Hey Yall, Toronto Canada. Got some bunny questions.

[Caramel_Bunny]

:bunnyhug::bunnydance::bunny19

hey guys i got lots of questions to ask. i tried looking up things online. Im just not getting any good answers i probably dont know where to look.

So I have had this netherland dwarf bunny almost 2 years. got her when she was a year old from a girl who was moving away and couldnt keep her, actually got it for mygirlfreind at the time but she told me she didnt want it to i kept it.

she seems to have some poopie problems, i buy her good quality pellets and hay she never likes to eat her hay mainly just pellets. sometimes i get her fresh greens but i read they shouldnt eat too much fresh stuff and it should be mainly dried. she really loves banana and i give her little bits sometimes to make her happy. she sometimes gets diahreah. i only give her banana every few weeks and only tiny bits.

her butt gets poopy and i have to wipe it and wash it for her. my ex told me i shouldnt wash her butt too much only like once a month so she doesnt get hairballs. i have to wash her butt about every 7 to 10 days.

she seems to have a bit of balding on her butt and the poop gets on her skin. i dont think this is normal but ive talked to a few people about it and they dont think its a big deal. ive tried changing her diet to try and improve this. i dont know if she has some kind of medical condition. sometimes i hear her little bunny tummy rumbling. i also dont know if thats normal.

also she seemed to be a bit fat when i got her and ive tried to get her more healthy by taking her out and playing with her and improving her diet, she hasnt lost much weight ( if any at all ) that pic of her in the garden was taken when i first got her. the girl i got her from was feeding her some generic walmart food it didnt seem very good.
///// edit: read some of the other threads regarding poopy butt. i will try cutting out the pellets and just giving her hay. i tried this before but she just stopped eating. she rarely eats her hay, it useually just sits in her cage


about a month ago i noticed her eye was bothering her. her eyelashes were touching her eyeball and irritating it. i took the eyelashes off her eye and cleaned them once they were dry they wernet touching her eye anymore. the next day i checked on her and the eyelashes were again bothering her eye and now there was some puss on it. i cleaned her eye and washed out the lashes but noticed they were still touching her eyeball. she has two layers of eyelashes only the lower layer was bothering her eye so i cut it. then she got better and was a nice happy bunny.

then a couple weeks later same thing again, i noticed her eyelashes had already grown out. i cut them again and cleaned her eye and she was fine. Have any of you ever expierence anything like that? i couldnt find much online about it. i did find somthing about girls who use eyelash curlers on thier bunnies.

i know i just put out alot to read but to anyone who takes the time to reply i appreciate it <3

 

[curiouscarrot]

Hi and welcome. I'd have your bunny checked out by a vet. I know in dogs with entropion, you need surgery to fix it, but you'd need to get your bunny assessed to see whether anything else can fix his eye problem.

 

[JBun]

Welcome! You have a cute little bun

What you are seeing with your rabbit, is called cecal dysbiosis or Intermittent Soft Stools or Cecotropes, if what you are seeing is normal fecal pellets but soft cecotropes. Usually it is too many sugars and carbs from pellets that causes the poopy bum problems, though sometimes some veggies, or too many treats, can also be a cause. Decreasing pellet amounts some, often fixes this, but you also have to make sure your rabbit is eating hay, as the fiber also helps correct this problem. When decreasing pellets, rabbits will usually start eating more hay to make up for it, but if your rabbit isn't a big hay eater, you may have to try something else, like a different kind of hay, to get her eating it. There are lots of different grass hays you could try: meadow, bermuda, timothy, orchard, coastal, and oat(with oat you have to make sure there aren't any grain heads). But you don't just want to stop pellets for too long without knowing that she is eating her hay, as not keeping food in the digestive system can sometimes lead to it's own problems. You'll want to stop all sugary treats though. And butt baths are ok if it is necessary. It's much better to be washing that stuff off, then leaving it stuck in her fur. The balding on her bottom, could be from the poopy bum problems causing irritation. You'll just want to keep an eye on it and make sure it isn't getting sore and irritated. The loud gurgling isn't something you want to be hearing. It's part of the overall bacterial imbalance causing the problem that your rabbit is experiencing. These links help to explain it better. With the eyelash problem, that is something that you would need to have addressed by a vet.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/drop/Drp_en.htm
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=3012
http://www.sawneeanimalclinic.com/downloads/chronic_intermittent_diarrhea_in_rabbits.pdf

Fresh veggies are good for rabbits, but you will probably want to wait til you have the poopy bum sorted out, before starting to introduce them. Then you want to introduce one veggie at a time, and start with tiny amounts, and only gradually increase if it doesn't cause any soft poop.
http://www.3bunnies.org/feeding.htm#greens
http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html

 

[Azerane]

Hello and welcome, I agree that trying a different type of hay might help to encourage her to eat it. Some rabbits can be really fussy when it comes to what type or even what brand of hay they will eat. What type of hay are you currently feeding?

 

[Caramel_Bunny]

jojos best western timothy hay. supposed to be the best i can get in my area. i used to get her squares of timothy hay and alfalfa like just the pure hay crushed into cubes so she could chew on them and toss them around. she didnt really like to eat them either tho.

i had her up north with me for a while there was lots of greens my dad had planted young oats, and some other things that i forget, when i first got her i used to make her dried kale and she seemed to really like it then lost intrest. she just loves her pellets and banana but i rarely give her banana because i dont want her getting poopy butt.

eating the fresh greens she had no poopy butt suprisingly and even started yelling at me like growling and making a fuss to bring her more. she actually stopped eating her pellets and only wanted greens. she was upset for a couple days when i had to bring her back to the city. knocking over her food dish and stuff digging her bedding and kicking it out of her cage.

shes kind of a moody jerk but i still want to take the best care of her.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Peter used to eat pellets only so I kept cutting back on them till he started eating hay--now he eats a lot of hay and only gets a small amount of pellet. I also cut way down on the fresh greens and we don't have the "poopy" problem anymore. Also, I never bathed him--instead I used unscented baby wipes to keeps him clean and they also keep his skin moist. Also limit sugary treats as they do promote loose stool.