Hi everybody
As some of you may know, Penny is a new bun in my household. She is my 3rd rabbit and I adopted her from the shelter. She is about 2 years old. She is a mixed breed beyond recognition, but she is medium size, 5.6lbs and very lean and muscular (not fat, not thin). She was recently diagnosed with ear mites and was treated with a dose of Revolution on this past Wednesday.
I volunteer with the shelter so I knew Penny long before I adopted her. She has *always* been a big eater. She will eat anything you put in front of her immediately and won't stop every last morsel has been consumed. People thought we were starving her because of how she reacted to food. She tested NEGATIVE for parasites in a fecal test. She is perfect size and weight. We've always fed her 1/4 cup of timothy pellets a day, a healthy portion of greens daily and about half a litter box full of hay. She'll eat all of it by the time the next volunteer sees her.
When I took her home, I gave her the same amount, but more greens because that's just how much I feed my bunnies. Every time I see her, her water bowl is empty and her litter box no longer has hay. She eats EVERYTHING in a short amount of time. I fill her litterbox 3/4 way to the top with hay about 2 or 3 times in a 24 hour period. She'll eat every little piece of hay until all I see is the newspaper lining unless I give her more. She drinks more water than I've ever seen any rabbit drink. I understand that the more hay a bun eats, the more likely they are to drink water. But she literally goes through 3 bowls of water a day and slurp it dry. Her urine was orangey-red when I got her, but since the vet visit and she got Revolution, her pee has turned almost clear. Kind of strange, but maybe not abnormal.
What I've thought was kind of strange was her poop. She eats a ton of hay, so she poops a lot of poo :biggrin: Her poop is about the size of a marble, some are a little bigger. They are mostly dry with visible little hay fibers in it, sometimes a little bit moist but not mushy. They're not always round. Sometimes they're an oblong shape.
The shape sorta worries me because I did hear her gut gurgle a couple of times from a reasonable distance away. She never seems to be in pain and if she were having any stasis threats, I am sure I would have noticed given her track record for putting away food, so I don't think it's that. I have heard that the longish shaped poop could be a sign of megacolon. What is megacolon and what should I be looking for? She was just at the vet last Wed. and besides the ear mites, the vet didn't visibly see anything wrong with her. Or is her food intake and long poop just "normal"?
I would appreciate any thoughts on this! I could just be a bit oversensitive, but she's new to me and I just want to make sure she's healthy.
