runny cecals

[bitterepiphany]

Meco has been with us for about a month now and she’s a pretty well adjusted bunny for the experience.  We’re falling into our little routine and she’s giving us a little sass when we mess with it. 

Last night, I was making macarons and salted butter caramel and while I was whisking in the heavy cream and butter (metal pan + wire whisk + boiling sugar + heavy cream = loud, strange sound) the rabbit got scared.  We were distracted, having a conversation about something else and looked around to find her hiding under the kitchen table (a place she only goes when she’s nervous) surrounded in pellets.  She jumped when she realized we were looking at her and bolted around the living room.

Needless to say, as soon as everything was combined, I stopped whisking and we spent the next half hour speaking softy and (from very, very far away) talking directly to her (she gets that whenever we say “bunny” we obviously mean her.)  After a while, she calmed down.  She was still jumpy a bit but she would let us pet her and she would hang out by our feet rather than running away from us.

Once she was calm, we dust bustered up her accident and realized that she’d had a wet componant to it….the consistency of wet coffee grounds, against the baseboard.

i got nervous but when she went into her cage for the evening, she seemed to be dropping solid pellets, so I asked the boy (who is home all day) if he would keep an eye on her and he has been.  About an hour ago, she had more solid pellets accompanied by the same tiny amount of “wet coffee grounds” which I can only assume must be a really wet cecal.

 

Her stress level shouldn’t have increased recently and we had her into the vet about a week and a half ago.  She gets a high-fiber, low-protien rabbit pellet – exactly two ounces a day…one in the morning, one in the evening (12 hours apart) about a cup and a half of greens (right now, romaine and butter lettuces) along with a slice or two of green peper and a baby carrot, sliced.  She has tons and tons of hay (we use it as litter material because she actually kicks the carefresh out.) There have, however, been two changes to her diet in the last few days.  The first of which is I made apple and sausage stuffing last night and I gave her the “ends” of a green apple – four in all…the slices were a little thicker than a piece of paper and it wasn’t much. She ate all four of them…  (We don’t usually give her treats…pieces of her nightly salad, sure, but not extra’s that we wouldn’t have already included.)  She’s also gotten two…maybe three…bite sized tostito’s in the last three days.  (She found a chunk of one on the floor and gobbled it up…and i’ve read that some people give their rabbits saltine crackers as snacks…so I didn’t stop the boyfriend from giving her little pieces to bribe her into her cage the last couple of days…but we’re talking a quarter of a chip here, a quarter of a chip there and the sum total of it can’t have been more than two or three chips.)

I know rabbits need to eat their cecal material because it’s part of their digestive process, so I’m concerned that she’s not getting that nutrition right now and I want to get the problem reigned in.

 

Her behaviour, by the way – has been totally normal.  Except for last night’s jumpy, panic, she’s been completely normal all day.

[Sarita]

I would cut out the tostito’s – it sounds like she’s getting too many carbs in her diet. Not eating the cecals isn’t bad as long as she’s getting the rest of her nutrition elsewhere but it might be she is over producing cecals due to the carbs.

[bitterepiphany]

Thanks Sarita!

I kind of figured it was probably dietary and it was either the watery apples or the oh-so-bad-for-you chips, so we nixed both, but I wanted to make sure no one thought it was serious enough, at this point, to warrant an immeidate vet visit. We’ve nixed the snacks and we’ll watch her like a hawk for the next few days.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Ditto on the doritos

Some rabbits get really really nervous when we cook; We haven’t really decided if it’s the smell or the noises but the rare occaisions that I cook Rupert goes into hiding for usually over a day! He really hates cooking (and I didn’t even set the fire alarm off or anything). For him I’m sure its the noise. Anyways my point was it’s not unusual for them to be frightened of kitchen noises

[Ang]

that is strange i thought it was just moreland but he hates it when i cook as well! silly rabbit, i bet its the smells.

[bitterepiphany]

Oh, god help the poor little thing if she’s afraid of cooking noises and smells. Our oven and stove run non-stop

[BinkyBunny]

Green apples also can be a little harder on the digestive system than red. I bet you will find that this will clear up once her diet is back to normal, but just keep an eye on her.

Keep us updated.

[KatnipCrzy]

When you describe ” wet coffee grounds”- it makes me think of when my bunnies poo is dry in consistency and easily crumbles.  So it makes quite the mess compared to the poos that dry and stay solid.

[bitterepiphany]

She seems to be doing all right last night and today, so I’m going to chalk this one up to diet. I’ve conned the boyfriend into giving up the chips entirely (he felt so bad for making her sick!)

So now we’re off to figure out what else she’ll like as much as she liked chips. Carrots don’t do it for her, neither do apples. I know some people use raisins but since they’re really just dried grapes and grapes are bad for all furry things, that seemed silly.

I’ve seen a lot of people say that salt licks are unnecessary, but since the salt seemed to appeal to her, would it be a problem to offer her a salt lick once in a while as a reward for doing something right (and to get her to visit her cage )

[BinkyBunny]

Regarding the salt licks – my understanding is that rabbits do get enough salt via their diet, but unlike mineral blocks, they aren’t harmful if you want to have it there as a temporary treat to lick on. I would imagine this would up her water consumption, so I would just make sure to have plenty of water.

I just did a google search and then checked on a few House Rabbit Society sites, and that’s how i came up with the answer above. I have never offered my bunnies salt licks and not many people here have them, so this is one question that I am not 100% on.
If someone has heard of salt licks to be harmful, please be sure to post it!

Update:  Just found a response by Dana Krempels to a similar question:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/Salt-Licks.htm

Basically says shouldn’t be a huge problem as long as the bunny is drinking plenty of water to flush out excess, otherwise, take it away.

[Author]

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