Baby with mush poop, cecal dysbiosis?

[LyndaA]

I posted the thread below to "Behavior and Nutrition" a few days ago, then realized it probably should have been here....

Hello all,

I have a baby rabbit with mushy poop off and on and am looking for some advice.

Here's the background... The bunny is 7 weeks old. She was syringe raised, starting at 10 days of age. She is bright-eyed and energetic. She is also tiny, no more than 1/2 the size of her siblings. She weighs only 17oz. (Mamma rabbit is about 7 lbs).

Starting about 10 days ago, she has had mushy shiny black stool off and on. The majority of her poop looks normal. The mushy stuff mainly happens at night. Based on what I have read, I am assuming this is cecal dysbiosis, but I don't know what to do about it.

I did take her to a rabbit savy vet. She has been treated with 3 days of Bene-bac, treated for intestinal parasites (although fecal was negative) and been treated for mites (not sure why). No improvement.

She eats free choice juvenile rabbit food and alfalfa hay. She gets a tiny portion of parsley and spinach twice daily.

If it is cecal dysbiosis, what do I do? I'm worried that if she is not eating the cecotropes, that she will eventually succumb to malnourishment. If cecal dysbiosis isn't what's happening, any other ideas?

Thanks so much!
Lynda

Since original post, I stopped all fresh veggies and greatly cut back the amount of pellets she is eating (so, total of 3 days). Her pellets went from about 1/2 c per day to about 2 Tbsp per day. Most of her poop continues to be completely formed and normal, but she still has the mushy shiny black stuff that sticks to her fur. It is relatively formed, looking like a cluster of shiny black grapes (until she steps in it). I'm guessing this is a normal consistency for cecotropes, but shouldn't she be eating them? Do I need to worry that she is not? Will she be malnourished?

 

[JBun]

If the cecotropes are normal and not sticky, semi-formed or unformed, and mushy, then it could be that she is just overproducing cecals because of a too rich diet, but it can also just be because she is a young bunny and they get distracted easily and forget to eat some of them. If you suspect her diet is too rich, you can try cutting back on alfalfa hay a little, and add in some grass hay, like timothy.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/drop/Drp_en.htm

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

Question: how are these cecals shaped? Normal cecotropes should be shaped like clustered grapes or likea blackberry. Sometimes especially with the little bunnies they will over produce (just because they have a rich diet) and also because they're so busy bounding around and being little bunnies, they don't always eat the cecals. Over time, they get the hang of it.

However, if these seem really mushy and not shaped at all, then maybe that's a cause for doing something (although sometimes they also smear them all over because of sitting in them but still have normal cecals). You can always try getting some powdered Benebac and give that. It is probiotics that help get the gut flora back to what it should be. It does worry me a bit that she's half the size of her siblings. Were they all hand raised or just her? If just her, then maybe I would expect her to be smaller anyway.

 

[LyndaA]

Thanks for your reply!

For what I have been reading, most of them are normal cluster shaped cecotropes. I think maybe she is just smashing them around. I removed all fresh veggies from her diet and reduced her pellets by 75% with not much change. I saw a suggestion to replace alfalfa hay with timothy, but I'm worried that I have already cut back her diet so much!

She was the only one that was hand raised.