# Megacolon



## PaGal (Feb 19, 2014)

I am hoping to see JBun chime in here but also would not mind hearing from others that have experience.

I was wondering about megacolon especially after viewing the link Chrisdoc posted to poo pics.  and reading some threads on it.

It seems often times if the megacolon cannot be cured then it is simply a matter of working with the diet to minimize the affects.

Now what I was wondering is the affects you are trying to minimize GI stasis? Are there other symptoms or issues you are trying to minimize?

Do the poos always look like that or do they become normal shaped poos if you are minimizing the affects?


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## JBun (Feb 19, 2014)

Yeah, managing megacolon is all about controlling and minimizing the symptoms to keep the digestive system running as smoothly as possible and try and prevent stasis. 

With megacolon, the nerves that control contraction and movement, are either damaged or not formed properly. As a result the rabbit will have really large and small fecal poop, as well as oblong poop. The rabbit will also commonly have some mucous in the poop at times because if this disfunction. There can also be splats of poop that look like cow piles, but I would think that this would have to do more with the cecum also being affected. It's really hard to know the exact symptoms and everything involved, because there is so little information about it, especially in rabbits. 

I'm fairly certain my bun Toby has it. He's a dwarf hotot, so has the spotted gene that it is suspected to be genetically associated with. I saw symptoms of it at around 4-6 weeks old. He has the typical large, small and oblong fecal poop, but not mucous as of yet, or cow pile poop. So at this point he seems to have a mild case of it, which I manage a bit with his diet. He does fine with a small amount of pellets, but not too much or he starts to get soft fecal poop. He seems to have better shaped poop with some pellets than without. I've tried no pellets and his poop got very large and a bit log shaped.

My bun Zeus may also have megacolon, or something similar to it. I'm not sure if he has it genetically or if nerve damage occurred from him having stasis, as he developed stasis right after I first brought him home and am not absolutely sure if his poop was normal or not before that. I believed it was. So after having stasis several times, I discovered it was his pellets continuing the problem. Once I stopped pellets he didn't get sick again. But he had the typical large, small, and irregular shaped poop associated with megacolon, though not really so much of the oblong shaped poop. And any time I have tried to reintroduce pellets, his poop shape has gotten much worse. So I manage his digestive problems with diet too. Where Toby can have a bit of pellets and does better with them, Zeus doesn't. So Zeus has been on a hay and veggie diet for about 18 months, and has been healthy and hasn't had stasis problems since.

What managing the diet does is keep the digestion as stabile as possible, and ensuring good gut motility. Because the nerves don't function correctly and there are problems with the contractions, this causes a back up of the poop, and so you get the odd shapes and sizes. Lots of non digestible fiber seems to help with this motility issue, to some extent, as it's not good when things slow down too much in there and start getting even more backed up than they already are. Hopefully I've explained it so it makes some sense 

Along with diet, gut motility meds are sometimes used as well, but with my two, they have been stabile enough with diet that I haven't had to use meds.

I'll see if I can find any links that can better explain it, though most of the info I have read on it has been on forums from other rabbit owners.

Here are a few pics of what my buns poop looks like. First one was trying Zeus on a little bit of pellets, the next is a few weeks after removing the pellets. You can see how much better they look. The last pic is what Toby's poop normally looks like.


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## Chrisdoc (Feb 19, 2014)

I find this subject really interesting. I sometimes find small poops and am never sure who it is although I think it´s either Snowy or Bandy but apart from that one episode with Bandy, I´ve never had any other problems and they don´t eat loads of pellets anyway, lots of veggies and they always have hay although Houdini is the one who loves that most. I do obsess sometimes but keep a good check on how they´re doing so hopefully if anything did arise, I´d catch it early. 

I just found the explanations and pics on that link really useful as a general guide.


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## Aubrisita (Feb 19, 2014)

So after reading this, I feel like a REALLY bad bunny mom. I am pretty convinced that Stache had some form of this. Could this have led to the abscess in his abdomen?


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