Too many cecals or mushy poop — how to tell?

[JackRabbit]

Ok, I know this is going to be a bit gross but, how do you tell the difference between overproduction of cecals, mushy poop, and “sharts” once it’s all sat in, squished into fleece and dried? Moshi has this problem off and on and it seems to always be where he was sleeping. Litterbox poops are normal, and the ones that just “fall out” occasionally are always normal. He doesn’t get too many pellets or treats and his salads are not too big and only include items he’s ok with so the reason is still up in the air, but it would help if I could figure out what to call the “leftovers” that I’m finding!

Edit: Here’s the weird part — if I give him simethicone at night on his salad, the messy poops don’t happen the next afternoon.

[LBJ10]

Are they super dark? Cecals tend to be really dark, almost black. They are kinda stinky too.

[JackRabbit]

Its not really a “they” but an “it”. I can tell when there’s normal cecals, but this is smeared. Darker than normal poop but lighter than normal cecals. There’s either a blob stuck to him or a blob stuck to the fleece, but sometimes just lots of big smears on the fleece. Sometimes there’s a normal poop or two with or stuck in the mess, sometimes a single cecal ball or two dried and stuck in the mess and sometimes there’s no trace of anything on him but big smears on the fleece. The only consistent thing is if I give him simethicone at night, it doesn’t happen the next afternoon — gave it two nights in a row, no poop, skipped a day, poop mess, gave it that night, no poop the next day. Other than the poop mess, all poops are light and normal shape and size. If I could tell they were cecals, I’d lower his pellets more (current 1/16 cup in the AM and same at dinner). If I could tell its mushy poop, maybe no greens for a day or two. He and Marlee have been drinking tons of water the past two weeks (close to emptying two 24 oz bottles overnight) and Marlee’s fine

[LBJ10]

Well, if you can’t tell then may experiment with pellets vs veggies. See what happens and maybe you can narrow the problem down.

[JackRabbit]

Tonight, no salad, a couple of mature oat hay tops (to keep him away from Marlee’s salad), no simethicone. Fingers crossed.

[Megabunny]

How’d he do?

[JackRabbit]

Can’t tell yet since it happens in the afternoons during or after sleep time.

[Sarita]

It is difficult to tell if they are smeared….since cecals are pretty distinct when they are intact. But mushy poo is pretty obvious too…I’ve only truly dealt with mushy poo with my rabbit Mango and we never were certain the reason for this – he had arthritis and had some serious bouts of stasis too which we could never ever pinpoint the reason for. But the mushy poo was pretty obvious – it was gooey and we tried several medications to correct that with no success – the vet had originally diagnosed it as giardia…but when we sent it out to a lab – nothing.

[MoxieMeadows]

The only time I’ve really seen “mushy poo” is when Moxie was young (under a year) and (I wasn’t the most experienced bunny mom) I gave her some leafy green mixture. Well, she then had very mushy poo, that almost looked like diarrhea. It was very scary.
Fingers crossed for Moshi!!

Anything new? Did it help?

[JackRabbit]

Ugh!! Moshi is trying to confuse me!

No fleece smears when I got home from work (yay!), but in the usual place were one normal poop and one tiny cecal ball (from a regular cecal clump).

[Deleted User]

DITTO Moxie!
That was when I learned/realised I was giving Henry tooooo many greens, and the hubby was giving him a bit too much fruit.
Once I knew and corrected his dinner greens/salad and the hubby is now only allowed to him a ‘bit’ of apple and a ‘bit’ of banana daily we haven’t had the problem.
Good luck JR – I know this has been worrying you.

[JackRabbit]

Gave Moshi oat hay tops no salad again tonight to make sure today wasn’t a fluke. Tomorrow night, small salad.

[Deleted User]

Poor Moshi! I bet he hates you! Lol!

BUT this is the only way to know….. like I said, I gave Henry too many greens and fruit – yucky butt! (DREADFUL butt!). Once I got his dinner right and his fruit (dam husband!), I have never had the problem since. Finger’s crossed JR that you get to the bottom (lol!) of this!

[JackRabbit]

While Moshi loves his salad, I believe he may love his oat hay tops just as much if not more. He hums for both so its hard to tell. He definitely doesn’t feel slighted, and I even put the oat hay tops in his salad bowl!

[Deleted User]

See…… I have NO idea what oat tops are??? Is it what I thought – the tops of the hay, like the fluffy looking bit you get in a bag of hay, but it’s just the tops without the hay straw bottom??? If it is – yes, Henry likes them too! But we barely get any in his bag of hay – sad Henry face!
Being so restricted and limited and what I can buy – half the time I have no idea what you guys are talking about??? Like 1st cut, 2nd cut??? Oat tops, this and that – HUH???

[LBJ10]

It’s probably going to take some experimenting to get through the process of elimination. I’m sure you’ll get it figured out though!

[Author]

Messages