Mushy Poops...What to Try?

[Jenk]

My new guy had normal poops before coming home last night. (I saw them myself.) And they were fairly normal after he got here. But this morning, I've found most of them to be on the moist/mushy side. So I'd like to know:

1) Could they be mushy solely from his stress of the move?

2) Is there anything diet-wise that I should do (e.g., back off of feeding him lettuce or something or other) for the next few days to see if that makes an improvement?

Thank you,

Jenk

 

[Maureen Las]

Could be the stress of moving, also did you take some of the pellets that he was eating at the shelter /foster and bring them home.? he should be transitioned from 1 pellet to another rather than switched all at once I would give him hay for the next couple days and reintroduce him to greens all over again.

 

[Phinnsmommy]

It's probobly from stress of moving.

I would lay off the greens/fruits/treats, decrease his pellets a little bit, so he eats alot of hay.

 

[Jenk]

angieluv wrote:

Could be the stress of moving, also did you take some of the pellets that he was eating at the shelter /foster and bring them home.? he should be transitioned from 1 pellet to another rather than switched all at once I would give him hay for the next couple days and reintroduce him to greens all over again.

Yes, he's eating the same pellets as at the shelter.(I wasn't about to throw something entirely new at him. ) I don't intend to transition him to a new pellet for quite some time yet (i.e., months from now).

Based on what you and angieluv have said, I'll lay off the greens for several days, feeding him solely hay and pellets.

I'm concerned about Coccidia; but, at the same time, I don't want tospend the money on a potentially unnecessary test (assuming that the stress and the greens caused his mushy poops).

I've heard some raspybreathing from him at times; to me, that's the first thing that should be checked. But (*sigh*) perhaps a fecal float should be done, too. Oh,Dear Hubby is going to kill me if this bun startscosting us hundreds of dollarsright off the bat....

 

[Quietcreek]

when we have one that we feel is a little "off" we give them yogurt. for our Polish we give about 1/2 cc of any of the smooth flavors - my favorite and they seem to love it is the strawberry/banna.

 

[Phinnsmommy]

Actually, rabbits aren't supposed to have dairy :?. Bunnies are lactose intolerant.

Quietcreek wrote:

when we have one that we feel is a little "off" we give them yogurt. for our Polish we give about 1/2 cc of any of the smooth flavors - my favorite and they seem to love it is the strawberry/banna.

 

[Maureen Las]

benebac would help instead of yogurt

 

[Maureen Las]

There is no need to start with coccidia testing unless your vet suggest it. If the blood is tested increased eosinphils would suggest that the rabbit was fighting a parasite.

A single fecal for coccidia is not conclusive. because of the lifecycle of the eggs several test are needed ,spaced apart to sometimes even see it.

I went through this with RIP Gabriel who was a stray. His eosinphil were initially increased and several months later were normal . In the interim period I had 3 negative coccidia tests done in separate labs. This was one rabbit that was in very bad condition when I adopted him

He didnt have it.
Coccidia is not just mushy poo but outright diarrhea.

 

[Jenk]

angieluv wrote:

There is no need to start with coccidia testing unless your vet suggest it. If the blood is tested increased eosinphils would suggest that the rabbit was fighting a parasite.

(Gabriel) didnt have it.
Coccidia is not just mushy poo but outright diarrhea.

In that case, I'm not having him tested for it, not today--especially since his poops are just now starting to regulate (resize) again. I'm going to pinpoint the issue as being stress and plain 'ol poopy butt (from last night's greens). I'll stop feeding greens for 2-3 days and see if his poops begin to dry/firm up.

Of course, I'll discuss diet with the vet and ask for her thoughts on starting him on Bene-Bac. (I have the gel at this time; I can't give him the powdered form immediately, if he's off greens for a bit.)

 

[tonyshuman]

They probably didn't give him any veggies at the shelter, or just a few occasional ones. I'd reintroduce greens slowly, like others have said. My guys sometimes leave cecals after the stress of a move, too.

 

[Jenk]

tonyshuman wrote:

They probably didn't give him any veggies at the shelter, or just a few occasional ones. I'd reintroduce greens slowly, like others have said. My guys sometimes leave cecals after the stress of a move, too.

No, they actually fed the shelter buns a large amount of greens. (I was visiting my guy during feeding time. He got a large pile of Romaine lettuce, parsley and kale.)

Stress alone may have gotten to him. I'll definitely give him a few days' break from greens and then re-introduce them slowly to his diet (assuming that his poops firm up before we reach that point).

 

[Quietcreek]

Hmm that's the first time I've ever heard that rabbits are lactose intolerant :shock: But I can say from experience that we've neverhad anything but good luck bygiving them yogurt. Matter of fact when I have time I even give it to all the babies at weaning time or even when they have any kind of change, bring a new bunny home or sending one to a new home - I used to give it one timea week to everyone but that because too much of a hassle. Anyway I can only talk fromthe experience I've had by using it.

 

[Spring]

My Bruno had a similar thing, it was just stress from going to a different home, cleared up in a week or so. Don't worry so much!

Yogurt is more of an 'old schooled' method that's not needed now that we have safer probiotics like Benebac that are a lot easier for the rabbits to handle.

 

[Pipp]

Quietcreek wrote:

Hmm that's the first time I've ever heard that rabbits are lactose intolerant :shock:  But I can say from experience that we've never had anything but good luck by giving them yogurt. Matter of fact when I have time I even give it to all the babies at weaning time or even when they have any kind of change, bring a new bunny home or sending one to a new home - I used to give it one time a week to everyone but that because too much of a hassle.  Anyway I can only talk from the experience I've had by using it.  

Actually, it's not that rabbits are lactose intolerant, period, I think it's that many bunnies will become lactose-intolerant as they grow older.

And even plain yogurt contains naturally occurring sugars (from lactose), and that's not so great, either. Bad bacteria and yeast thrive on sugar and that can negate the advantage of the live cultures in yogurt balancing the gut bacteria in the first place.

Yogurt was always a great old school gut stabilizer for young 'uns when nothing else was available, but as Spring said, the trend these days is to probiotics like acidophilus caps and Bene-bac.

Good to hear you're so attentive when it comes to the gut changes to begin with! Yogurt isn't terrible, it was a vet standby for years, and I trust opinions from people like you who have used it, especially with 'off' babies. I would recommend others use it the same way as you when the more pure pro-biotic concoctions aren't available, but I think these days the latter is preferred.

(As an aside, I've been meaning to research the use of kefir as a probiotic instead of yogurt. I read somewhere that the bacteria in yogurt is 'transient' as opposed to kefir which is better able to colonize the gut and that it also contains many beneficial bacteria not present in yogurt or other pro biotic supplements. Kefir is still a milk product, however, so I suspect a very active probiotic would still be preferable for rabbits. Something to look into though).

sas

 

[Jenk]

Spring wrote:

My Bruno had a similar thing, it was just stress from going to a different home, cleared up in a week or so. Don't worry so much!

Heh, I'll try to stress less. Another rough spot for me at the moment is that I don't know his personality yet. So I couldn't tell the vet yesterday if his tendency to lie around in his cage is normal for him, or not. But, this morning, he did bounce around between his two litter pans and did the bun head shake; I take that as a good thing.

His poops are stillfluctuating. That is, they've stabilized in size; but some can still be easily smooshed, while others are firm enough to be flicked with across the room. (Not that I'd ever do that. )