Baby bunny with green, runny stool--EMERGENCY

Question
QUESTION: I just brought a dwarf bunny a week ago. I really do not know how old he is. My issue is that he was pooping alrite for the past few days. Today in the night he started to poop long feces. It is green, but smells for some reason. He is eating the proper diet told to me, however I leave him around the house to run about so he can get some exercise. What is scaring me is I am hoping that he did not eat any of my house plants or anything of the floor, even though I keep an eye on him all the time. I did give him a little piece of bread a couple of times, not alot, since I know starchy food is not allowed to given in great quantities. I have him in the cage tonight to keep an eye on his poop, but please let me know if I need to worry about his long and smelly poop, it reminds me of cow poop, not watery. I would really appreciate your help. Thank you
ANSWER: Dear Erum,

I would get the baby and a sample of the green poop to a good rabbit vet ASAP.  If this is a little baby, it's very likely he was sold too young to be weaned, and babies like this are highly susceptible to E. coli infection of the intestines just from the bit of bacteria on your skin.  In my experience (we have had cultures done on baby rabbits with this typs of nasty, green poop that smells a bit like snake feces--it's been E. coli every time!  Please feel free to share this bit of information with the vet, if s/he is amenable to receiving information from (experienced)stranger on the internet.

E. coli can be treated with ciprofloxacin or enrofloxacin (Baytril), but it must be done *fast* to save the baby bunny's life.  Dehydration can kill quickly.  Subcutaneous fluid therapy is also recommended, to replace lost liquid and electrolytes, as diarrhea does.

Please find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

and get the baby there as soon as you can.  Time is of the essence.  You're a good bunny parent to notice this quickly, and to get him to a professional for prompt treatment right away.

I hope he will be well soon.

Take care,
Dana

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

QUESTION: Thank you for your great advice. I will take him to the vet right away. However I kept him the cage overnight with clean litter box to see his droppings, and it went normal again to round hard poop. I do not know why this happened, maybe his system was trying to get rid of some bad stuff. But will still take him to the vet. Thank you once again.

Erum

Answer
Dear Erum,

If the runny stool is only intermittent with normal fecal pellets, then what you are seeing is most likely cecal dysbiosis.  This is explained here:

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

But it would still be a good idea to get bun to the vet for a full checkup to be sure to get him back to normal ASAP.  Good luck!

Dana