tummy upset?

Question
I have an 4yr old rescue rabbit.  She had been confined to a rubbermaid container, no exercise, pine bedding, pellets dumped in randomly, occasional cleaning of the bedding , you get the general picture.  I did take her to the exotic vet when I got her the beginning of december.  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except that I had a grossly overweight bunny with not alot of muscle tone.  Now, she is in a room where she can see my guinea pig in their pens.  She has the run of the room which is rabbit proofed.  The problem is that she has these long (forgive the need for description) soft, dark colored bowel movements that she leaves around.  The other bowel movements are the "normal" formed "beans".  These soft ones look like , again forgive the unpleasantries here, someone has take a cookie cutter and started to form the outline of a ball shape.  I know that rabbits have to "recycle" some of there dropping and that these are different than the normal ones.  I have guinea pigs, as I have said and they recycle too.  From what I have read however, the stuff that rabbits recycle smells strong, and this mess she is doing does not.  Another thing is that this rabbit was never "fixed" and the vet did not recommend it at her age.  I have been feeding her only rabbit pellets and water because she won't eat the timothy hay and I cut out all of the green leaf lettuce and kale until I am sure she isn't having compounded tummy upset.  She has lost alot of weight and can actually move around quite well.  Another question,  when you run your hands down the back of a rabbit should the back bone be prominent.  She has a nice round belly under her and sure is energetic.  Thanks for your help.  Dawn

Answer
Thank you for rescuing this animal from a bad situation! The world needs more kind folks like you.

You're right, cecal pellets that rabbits "recycle" are quite stinky and usually have more form, like raspberries or tiny clusters, though soft and dark. This sounds more like low-level diarrhea, which wouldn't surprise me given her background and weight/exercise problems in the past.

My first recommendation would be to get that fiber down her any way you can. Have you tried alfalfa hay? It's not recommended for adult rabbits who are on pellets, but in this case anything to get long fiber into her would be great, and you can cut out the alfalfa later when her poop is back to normal, dry and fibrous and easily "friable." (See, it's pretty much impossible to gross out a major rabbit person when talking about feces!)

Try mixing timothy and alfalfa and maybe she will get used to the timothy and you can graduate her to that. Or, if you are using pet store timothy, see if a local feed store carries it--fresher is more palatable. If fresh timothy or other grass hay is not available nearby, if there is a rescue group in your area that you're in contact with, see if they order fresh timothy from Oxbow Hay or someone and maybe you can buy smaller quantities from them.

Cut back the pellets even more--it's tough to do when these poor overfed guys are begging, but they need to get used to eating hay even if it's out of desperation, it's just vital to getting digestion on track.

I would also try adding some fiber-rich greens back into the diet. I'm betting that if you feed, say, carrot tops, parsley, cilantro (Chinese parsley), fresh grass (no pesticides or fertilizer, of course) or celery it probably won't worsen the problem and will provide long fiber. Try adding a small amount of one type of veggie at a time. If you do see a negative change cut that one out and try another. If they all make her worse, of course go back to the no-veggie regimen. If she tolerates these veggies, gradually up her consumption as long as things are status quo or better and cut the pellets down to like a tablespoon a day.

What's her water consumption like? Sounds counterintuitive, but if she's not drinking well it could cause low-level kidney problems and that can affect water absorption in the system. She should drink at least a few ounces of water a day. Expect less if she gets on a higher-veggies diet.

In a rabbit whose diet/exercise was compromised, she may not have the appropriate level of
beneficial bacteria in her gut to be able to
digest food and produce proper feces. There are
food supplements that you could try that some people swear by and others
scoff at as totally unhelpful, but to me it's worth a try and if it works,
go with it.

One is acidophilus powder. This is pretty easy to come by these days in
health food stores. Although acidophilus is not actually one of the normal
bacteria in a rabbit's gut flora, it is not harmful and the idea is that
it competes with the non-beneficial bacteria such as Clostridium and
therefore indirectly helps the animal's beneficial bacteria to better
flourish.

Another method that employs the same rationale is yogurt. Choose a
non-fat, live-culture, fruit-juice only sweetened type (plain would be
ideal but most rabbits won't touch it). You would give this in tiny
amounts at first since you wouldn't want the extra fruit carbs to overload
the system and set you back, but if she tolerates them you could give her
a tablespoon or so a day and see if that helps her maintain.

There is also a product called Bene-Bac that comes in a tube with measured
doses. It purports to do the same thing, adding beneficial bacteria to the
system. I do keep this on hand and use it if somebunny seems to need the
support, such as when they are on antibiotics and are having a bit of a GI
problem with them. In my estimation it does help though it's not a
panacea. It's not a prescription product, you can find it in feed stores,
mass-market "vet" catalogs, and some pet supply stores. There may be other
brands that do the same thing, this is just the only one I'm aware of.

I do have to wonder about the vet's assertion that 4 is too old for a spay. We've had dozens of 4+ rabbits spayed in our rescue group. Their rate of problems in general is no worse than younger rabbits, except that sometimes we will find that uterine cancer or chronic infection has already started. That's the danger of not spaying--you run a high risk of cancer or pyometria, in which case you need to spay anyway in a compromised animal.

Perhaps the vet would reconsider once you get her back to a more normal weight--it is certainly more risky to spay an out of shape, overweight animal.  See more info about spaying at the House Rabbit Society site at http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/spay-neuter.html
It also has a link to information about finding a rabbit-savvy veterinarian or getting your favorite vet to consult with a true rabbit expert when needed.

The backbone shouldn't be prominent until the rabbit gets pretty old, 6+. You should be able to feel it but there should be no obvious ridge sticking up. If she's got one, it could be the result of the sagging from the overweight, or even just the skin being stretched for so long from the weight. Or she's older than folks thought. Different breeds seem to age and "sag" differently. Lops tend to be saggier in my experience, dwarfs and other "compact" type rabbits sag less. She may have some lop in there even if her ears are upright.

Regarding the belly, when she gets down to a good weight you should be able to see "daylight" under her (unless she has really long fur) when she's standing, and her ribs should be just palpable, but not prominent. A "good weight" is a little thinner than most people think. Chubby rabbits tend to have more digestive problems, the weight is hard on their joints so there are more arthritis problems as they age, and there is a laundry list of other possible problems, just like in overweight people as they age.

No "holier than thou" here, though: at least half of my 12+ rabbits are "chubby"--they are hard to resist when they beg! =;+)

Best of luck and thanks again for being a true animal lover. I wish you a lot of fun together.

Gina