Cecal dysbiosis and Florentero

Question
QUESTION: I have a neutered male Holland Lop who leaves frequent giant cecal piles. He is about four years old and comes from what we think was a crack house, where he was fed only carrots. As a result, I think that his gut has never had the right flora and he is sensitive to any fruit treats and possibly greens.

He is slightly overweight but can reach his cecals easily.

He is a great timothy hay eater, has two salads (greenleaf lettuce, parsley, cilantro & tiny amount of grated carrot) a day along with maybe 1/4 cup of American Pet Diner Timothy pellets. I recently switched him from Oxbow BBT but there was no significant reduction in cecals.

My vet is holistic and recommends Florentero paste and tablets (florentero.com) for rabbits. I once gave Ryan a small probiotic biscuit (meant for horses) and the results were terrible - really runny cecals. Yuk.

1. Do you think I should try Florentero with him?

2. Is there any other treatment to balance his gut? I'd really like to be able to give him the occasional treat. I've heard of some diet where he can only eat straw hay for three days, but I'm not keen on that.

Thank you.

ANSWER: Dear Mary,

Some rabbits just leave their cecals.  No one really knows why, but some suspect it's because they're getting a diet that's already so rich in protein and other nutrients that they just don't feel the drive.

If the cecals look normally formed and healthy, then his GI flora is probably just fine.  He just doesn't want those extra cecals.  

I have no personal experience with Florentero, so can't really make a recommendation.  Might not hurt to try, and the worst that would happen might be transient mushy poop while his GI adjusts, and then back to the same.

But his failure to eat his cecals is not likely due to an imbalance of his cecal flora.  He's just "one of those."  On a brighter note, this behavior sometimes just resolves on its own with no explanation from bunny.  :)

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I am fostering a lop just like Ryan who leaves numerous piles of incredibly beautifully formed and textured caecals when he has as little as half a day in a "common" (sequentially used by different rabbits) pen, but never leaves them in his own cage, even if he doesn't get out for a couple of days. There are no dietary factors in this distribution of caecal-leaving. Could it be a territorial behaviour, too?

Answer
Dear Robin,

It might be partly territorial, though scented fecal pellets are more often the mark of choice for this.  :)  Cecals are pretty pungent, though.  So if he's not eating them, maybe he's found another creative use for them.

Rabbits are sometimes just a mystery.

Dana