If it's not one thing it's another.

For the past few weeks Ellie has had horrible poopy butt. It's not runny, but the cecals are all smashed into her fur, like she is producing more than she can eat...plus they stink!! She's never had this problem before.

I can't tell you how many butt baths I've given her. She's actually quite good about them. Katie supports Ellie on the edge of the kitchen sink with her butt hanging over and I hose her off.

I can't seem to figure out what is causing this. I thought it might be because she's hardly eating hay anymore. I always left out her dish with pellets and she would nibble at it all day long....but she would eat a good amount of hay too. Now she's not, the little brat <_< . So I've been taking her dish away during the day, which forces her to eat the hay. Last night before I went to bed at 11 pm we had to hose her off, and then again when I got home from work at 5 pm today. She's driving me nuts!!

I don't know what else to do, other than sticking a cork up her butt :lol: . The pellets I give her have 13% protein and 18-23% crude fiber, which is within the guidelines I've read online.

She seems to be getting somewhat hand shy cuz everytime we pet her or pick her up she needs a bath!!! Yesterday she hid under her blanket all day. But once I gave her the bath she was laying around out in the open.

You know, Bo had that for a while and he's been a bit off if we don't feed him just so- so...... Wonder what is going on?!

Is it cecal (in the grape bunches) or the regular poos (like pudding).
Is there anything else that you feed her at the moment to cause all the poos?

What brand is the pellets? Do you suspect it might be a bad batch of pellets?

How is her Hay? I always give Alfalfa hay if Pebbles gets picky, just to get her back into the habit of eating hay. However Alfalfa is not her regular food (more of a treat).

Oats might help firm up the mushy poos. I would get some pumpkin to keep the fibre content up and to keep her hydrated.

PB....

These are definitely cecals. Sometimes they smell horrible! Her other poos are normal and there are plenty of them!

The pellets are Kaytee Timothy Complete. They are pretty expensive, but the brand she used to eat they stopped carrying several months ago, so I switched her to this. She's been fine the whole time until a couple weeks ago.

Her hay is the same brand I've always used: Oxbow Western Timothy. It's a fresh bag...nice and green. She couldn't eat enough of it when I first bought the bag. Then, like I said, within the past couple weeks she just picks at it.

Am I feeding her too much Timothy-based food?

I haven't been giving her much vegetables....a little bit of parsley or a couple pieces of romaine once a week. It seemed to make things worse. I stopped completely giving her craisins and the yogurt drops. No wonder she's becoming such a rabbitch LOL!!

Today she was actually back to her old friendly self, and I have no idea why! Nothing has changed. My husband said she was climbing all over him during the day and begging by the kitchen door. She's been laying out in the open and letting me pet her and pick her up. I hope this lasts, and she was just going thru a phase! Her butt has been clean all day, so I'm going to give her some oats and see if that keeps her clean.

Thanks!

Timothy Hay is always unlimited with Pebbles. I keep her bowl filled all the time. Once in a while she gets a few Alfalfa or a hay cube. Maybe the variety helps her from getting picky.

I cut back on vegatables too because there is a fine line between too much vegatables and poopy butt for Pebbles. I do give her some vegs daily though.

Once in a while I give Pebbles plain low fat yogurt just to keep her stomach balance in check.

I hope that it is a phase too, where the cecals was temporary excessive. Hope things have cleared up. Does Ellie get much exercise?

Today, I let Clover and Bo out to play. Of course they were marking the blankets with their poos, but my mom was walking through and she saw a really smooshy poo. It was NOT a cecal :unsure:. We realised it was from Bo. We gave him dry oats. So we're waiting to see what happens next.

Mabey you should give her some dried oats. :)

Poopy butt has returned :butt:

I gave her some dry oats Wednesday night. But, I had to give her a butt bath yesterday afternoon. I can't believe how much she stinks!!

This morning there was a huge...and I mean HUGE stinky, mushy, partially runny cecal on the throw rug by her litter box. I am not exaggerating when I say this thing was at least 3 inches long. :blink:

I picked her up to see what her butt looked like, and there was just a little bit stuck in her fur. I figured she could clean that herself, but god does she smell!!

I'm going to check on her again in a little bit, and if she hasn't cleaned herself she's getting another bath.

I was wondering if maybe she's getting lazy about cleaning herself because I'm doing it for her? She doesn't seem to mind getting hosed off at all, never fights it, or kicks her feet.

She probably thinks she's at the Spa <_<

How old is she?

Is she overweight?

She will be 3 in July.

I'm not sure if she's overweight, she might be a little bit. When she got sick in January she was down to 4 lbs. and the vet was concerned. But she has put that weight back on, so I'm guessing maybe 6 lbs. She's a holland lop, so is that OK?

She gets as much exercise as she wants since she's not in a cage.

Her butt is kinda messy this morning again, but I'm going to let her clean it.....*sigh*

Do they sell bunny diapers? :???:

If she's 6 pounds that could be a bit heavy. Bo looks a bit heavy like that too - but his backbone is very easily felt... so I don't know.

I have found that the little tasty twigs and tasty pretzels they love so much - give bo soft poos. :(

I know some breeders have Holland Lop bucks that weigh in at 2.6 lbs.
The ideal weight for show bunnies are 3 lbs. and most are under 4 lbs.

How much oats is Ellie getting? That may be the culprit of poopy butts if given too much. Oats is carbohydrates and is fattening.

Can you get her more fibre? That means more hay and maybe pumpkin.
Don't forget to keep her hydrated.

Get better Ellie... you are worrying your mommy and the rest of us. :nurse:

Ok, it sounds like she needs to go on a diet. I'm going to take away her food dish for the rest of the night and fill up her hay container. She's either going to start eating hay, or die of starvation!!

I hardly ever give her oats. The first time she had any in weeks was 3 nights ago, and I thought that would help her. I forgot about the tasty twigs! She always loved those and I haven't given her any of those either. All she's been eating is hay and pellets.

There was another huge cecal laying on the throw rug outside of her litter box this afternoon.

OMG! I didn't even think about it..... when Bo had soft and runny poos as a baby I gave him oats - to solid him up but too many could cause soft poos couldn't it?

That's what it is with Bo - I bet anything it is! He's been having more oats than normal.... :innocent:

We have a clean butt today!

:spice: :spice: :spice: :spice: :spice:

How is Ellie doing? :lophop:

We've had a clean butt for 2 whole days now!! :dance: :dance:

I think she was eating too many pellets. Because now I have only been feeding her pellets at night and letting her eat hay during the day. I gave her a yogurt drop this morning because she was so cute and adorable sitting up begging by the kitchen door :bag:. It didn't seem to affect her.

Hopefully she is all better! I'll keep you guys updated if anything starts happening again.