Poop clumping on/off

Question
My 5 year-old, neutered lop has been eating Purina Rabbit Chow all of his life (1/4 c./day, unlimited Timothy hay, and fresh veggies daily). A year and a half ago he began leaving loose, pudding-like cecotropes on the second level of his bunny condo instead of eating them. After reading your advice about other buns I decided to see if his diet was deficient in fiber and changed to Oxbow Timothy hay pellets. For a week after starting the new pellets, the cecotropes returned to normal (none left behind, no more globs). I was thrilled! However, after a week the cecotropes returned to being a pudding-like glob left on his resting tile. Once the Oxbow pellets ran out I thought I may as well go back to the Purina Rabbit Chow since it no longer seemed to help the cecotropes. But it was even worse...so I bought the Oxbow again and "Ta-Da"...cecotropes returned to normal, bunched grapes which were mostly getting eaten. It has been almost exactly a week and the cecotropes have AGAIN started to get clumpy and globby. Am I crazy? It is as if his system accepts the increased fiber and his gut flora returns to normal just as a week passes and then goes back to being unbalanced. I really do not think he has molar spurs because he always eats his pellets, hay, and veggies.  No grinding or hunching either.  

Answer
Dear Kristina,

The timothy-based pellets may improve things temporarily, but I suspect there is a cryptic health problem responsible for the chronic cecal dysbiosis you are seeing.  You really can't always tell from looking at how a bunny eats or behaves whether he has spurs.  Sometimes the *only* symptom is GI slowdown/cecal dysbiosis.

Please see:

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

If the diet is good, then that's always my first suggestion.  You don't mention whether he gets greens, but this article describes a healthy rabbit diet:

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

It's a myth that greens cause "diarrhea."  Cryptic, undiagnosed health problems do that.

If you don't already have a good rabbit vet who *really* knows how to do a good molar exam, you can find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

That's what I'd do first.  If the molars are fine (and I would not be at all surprised if they're not!), then it's on to more diagnostics to see what could be bothering your bunny.  It could be anything from a urinary tract problem to some other source of pain.  But I'm putting my two cents on the teeth.

Hope that helps!

Dana