A poo question in regards to a senior

Of course you all know I have a few chins around the house. But my senior female Olivia seems to have very small poo. Her poo has NOT had sudden change. It's small but not BB. And it's been that way for a while.

She is healthy. No sudden weight change. Appetite is fine. No problem with drinking. Eats pellets and I offer Timothy Hay and orchard.
She is old. I have no idea how old she is. I think next spring will be her fifth year here as a rescue. You may remember her cagemate Sunni passed away this year. Olivia also has a cataract on her left eye which doesn't seem to bother her. I know the vision out of that eye is very limited.

It's not a snack problem. As I don't give snacks out very often. Maybe twice a month. The rest of the animals will get half a shredded wheat. Young animals get a quarter. Olivia can't have that quarter anymore because I noticed it makes her poo even smaller. So I offer her a small raisin instead. ( remember only a couple times a month)

When Sunni was alive and they were together I never really noticed how big the poo was for both. Now that Olivia has been on her own I see her poo is so much smaller than the rest of the herd. So I just want to put up the question and see if anyone has a senior with small poo or a healthy animal that seems to have small poo all it's life.

Thoughts? Thanks for your response.

Hey Alex. How is her general water I take? Sometimes if they are limited water drinkers they tend to have drier smaller poop.

Great thought Juanita. I'll start a log and hang a glass bottle.
Thanks!

I mark the water line with a dry erase marker every 24 hours to monitor water intake. It washes off.

One of my chins has had small/hard poos ever since he got an impaction from eating plastic awhile ago. The vet suspects it is due to scar tissue in the intestines. Every morning I give him a Critical Care/Life Line/Acidophilus mixture (he usually takes around ~10-20 CCs, sometimes more if he wants) and this seems to really help his poo quality. Not drastically, but I can notice a difference compared to days where he doesn't take the mixture. He looks forward to it every morning and willingly takes it from the syringe. Might be something you can try to see if it helps at all.

Is it dry/shriveled looking or just small? If just small, I'd encourage more fiber, offer some other kinds of hay to bulk up her stools and keep things moving well.

My 17 year old needed the 10ml of CC a day since he was 10 years old, it solved the problem of the small poo.

Thank you girls for the responses. I'll look into CC if I can't seem to change the size.

She is getting two blends of hay. One is a first cut timothy and the other is a softer orchard. I'm a worry wart Alicyn. I know she's fine. But I'm determined to get the poo looking better.
Last night I gave her a quarter of a raisin to help out. She won't touch pumpkin or stage one apple baby food. Micro amount tried of course. Those darned senior's think they know better. Hee Hee

To answer your question Alicyn.......it's just small. I'm so glad your going to Vet school. Your going to be continue to be such a help on the forum. :thumbsup:
Now come on over and whisper to your boy Jesse to get his "job" done. I want some little ones darn it.

Update on Olivia.
I switched her feed from Mazuri to Oxbow and it did help greatly. Not sure why her senior digestive sytem needed a different feed. With this new feed and her hay she has droppings that don't make me worry now.

I continue to feed the rest of my herd Mazuri without this problem.

That's good!

Thank you. Olivia is such a blessing here. Poor dear has a cataract in one eye and doesn't see well out of. But that doesn't stop her.

I have no idea how old she is. Ancient I believe. I think this spring will be the 6th year here. Sadly her cagemate Sunni who came with her passed away last year. She is greatly missed. For anyone who doesn't know about Sunni and Olivia they were rescues for me. The story told to me was someone took them from bad owners and handed them over to a vet tech who then kept them for a bit to find them a new home. They ended up here. Fur chewed in the worst way. Once here the fur grew back and they never did it again. Love and good care does wonders. :cute:

I would recomend a middle aged adoption anytime. So sweet. Always showing affection for being here. While Olivia never wanted to be touched, she always comes over for a smooch. And since Sunni passed away she now lets me pet her head from time to time and pet her front feet.