Poo-y bottom on rabbit

[PennineSpring]

We have 2 lion head/cross rabbits, incredibly hairy things which at this time of year are obviously shedding their winter fur. The female rabbit is a bit fatter than the male and she seems to struggle to keep her bum clean at this time of year, and like last spring she has a crusty poo-y bum. I’m going to have to take her to the vets again for shaving but I thought I’d ask for advice to try and stop it happening again.
We’ve never had rabbits before so we’re not very knowledgeable. Any tips will be gratefully received.

Some are just prone to it in my experience but you can sometimes help by adjusting their diet - ours that was like this couldn’t cope with muesli food, for example, although he loved it, and was much better on excel dwarf. He also couldn’t cope with too much fresh grass. But even so we had to watch it like a hawk and clean him regularly. And he still had a couple of near misses with fly strike. So I would definitely get the vet to shave and ask them about rear guard or other fly strike prevention at the same time. You might also want to try to help her lose weight via more exercise.

Shave it yourself? Regularly did this with our dog and do with our fluffy cats. Use a safety razor, you won’t hurt bunny.

Usually if they are getting sticky poo stuck around there it’s because they aren’t eating their caecotrophs (soft poo that is meant to be eaten as part of their normal digestion).

This can be because their guts are a bit unhappy so they don’t want to eat the caecotrophs - what are you feeding them?

It can also be because the rabbit struggles to get in the right position - this can be due to obesity, or sometimes arthritis in older bunnies (if you think this is likely then have a talk to your vet).

Having a poo-ey bum can make rabbits vulnerable to fly strike especially as it gets warmer so make sure you check for any maggots in the housing and on the bum twice a day. You can get treatments (like Rearguard) to repel flies to prevent it.

I’m not sure I’m brave enough to shave it myself! They don’t seem to like being handled at all so we try not to handle them unless it’s absolutely necessary.

They have the run of a secure, good sized garden for most of the day and whilst most of it is lawn, there’s not much grass about at this time of year. They also have an egg cup of nuggets each in the morning (not the museli kind).

Oh and access to hay when in the hutch/run.

Diet sounds good. You can get rabbit probiotics to help try and promote gut health.

I wouldn’t try and shave it at home. Their skin is very thin and you can easily cut them.

Get some advice from a rabbit charity or vet. I don't keep rabbits but mmy bil does. His older rabbit was struggling with cleaning & he was very worried about flystrike. I suggested shaving but he said it's problematic due to how rabbits react to stress.

Some breed types, including extra fluffy and Lionhead types, may have flatter faces so just reaching to clean themselves and eat their cecal poops is more difficult.

It's definitely worth keeping her trimmed and if she is seeming a bit on the porky side - encourage more running about and toys to play with - don't use bowls to feed, use scatter feeding. I use cat treat balls to give my guys their pellets so they have to chase it around haha!

Thank you. She is much furrier than her brother (and greedier) which might explain why she can't keep on to of her bottom cleaning

Cut down the amount of pellets by about half. I have had a couple of rabbits prone to this poo-ey bottom and I used to wash their bottom end in an old basin with warm (not too warm) water to soften the poo and gently tease it out. Not my favourite job I'll grant you It definitely got better when I cut down their food. Give them lots and lots of hay.

If you’ve addressed diet and health issues (mobility/weight-I had a dental rabbit who used to get a sticky bun when he needed a tooth check), maybe try some rabbit probiotic powder. It’s really helped my older buck’s sticky bum. I weaned him off it and the sticky bum returned.