Something seems off about my bunnies

[lunavenus]

Since late yesterday night and today I’ve been seeing sort of a mixture of dried dehydrated type of poop, excess cecal looking poop, and regular poop. I also noticed a big decrease in amount of regular poops so I’m sort of freaking out. I saw my lil babies eating today but Im not sure how much they were eating and they were super active, binkying, and sprinting this morning so they were making a lot of noise which woke me up at like 6 in the morning. I opened their cage up and let them play in their connected playpen while I got some more sleep into my system. When I woke up, I saw a lot of smeared cecal like poop instead of the normal numerous regular poop they usually have. I’m getting a lil concerned. Should I contact an emergency vet?? It’s like a almost 10 pm here so I’d need to call the emergency department. I’ve been ill so I haven’t been able to keep like an hawk eye on my bunnies for the past 2 days. But now I’m freaking out alot because they don’t seem okay…. What should i do?!?!?! 

[lunavenus]

Update: I hand fed them some pellets to see if they are willing to eat. They ate the pellets off of my hands really willingly and I just checked their hay racks and both hay racks are almost empty which means they ate a lot of it within the last 24 hours. I don’t understand why their poop is so squishy and weird looking… Am i giving them too rich food? I dont give them treats. Just alfalfa hay, pellets, and water.

[jerseygirl]

If they’re eating, it should be okay to wait until you can visit the regular vet. If you see runny diarrhea though, that is an immediate vet visit.

You may have to modify their diet a bit. You can try feeding timothy hay instead of alfalfa. Young rabbits do well on this and should be getting enough protein from their pellets. OR, if you’re feeding a junior pellet, switch to an adult one but give a bit of alfalfa hay along with timothy or any other appropriate grass hays.

You may want to get their poop tested for coccidia, an intestinal parasite.

[skysblue]

Start introducing grass hay like timothy to them. My vet said bunny at 5 months should start weaning off alfalfa.

[Bam]

I second the grass hay instead of alfalfa! It’s not a vet emergency if a bun has extra cecals but is still producing normal poop. That plus the fact that they are full of energy and have good appetite leads me to think that this is sth that can be fixed with a bit of dietary adjustment. They are the right age to be taken off alfalfa. They might not agree though, since alfalfa is very yummy, so if they absolutely won’t eat grassy hay, you can mix it with a slowly decreasing amount of alfalfa.

[cinnybun2015]

Like the others said, alfalfa hay is very rich and high in calcium. I would recommend starting to introduce timothy hay. If your buns keep acting strangely and you feel it is time to see a vet, then head to your vet. He/she will likely give you some info on what’s happening. I don’t really know anything about cecals, I’m sorry, but like bam said, I think it’s not a total emergency unless they stop eating/drinking or stop producing normal poops.

[lunavenus]

Thank for the replies guys

So they are doing fine right now but the ratio of regular poops is starting to look less than excessive cecals so I called the vet and made an immediate appointment for tomorrow. I can’t go today because I’m seriously injured (can only limp walk) and the vet said she’s closing for the day. They are active as always and doing some crazy noisy sprinting and binkying earlier this morning and afternoon. I suspect that when I changed their hay from the timothy hay to alfalfa hay, the alfalfa hay was too rich for them and their diet became imbalanced or maybe somehow they caught a bug??. I only changed their hay because one my bunnies was feeling kinda thin so i needed something to boost her weight. She doesn’t feel as thin anymore so the alfalfa hay helped but now their poops are all messed up and its like 20x harder to clean their cage and play pen now. They still produce normal poop but in lesser quantities but they eat through both racks of hay and drink water everyday, so I’m going to take that as a good sign.

[Bam]

It seems very plausible that it’s the alfalfa hay. The cause of intermittent soft cecotropes (ISC) is most commonly inappropriate diet. And by inappropriate I mean sth that isn’t agreeing with the individual rabbit, not that you’re feeding them sth bunnies shouldn’t eat. Here’s an article that has good info about this condition and on how to distinguish it from diarrhea – diarrhea is a vet emergency but with ISC, you’ve more time : http://rabbit.org/intermittent-soft-cecotropes-in-rabbits/

[lunavenus]

Update:
I just came back from the vet and the vet told me that I need to get them off alfalfa as soon as possible and that he’s glad luna gained some weight compared to our last visit 10 days ago. I bought a box of timothy hay from small pet select and it just arrived so I’m going to switch them back to their timothy hay. They didn’t like their trip to the vet very much :/ They seem a little stressed but overall I was glad to hear its nothing too serious and that their poop will come back to normal once i switch them to timothy hay

[jerseygirl]

Aw poor lil things. They’ll hopefully settle back to their happy selves soon. They might be grumpy about their alfalfa disappearing though.
You can always give it as a little treat now and then.

[Baker506]

In the last week my female lop Brownie has lost about 90% of the use of her hind legs. Eating drinkin pooing peeing just fine. And doesn’t appear to be in any pain. No teeth grinding and still likes the attention. I haven’t been handling her so much but she hasn’t really seemed to mind that either. Have to hold her with one hand and wash her with the other every day because when she pees or poo’s she can’t move away from it so she gets kind of dirty. Also doesn’t seem to mind that. I’m worried that I’m gonna have to put her down. Her life mate Mr. Floppers is kind of worried about it to. Any help would be great. Oh yeah, I also live in very rural Nome, Alaska and there is no vet for 600 miles. Again, any help would be great.

[jerseygirl]

Posted By Baker506 on 3/15/2016 10:51 PM

In the last week my female lop Brownie has lost about 90% of the use of her hind legs. Eating drinkin pooing peeing just fine. And doesn’t appear to be in any pain. No teeth grinding and still likes the attention. I haven’t been handling her so much but she hasn’t really seemed to mind that either. Have to hold her with one hand and wash her with the other every day because when she pees or poo’s she can’t move away from it so she gets kind of dirty. Also doesn’t seem to mind that. I’m worried that I’m gonna have to put her down. Her life mate Mr. Floppers is kind of worried about it to. Any help would be great. Oh yeah, I also live in very rural Nome, Alaska and there is no vet for 600 miles. Again, any help would be great.

Hi Baker506

Im sorry you & bun are experiencing this. It is a good sign she is eating and toileting.  What age is she?

Two things come to mind when I think of hind end paralysis
1) E. Cuniculi parasitic infection. They can carry this  their whole lives and not have any symptoms. Then, in some rabbits, it may present when the rabbit has aged or immune has been stressed due to another illness. 

2) Skeletal changes or injury; arthritis, spondylosis, or subluxation of veterbrae.

It’s best she be seen by a vet but i understand that may not be a option for you. Are there any that do periodic visits into your area?  Or maybe you could try do a video consult??  

Ideally, it would be good to start her on a rabbit safe analgesic/anti-inflammatory. This will help with both skeletal issue and/or infection. 

E.cuniculi can be treated with a 28 day course of panacur (fenbendazole) but there is no guarantee this would help her 100% regain use of her legs. Usually and anti inflammatory (like metacam) is given also.   There are rabbits that live happy lives without use of their back legs. You can get little carts made to keep them mobile. 

You can start a new thread for Brownie if you like. That way members are better able to respond to  you. Just cut and paste your post from here.

[jerseygirl]

@Baker506, I also meant to ask if they spend time outdoors?
Paralysis ticks or racoon roundworm can cause paralysis.

[Baker506]

Alfalfa hay is the root problem with your rabbits poo problem.  Swith to hay, parsley leaves and STEMS.  Helps bind the poop. Stringy root veggies along with hay, problem solved.

[lunavenus]

I changed out the hay to timothy and their poops seem like they are coming back to normal

[LittlePuffyTail]

Glad to hear there is improvement.

[Author]

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