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Small fecal pellets

22 9:37:27

Question
Hi, I've had my rabbit for about a year. I adopted him from a very trustworthy org, he never had health problems. He is a good eater, and my best hay eater. About a 10 days or so ago, I noticed that his poop was inconsistent in size, some very very small. I started giving  him a second serving of greens, very wet, made sure he had tons of his favorite hays and watched closely. There was no change . I did notice he wasn't eating one of the hays that he loves at all. I brought him to his rabbit savvy vet. His belly felt fine, good gut sounds, normal temp, etc. Tooth exam showed a lot of saliva in his mouth ( vet couldnt see a spur , etc, bc my bunny would not allow a long  tooth exam.
So vet felt he should put him under and look for cause of saliva.
He found a small spur that had not caused a laceration but  left a white Mark in his soft tissue.
He did not fall asleep or wake up from anesthesia smoothly (I was right there) so the whole thing was super upsetting for a small spur that he may have knocked off himself. It's been 5 days and his poop are the same, inconsistent and some very tiny. He is eating better than he was a couple of days after the procedure .
He's also been quieter since the procedure . I hate to bring him back bc of the stress but I decided if he's not improved by 1 week from procedure, I'll have to have him seen again.
This is extremely upsetting and I'm not sure what to do/think at this point.
Today is Tuesday. He had the small spur removed last Thursday. His fecal pellets are still small. Some are tiny. He is eating normally. I believe he went under anesthesia for no reason at all. I'm very worried now, bc I have no idea what the problem could be.
Any idea?
Thanks,
JC

Sent from my iPhone

Answer
Dear Janine

Sorry for the delay in responding.  The AllExperts site has not been reliable of late, and wasn't sending notifications of questions pending.

I would suggest you try getting your bunny very well hydrated.  It's possible that his mouth discomfort was keeping him from drinking enough or eating enough wet greens.  A short course of subQ fluids, as directed by your vet, and possibly even an enema:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/enema.html  (Do not do this without supervision from your vet)

will help get the fluids into his GI tract that he needs to form nice, normal poops.

If that doesn't help, ask the vet about trying a short course of cisapride and/or Reglan to see if GI motility is the problem.  If so, then the vet may need to do a bit more detective work to find a source of stress/pain that is triggering the slowdown of your bunny's GI tract.  Please see:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

I hope this helps get things started back on the right track.

Dana