#cecotropes

[bunnies-and-sunshine]

I’m not talking to you!

Not only did I not give River one of big human's shoes while he's away (she got one of his socks as a security blanket), I force-fed her and gave her all sorts of yucky medicine today.

Poor little munchkin has an ear infection from cramming a dirty foot in her ear.

So, that's an elder bun problem they don't warn you about:  Excess cecotrope production no matter the diet.  If you miss/have bad timing cleaning up a single one and they inadvertently stand in it/get it under a nail, they can give themselves an ear infection.  We're talking multiple times a day cleaning these up, so just a friendly head's-up to start looking out for this as your bunny gets older!

[puffsandberries]

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-32585578-mountain-hare-lepus-timidus-highlands-scotland-white

[cloverthebunny]

Clover just did some rank cecals I can smell them from this distance 😵 But at least he ate them all, I guess? 😓

[puffsandberries]

“Blackberries” by Hans Op de Beek

Hans Op de Beeck

[puffsandberries]

The colon wall secretes a mucus which gradually envelops pellets formed by the wall contractions. Under the varying pressure and rhythm of contractions the content is squeezed like a sponge. Most of the liquid part, containing soluble products and small particles of less than 0.1 mm, is forced back into the caecum. These pellets gather in elongated clusters and are called soft or night pellets (caecotrophes). The soft pellets are recovered by the rabbit directly upon being expelled from the anus. To do this the rabbit twists itself round, sucks in the soft faeces as they emerge from the anus, then swallows without chewing them.

Just Rabbits - Rabbit Anatomy

https://www.justrabbits.net/rabbit-anatomy.html

This sure is waxing poetic about cecotrophy

[puffsandberries]

[puffsandberries]

[puffsandberries]

Why is this bunn making the mouse clean up after his cecotrope?

https://kids.licg.nl/handig/meer-over-konijn-en-knaagdier/madenziekte/