hes 8 now nearly 9 and he cant be bothered too get off his poo when he does it and it gets stuck too his bits and we have too pull it off and bath him and it makes his bits sore and bleed, what can i do too stop him from doing this?! he eats an all dry diet and only has half a small carrot at night, is that even too much?!
He may be having problems with hind end weakness or arthritis that make it difficult for him to bend over and eat his secals. The secals are the sticky, smelly poo balls - we call it sticky poo in my house. You can try Cetyl-m to help him with any hind end weakness. We have also seen good results with cosequin. Ask your vet about both of these. Like many of the other posters have stated, make sure that he has a diet high in timothy hay. If you alter his diet as suggested, and he still has sticky poo, ask your vet for some Benebac. It is beneficial bacteria that will help his system break down any sugars that he is eating. If he is not eating all of his secals, his system may be out of whack. Introducing the good bacteria may help to get things normal again .
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com You may want to keep his fur down there trimmed to make it easier to clean.
Check him out once a day, and if needed, wipe him up with a warm rag. Sometimes you may need to soften the poo by keeping the rag on it for a few minutes. Once it is softened, it will come off much easier. Keeping on top of the problem daily will hopefully keep the poo from hardening on him.
For his sore and bleeding spots, you can get some Silver sulfanate from your vet. It will help the spots heal, and if he accidentially ingests it, it will not kill the beneficial bacteria in his gi tract. A lot of people recommend Triple Antibiotic ointment (like Neosporin), but if that is ingested, it will kill the beneficial bacteria.
Once you get the bloody sore spots healed, you can put Boudreaux's Butt Paste on his skin if you notice that it is red and irritated.
Try feeding him timothy hay. Replace the carrot with greens. You need to be careful when washing that area, rabbits have very delicate skin, and an infection could be potentially fatal. don't pull it off, you gotta work at it a little at a time. also, clean his cage often. do a full cleaning once a week, and every day you should go in there with a scoop and get rid of excess poo so theres nothing to stick to him. Your local pet store, and sometimes grocery store, should carry "pet wipes". use these daily or every other day , but dont be rough. don't rush it.
I'd like to back up ncj's answer but the correct term for those droppings is cecotropes - not secals. There's a photo on my website, if you're not clear on what they are (on the care page). He needs hay; all rabbits do. Rabbits are very clean animals and keep themselves clean but yours is a senior citizen and can't do the job as well as he used to, so have some compassion for the old guy. Trimming the fur on his bottom would help him, too. Watch out for the bits.
Rabbits need unlimited hay, only 1/4 cup of pellets and 2 cups of veggies per 6 pounds of body weight. My rabbit used to have the same problem when I only fed her pellets (this was years ago) I thought I was feeding her properly but I wasn't. I changed her diet and her butt is now clean. He needs a grass hay like timothy hay and a high quality timothy based pellet. Oxbow is the best. Introduce veggies slowly and one at a time or he will get diarrhea. Here's a veggies list.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html
He needs hay! That should be about 85% of his diet, with about 10% being dry food and the remaining 5% fresh food.
