smelly stool

Question
QUESTION: I have a one year old holland mini lop. For about a week now her stool has been really smelly. I'm not sure what to do.  



ANSWER: Dear Sarah,

I got your question from the Rabbit Question Pool, where another expert had placed it.  So sorry for the delay in answering, but I had no control over that.  :)  Hope this will help, anyway.

At your bunny's age, she's reached sexual maturity, and her smelly stool may be partly due to sex hormone marking.  It's time for her to be spayed for her health, as unspayed, unbred female rabbits have a very high risk of uterine cancer:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

If her poop is a bit mushy, then the problem could be cecal dysbiosis:

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

which is most often caused by incorrect diet:

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

but in a Lionhead I would also be sure to have a good rabbit vet check her molars for spurs, the other main cause of this problem:

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

You can find a good vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Hope this helps.

Dana


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

QUESTION: My holland lop has been spayed, and her stool is not mushy. Do you know of anything else that could be wrong with her?

ANSWER: Dear Sarah,

Hmm.  That is a bit unusual.  Has her diet changed recently?  What is her diet, mainly?  You can check to see if it's consistent with recommendations for healthy rabbit diet here:

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

Are the smelly pellets soft and rubbery, or are they typical "cocoa puff" poops?  It's quite unusual for normally-formed fecal pellets to have a strong smell.

If this persists, you could ask your vet send a poop off to a lab for a fecal culture, to see if there is an overgrowth of anything unusual in the poop.

Hope that helps.

Dana

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

QUESTION: Her diet consists of Timothy hay and a 1/2 cup of timothy pellets. I also give her parsley, cilantro, carrots and tops, water cress,and snow peas, but only a variety of three per day . they are typical cocoa puff poops and there is a few small ones in there too. Her stool has never smelled like this before I've been cleaning her potty every two days because of the smell.

Answer
Dear Sarah,

Well, since I can't smell the poops from here, I'm going to have to defer to a rabbit vet.  If you are concerned, then I would take a sampel to a good rabbit vet:

www.rabbit.org/vets

and ask that it be sent off for culture and sensitivity testing.  There might be a benign microorganism in there that's causing the smell, and could be treated.

Another option would be to give your bunny some probiotics and/or Lactobacillus acidophilus powder for a few days, and see if this helps regulate her flora and control the smell.

I hope you have success!

Dana