10 day old infant with diarrhea. Help!

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
CTChin

CTChin

defender of all animals
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
646
Location
Conn.
I've been trying to save a baby that got bit badly in the nose area either by her mom or her littermates. I had to pull her because mom isn't a great mom and didn't try hard enough to help her. All was well until I stupidly added just a TINY smidge of nutrical to the milk (goats) to help her gain weight as weight gain was practically nil. I did it just once. Well now she is eating a lot more milk and is gaining BUT has diarrhea. Is there anything to stop this? Would an antibiotic help or just make it worse? Of course it is 7:00 on a friday night.

Thanks for any help

P.S. This is why this is absolutely my last litter because I'm tired of this crap :(
 
I would not give an antibiotic to a chin that doesn't have an infection. This is only going to make the situation worse.

As long as the kit is eating and gaining, I would just continue feeding the goats milk and the diarrhea should go away, just don't add anymore nutrical. You may need to feed her a larger quantity or more often to increase weight gain.
 
Add some baby rice or baby oatmeal cereal to the formula as a binder, if you haven't already. Other than that, as Tiff said, it may clear up on it's own. Between the stress of the attack, the rejection by mom, and the new (they think poisonous) formula, diarrhea is no surprise -- with or without the Nutrical.

I would just keep up the hand feedings, keep cleaning the diarrhea off so it doesn't scald the skin/anal area, and hopefully it will clear up. I just went through this not too long ago with a pair of kits who lost their mom after birth. It took about 4 days, but it finally straightened up. After she's right again, try adding some molasses instead.
 
o.k. great thanks for the encouragement! Getting up every two hours wears you down especially when recovering from knee surgery. Just got some rice cereal and we'll try that. I'm already attached to the little booger. I pray she makes it.
 
If mom has healthy poo crush up a small bit and feed it to her. That will give her mom's flora.

I've never had an unweaned baby with diarrhea, but chins are cecotropes and I've solved - an inadvertently spread before I knew better - a lot of diarrhea that way. Chins just love to snack on each other's poo, no doubt about it. :rolleyes:

If at all possible, I'd pull everyone else out and stick her back in with mom on a rotation. If she can get any milk at all it'll likely help with the runny poo situation. Not having weight gain means she was getting milk, just not enough to encourage gaining.

I also use baby rice cereal with whatever milk I have on hand until I can pick up whole or goat. I mix enough it to make it less watery.
 
I remember someone saying that once before Tara, on CnQ, about the poop. I had forgotten all about it. That's something to make note of for future use.
 
Spoof said:
If mom has healthy poo crush up a small bit and feed it to her. That will give her mom's flora.

I've never had an unweaned baby with diarrhea, but chins are cecotropes and I've solved - an inadvertently spread before I knew better - a lot of diarrhea that way. Chins just love to snack on each other's poo, no doubt about it. :rolleyes:

If at all possible, I'd pull everyone else out and stick her back in with mom on a rotation. If she can get any milk at all it'll likely help with the runny poo situation. Not having weight gain means she was getting milk, just not enough to encourage gaining.

I also use baby rice cereal with whatever milk I have on hand until I can pick up whole or goat. I mix enough it to make it less watery.
Click to expand...

I never thought of that. I just might try it if it doesn't improve tonight.

She is starting to gain weight now two grams at a time. I have to make sure her milk is nice and warm or she doesn't eat as much. She doubled her intake just today. I would blame the diarrhea on that except the loose stool happened within a couple of hours of the nutrical the other day.
 
Rice cereal stopped the diarrhea. *doing the happy dance*
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top