has always been orange or yellow, never seen dark brown. (And I hope I never do.)  

 

It’s weird though. They’re like, COMPLETELY liquid. No consistency at all. Like literally if you took a single cecal ball and liquified it. It’s dark brown before it dries and leaves a light brown stain. It does SMELL cecal-y.

[Sarita]

Well many times you need a physical examination from the vet. Dana Kremples may have some ideas but a physical exam may tell more.

[jerseygirl]

pee can get smelly after a while. Also turns darker colour once exposed to the air. Pee can be smelly when there’s an infection too.
How easily do the stains come out? I’m thinking if you spray with vinegar/water if it’s pee it would come out fairly easy, but if something else, less easily.

[MooBunnay]

Have you checked her scent glands? If it is strong smelling it seems like maybe it could be coming from there. When I clean my bunny’s scent glands there usually isn’t anything liquid, but it does smell very strong.

[Binkles]

Are the scent glands the same as the anal glands or is it something completely different?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Yup-anal=scent glands

[MimzMum]

Jerz has a point. If it’s cecal juice (ew…did I just say that?) then it’ll be hard to get out. Urine stains do turn color upon drying, but those you can remove with water+vinegar mixture.
Fiver’s cecals, when he doesn’t want to eat them and then mushes them all over his feet (more ew) are definitely a little ‘looser’ than his eaten ones, or any I find in the litterbox.
What’s her diet like right now? Do you feed her romaine lettuce, btw? I notice Pip & Mimzy like it, but Fiver doesn’t tolerate it well. That’s usually when he has problems with his cecals…that and he can’t eat fruit either.

[Binkles]

Her diet is predominantly Oat hay because she LOVES the stuff and it makes her poops all well-composed. I usually give her about a teaspoon full of Oxbow Timmy pellets a day, and sometimes less depending on if I feel she needs to be eating more hay or has had too much hair in her stool. Occasionally I won’t give her any pellets at all if she’s in REALLY heavy molt or has had a stasis scare. As far as fresh greens goes, I’ve had her on a diet of a few dandelion greens and a good sized shoot of curly parsley a day for almost a year now, no romaine or anything. She’s only started having this…problem(?) within the past few months.

I held off on calling my vet this past week because she didn’t seem to be making any more spots, but yesterday she left a big one -the biggest I’ve seen yet, about as much as an eyedropper drop- so I suppose tomorrow is vet calling day. I’m just worried that there may be blood in these spots that I can’t tell since they’re dark brown when wet.

She seems to tend to leave them when she gets super excited. Like last night I left my room to wash her veggies and when I came back there was a fresh one on my bed where she’d just binkied away from.

[Binkles]

Well, I washed a spotted towel from two weeks ago last night with the explicit intention of finding out if there was blood in the spots. (The theory being that stains are hard to get out of %100 cotton especially after two weeks, and that washing blood stains on hot will set them in.) Completely clean! Not a trace! So that’s a step in the right direction -it dosn’t have any blood in it!

Additionally, she left me another tiny lone spot on my bed when I washed her veggies tonight yet again. A pattern, I am noticing. I will honestly be a little surprised if this doesn’t have to do with the scent glands since it seems to happen mostly when she gets excited. Does anybody know what fresh scent gland fluid looks like?

[Binkles]

Well I got the call back from my vet. She says she thinks it’s probably an anal gland issue and that as long as she’s eating, pooping, peeing, and acting normally it’s not harmful unless it were to become clogged. (I guess this would be the opposite of clogged?) She says that the skunky bunny smell it has is especially indicative of anal gland secretion. I asked her if she knows what the secretion is supposed to look like since I couldn’t find any info about it online, and she says that it really depends on the individual; that some have thick and pasty anal fluid and some have really liquid fluid.

So I guess…Little-Bit has just suddenly become very glandularly active. How weird. I wonder what triggered it. Does anybody know if diet contributes at all to…anal gland secretion?

[MimzMum]

Sarah, you mentioned recently looking for a bunny companion for Lil’ Bit…have you taken her bunny dating yet or gone to see any strange bunnies yourself that the scent may have come home with you? That might prompt a territorial gland marking response I would think.

[Binkles]

No I haven’t done that yet. I was waiting for all the holiday rush to pass over and get into my new semester. =s This seems to have happened completely randomly because nothing has changed at all.

[MimzMum]

Perhaps during the holidays and the semester rush she picked up on your stress? :-/ I’m kind of stumped, Sarah…
She does still eat and potty well though…no changes there, right? Not even what kind of water you give her to drink or what you wash out her things with?

[Binkles]

Ahh, have I caught a break in the case? Tonight while I was cleaning my room I found what appeared to be two or three teeny tiny bits of dried cecals caked next to some spots. (Can cecals have bits of hay in them?) Might this be a lead!? =O

[MimzMum]

Wow, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen hay in any of my buns’ cecals, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have stuck to them afterwards.
^_^ Oh I hope this is what it is. I know how it can mess with you when your bun is ill and you can’t find the cause!

[Pluto]

Just noticed several brown spots on the towel in our bun’s cage, which smell like people sweat This is the first we have noticed this. She is well litterbox trained and was spayed just over two weeks ago at about 7mos old.  So, from what I am reading, this may be a normal secretion.  Any new info to indicate if it goes away, and is there anything we should avoid in terms of care or feeding? She tolerates several types of hay, apples, bananas in small quantities, pellets in an amount appropriate for her weight, and recently has been eating fresh basil – maybe we will ease up on the latter and see if anything changes. Any other advice would be welcome, including feedback from those who have been to the vet. As noted above, bun seems to be eating drinking, pooping, peeing and frolicking normally.  She was in her ‘outside cage’ yesterday for fresh air. I wonder if that might have triggered the secretion. I also dropped my little wriggler from about waist height today (felt terribly).  Been trying to get her used to being picked up again after having to syringe feed during spay recovery. I had no idea how challenging little buns are.  Pre-surgery (very uncomplicated) seems like such a carefree time in retrospect!!!

[jerseygirl]

Hi @Pluto

We ask that members do not reply to old threads with their questions. https://binkybunny.com/forums/topic/please-avoid-responding-to-old-posts/

Are you able to start a new topic? You can just cut and paste your post from here.

I will close this thread from further replies now.

[Author]

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