Bunnys bottom

Question
I have a female polish bunny. She is not spayed. Jsut recently she had poop stuck to her bottom. As I was cleaning it off I noticed the small openings along side the poop part with some dark brownish hard , poop like substance in the slit, is this supposed to be there or is something stuck in there?

Answer
Hi,

not sure what you're referencing, but I am thinking that you are seeing residue from the scent glands, which are on either side of her vent area.  A very lightly damp soft cotton washcloth can help to clean this.

And if she is getting a 'messy butt' more often most likely you are feeding her too much high calorie stuff, and she is overweight.  Messy butt is the first sign of an overweight rabbit, or a rabbit that has an injury (ie cant bend down to eat their cecal pellets).

If she is overweight (looking at her resting from the top down, if she looks more like a sausage than wide at hips, and narrowing to the shoulders) she is overweight.  Reduce pellets in half.  No high calorie, high/starch/sugar items.  Increase timothy hay for her to eat.

Lee