Pet Information > ASK Experts > Exotic Pets > Rabbits > Rex rabbit with continual dirty butt

Rex rabbit with continual dirty butt

22 10:14:51

Question
Hi Dana,

I'm so glad I found this site because I'm so confused as to how to help my rabbit, Megan!  We've had her since April and continually have to wash her butt because her cecal pellets get squished onto her bottom and then it just becomes a HUGE mess.  We have to clean her up to four times a week.

History on her:  appx. 4 yrs old, rescued from HS so we don't know exactly.  She is overweight, she got up to 6lbs and is now at 5lbs 5 oz.  She was not spayed when she was brought to the HS, but now is and has been for almost a year now.  She was at the HS for a long time :-(

Diet: We have her on a diet to help her lose weight.  She gets appx 2 oz of mixed organic greens twice a day (chard, oak leaf lettuce, raddichio, frisee), she also gets about 1.5 oz of parsley in the morning (organic), and 1.5 oz of organic cilantro at night.  She only gets 1 tsp of timothy hay pellets in the morning and 1 tsp at night, so a little over an 1/8 cup a day.  She gets unlimited timothy hay all day.  Treats are rare, maybe one every two weeks, and usually are fresh fruit, a grape, or a piece of banana.  

We just had her cecal pellets tested for parasites and it came back clean, although I'm apprehensive about that b/c I dropped of the sample on a Sunday (thinking they could test it that day like they told me) and I don't think they tested it until Tuesday.  From my knowledge, it's likely the parasites died by then.  The test was a fecal float.  

How can we help her?  She just pooped her cecals and they were not formed and pretty mushy.  

She also gets sore hocks on her feet but she doesn't live in a wire cage at all!  She has a two-story wooden hutch that I line with clean towels and hay, is it just because of the excess weight?  She gets to come out and run around about once a day for a number of hours, we have a ramp that comes out of her hutch so she can run around and play with our cats, whom she loves!

Thank you so much!!!!

Charla and Poopy-butt Megan

Answer
Dear Charla,

The sore hocks and poopy butt could all be related to her weight problem so addressing that is a wise thing you're doing.  But she may also be suffering from cecal dysbiosis, which can be caused by other things.  Please read this for an overview:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/poop.html

and check her diet here, to be sure that's not a contributing factor:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html

Rex rabbits are prone to sore hocks because of their very soft, relatively fragile fur.  Extra weight makes this even more of a problem.  If she's got a touch of arthritis, there's another contributing problem.  Please ask the vet about getting a bit of metacam, in case she has stiff joints that are making her stand and walk in an abnormal way, as this can contribute to both sore hocks and to poopy butt.

To keep her clean while you get this problem under control, here are instructions for safe butt-bathing:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/buttbath.html

Hope this helps.

Dana