Once a day watery poop (was cecals vs mushy poop) — suggestions?

[JackRabbit]

Moshi has been having either mushy poop or excess cecals (hard to tell because its squished into fleece), and now you can see that the fleece has a ring of watery liquid soaked in around the smear marks. This only happens in the afternoon during his normal afternoon snooze — all other poops are completely normal.

We know that too much salad can set this off so he only gets small salads, and we know that he handles green leaf lettuce best. Also, both Marlee and Moshi have been drinking more water than normal for the past 2 weeks. They are due back at the vet in the next week or so.

I tried a little experiment and this is what I found:
— oat hay tops instead of salad = clean fleece
— simethicone and small salad = clean fleece or tiny amount of squished poop on fleece
— tiny salad with only green leaf lettuce = messy fleece with liquid ring around squished poop

Any ideas or suggestions? Is Moshi doomed to a life of no greens?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I’d keep experimenting and discuss with the vet. Mine can’t have greens anymore-it started slowly but even a leaf would set off runny poops. So they get restricted pellets, tons of hay and fresh grass that I grow-they handle willow and dandelions greens well too. Maybe experiment with different greens to see if Moshi can tolerate anything.

[JackRabbit]

KandK – So bunnies can live long healthy lives without salads? I don’t know about regular grass, but Moshi normally tolerates wheat grass well. Vet is supposed to call me tomorrow about the M&Ms 6-month repeat bloodwork from the basil downy mildew check last summer. Will run Moshi’s poop issue past her too.

[JackRabbit]

Spoke with the vet. For now we’re eliminating all salad from Moshi’s diet. Getting worried about him. The M&Ms drank 2 1/2 24 ounce bottles of water today. Marlee is running around normally. Moshi is eating, pooping, chewing on toys, drinking tons of water, but not running and binkying like he normally does. No bunny 500’s in weeks. He’ll run down the hall after Marlee and run to the litterbox but that’s it. I’ve had to pick him up a few times a week the past couple of weeks so he moves away scared if I get near him. We will be going to the vet at the end of next week, but not sure what I should be doing or looking for in the mean time or if I should take him to the vet before then. He’s just not my normally happy-go-lucky bunny.

[JackRabbit]

It’s been 4 days since Moshi had any salad. He and Marlee are still drinking tons of water (emptying two 24 ounce bottles a day at least). Yesterday there was a little poop on the fleece where he sleeps but it looked like he could have stepped in litterbox poop. This afternoon, more. It has to be the large amount of water he’s drinking. We go to the vet at 4:00 on Wed. I’m at a total loss as to what to do.

[Bam]

It’s sometimes recommended that bunnies are given nothing but hay for 1-3 months so they build a sturdy gut microbiota and then they supposedly can tolerate virtually anything. So if you cut out salad for 1-3 months you may be able to reintroduce it after that.

[Sindri]

Wow JR they are drinking a lot of water. I hope that everything is okay with your babies. Let us know how your vet visit goes.

[JackRabbit]

Bam — I had heard of doing just hay and water for a week but hadn’t heard of 1 to 3 months. I’m going to talk with the vet about all ideas on Wed.

Tonight while I was pre-treating poopy fleece and getting ready to do bunny laundry, I got a magnifying glass and took a closer look at the poop spots. They aren’t cecals. They are definitely regular type poop because they have hay in them just like if you broke open a poop pellet except mushed. This has to have something to do with all the water. I’m starting to wonder if he’s dropping a poop or two in his sleep and then peeing a little making poop goop. He eats a ton of hay. With all the water Marlee and Moshi are drinking, its hard to tell if one of them peed and it dried because their pee is virtually clear at this point.

[Bam]

A rabbit may drink 100 ml per kg body weight per day if it only gets dry food (hay and pellets). That would be sth like 1,7 fl ounces per Lb body-weight in the non-metric system =)

When my Bam eats mostly hay he drinks A LOT. I have found a type of hay that he actually prefers over many types of greens (greens here are rather boring during winter-season). He can empty his pint-size bottle in 2 days.

Some 2 years ago I had to radically change his diet because he had sticky poop all the time. I put him on mostly hay, like 5 pellets a day, no treats. It was all my fault from the start, I’d been giving him rabbit müesli. But anyway, his tummy righted itself but it did take a good long time, 3-6 months.

I hope your vet has some good advice for you. Sometimes rabbits will drink more if you “deprive” them of food. Cutting out the yummy salad may feel like deprivation to a bunny, of course, before they figure out that they can compensate by eating more hay.

[Sarita]

Okay, I have to laugh at getting out a magnifying glass to check poo’s :~) I guess I wouldn’t overthink or worry too much about every little thing if you can possibly do this LOL.

[JackRabbit]

Sarita — yeah, I know, crazy bunny lady inspects poop with magnifying glass! In my crazy defense, my new glasses had to be remade and my reading glasses were upstairs. Ahem.

[Sarita]

Well that is a good excuse I guess but it still makes me laugh.

[JackRabbit]

Glad I could help Sarita!

[JackRabbit]

(Sarita — btw, I probably would have grabbed the magnifying glass anyway as nuts as this unknown poop cause is making me!)

[Bam]

It never struck me as odd to bring out a magnifying glass to inspect bunny-poop until Sarita mentioned it =)

I’m laughing now, though. I’ve become a person who finds it perfectly normal to examine poop with a magnifying glass =D

[JackRabbit]

Yes bam, the new normal!

[JackRabbit]

Update — I’ve been experimenting, and we’re on week 2 with no mushy poop! You guys are not going to believe what the “fix” seems to be with Moshi — *more* pellets! He was getting about 1/16 cup twice a day, and now he’s getting just under but pretty close to 1/8 cup twice a day. He’s getting a small salad, always unlimited hay, and a couple bites of a treats each evening. Increasing his pellets has not decreased his hay intake at all, in fact I’m having to add hay to the hay feeders in the mornings now too. He’s also started binkying a bit too, but no bunny 500’s yet. Although the M&Ms are still drinking alot of water, I did find out that the washer on one of the water bottles had worn out — it wouldn’t leak for hours after filling it, but once it got down an inch or two, the vaccuum would release and empty the remaining water into the litterbox. While that wasn’t the main increase in water “use”, it wasn’t helping! I went ahead and replaced both of their bottles.

I hope I didn’t just jinx it by saying we found the fix, but my boy is getting back to being the playful happy bunny he was before all the mushy poop!

[Bam]

Great to hear that he’s well again!

[Deleted User]

YAY!!!! Clapping over excitedly! Well done JR and good man Moshi!

And… how nice was I??? I didn’t say a word about the magnifying glass (thank goodness, we don’t own one! The thing’s I would look at???)

LOL!

[JackRabbit]

Keeping my magnifying glass . . . !

[JackRabbit]

I jinxed it. We’re back to poopy fleece. One change has been where I got the salad (mainly the green leaf lettuce) this past week. The green leaf came from 3 different grocery stores, one of which was the one I was getting all of it from during the long mushy poop period, funny thing is *that* is the organic lettuce. The only other change has been the addition of one bite of organic “living” kale each day.

I’m nixing the bite of kale, and going to buy Moshi’s green leaf from one store and keep his separate. The girls are getting some home-prepped lettuce and some pre-packaged salad. He can’t feel great when he’s having mushy poop while he sleeps (rest of the time his poops are completely normal and obvious that he’s eating plenty of hay). I hate it when he goes through this.

Vibes please for Moshi’s tummy and for helping to figure all of this out.

[manic_muncher]

Just when you thought you had it all sorted out. I do hope you figure it out soon.

[JackRabbit]

Thanks Manic. BTW, nice to see you back!

[manic_muncher]

<3 thanks. Still not back like before, but trying to get into the swing of things!

[Little Lion Head]

Just catching up on this post. Sorry to hear Moshi’s still not feeling well!! Lots of ((((((vibes)))))) for his tummy and poops! Let us know what starts working again.

Also–I am bunny poop obsessed. Hubby thinks I’m nuts! Not a day goes by where I don’t comment on Pumpkin’s poop in some way. Usually just a “oooohh those are some good looking poops today!!!!” while talking to her in her condo. Yesterday, after bringing Shamrock home and he used the litter box for the first time I said “both of my baby’s have great looking poop!!!” Hubby just stared at me like he wanted to pretend he didn’t know me…….

[JackRabbit]

LLH — poop is what makes the world go ’round in bunny world! Tell hubby he has to get with the poop program, especially now that you guys have two bunny kids!

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