Chin's pooping irregular?

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Jaysburn

Active member
Joined
Apr 25, 2018
Messages
38
Hi there, first time posting here. I don't think this is really an emergency, but I wanted to get some second opinions to calm myself down a bit.
My Chinchilla (9 month old male) usually poops pretty consistently all throughout the day. Yesterday when I got home from work my girlfriend told me he didn't appear to be pooping at all throughout the day.
I took him out and brought him to his play area; he was happy and healthy, running and jumping and eating lots of hay, but still no poops the whole time he was there. I put him back in his cage, and he went to sleep comfortably in his hammock for about an hour. He woke up and got out of it, still no poop.
I was very worried at this time, so I decided to try and stress his system a bit by putting him in the carrier I use for Vet visits. He let out about 25 poops in 2 minutes after putting him in there, all normal looking but the first few to come out were a bit squished down.
I checked on him this morning before work, and his cage was full of dozens of fresh poops (we had cleaned it out last night to keep track)
However my girlfriend just called me and once again he hasn't seemed to poop all day; still his normal happy self when she woke him up. She tried putting him in that carrier for 10 minutes and he didn't poop at all.

I'm just wondering if anyone thinks I should worry about that? I have a vet appointment for him this evening anyway (he cut his eyelid a couple weeks ago and has a checkup.) but I am just trying to calm my own nerves until then, really.

He is also on .17 ml of metacam daily for the eyelid injury.

Thanks in advance!
 
Most chins don't poop much during the day, they don't poop while sleeping. However they do normally start pooping once they are awake. It sounds like he might have a bit of a blockage, maybe just a partial blockage that was about to let poop pass when enough poop backed up, I would ask the vet about that. I know some drugs can cause constipation and should be used with a gut mobility drug, I can't remember off hand if metacam is one of them. Some drugs can also cause appetite loss so you should use an appetite stimulant with them to make sure they are eating enough for proper gut function.

Some other things to look at are, what are you feeding him? A chin's diet should be make up of mostly hay, about a small handful per day, with a couple tablespoons of high quality pellets (not a pellet and junk food mix). If he isn't getting enough fiber, like if he isn't eating enough hay, he can get constipated. He is still a bit young, but are you giving him any treats? Certain foods can also cause constipation.
 
Thanks for the reply Amethyst. He is fed mostly Timothy hay (unlimited) with small amounts of Oat hay and Alfalfa hay. He gets a couple tablespoons of Oxbow chinchilla food per day, though he doesn't tend to eat it all maybe 3/4s of it. When he turned 8 months old I started giving him Timothy-based treats, half of one per day most days but not every day. Probably gets 2 1/2 to 3 of them a week.

I'm not too worried anymore, he pooped regularly yesterday afternoon and overnight. I suppose he just doesn't poop much throughout the day anymore, maybe his systems slowed down a little bit now that he's starting to reach adulthood and he's not pooping while asleep anymore or just not waking up as much during the day.

My vet wasn't worried either, says so long as he's eating lots and there are lots of poops everyday it's fine for him to not poop constantly. It was just what I'm used to.

His appetite and energy levels haven't changed at all; he eats hay and chews apple & kiwi sticks like a machine all night long.

I'm going to keep a close eye on him but I think for now at least I am in the clear. He hasn't had access to anything that could cause a blockage, so far as I am aware.
 
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