Perplexing Pooping Problem...

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whimmus

Active member
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
31
Location
Vancouver, Canada
I've got a chin, Flubber, who I received as a rescue months ago severely underweight and with severe diarrhea. I took to vet and the vet suspected coccidia and we began a series of meds over a span of many weeks. During, a fecal test found evidence of the aforementioned bug, but not heavy and I was told this can occur naturally without symptoms.

I was also told that Giardia is hard to detect with our local circumstances, requiring a decent quantity of fresh poops. The prob is all samples are shipped to a lab out of city. Making things even more complicated, Flubber is the least-poopiest chin I have. He often has a full run out of cage and doesn't poop. So getting samples at the vet was difficult. As such, Giardia has not been ruled out, but my vet is skeptical.

Meanwhile, Flubber slowly gained weight while his poos went from solid to sloppy and back in a regular basis. We tried Baytril, Septra and Panacur. Later, we tried Flagyl at my request. The cycle of soft/solid poops never seemed to match up with rounds of meds, either.

During the last couple months, and starting prior to the Flagyl, his poos are more solid than smooshy. He'll go weeks with solid and then have a week of smooshy poos that stick on his shelves. They are smelly, but not nearly as much as when he was younger.

I've noticed if I give hay (timothy or alfalfa), he eats it with enthusiasm but it invariably makes his poos mushier.

Given the drugs we've tried and his continued weight gain and solid appetite, I'm wondering if this is a bug or perhaps an internal defect/deficiency? Can anyone offer any insight?

Is Giardia strictly full-force and with solid symptoms like mushy poos and lack of appetite? Or can it be a lingering thing with on-and-off mushy poos and an otherwise healthy appetite?

Thanks in advance.
 
Have you tried increasing the amounts of hay slowly? Does that yield the same results?

Have you tried a change of food? It's possibly he has a food allergy.
 
I would think if it was giardia or something it would stay constantly mushy. I am thinking maybe it's more of a sensitive tummy type thing? I don't know that is just what it sounds like to me because it goes on and off.

Have you tried something other than timothy hay or alfalfa? Or like Riven said, a different type of food?
 
My "original" chin, Cheeko used to have bouts with mushy poo. It would come and go exactly as you've explained it does with Flubber...he'd be fine for 3 weeks or so, then a few days of mushy poo. I did take him to the vet to have tests done and he came back clean as a whistle :thinking: I tried giving him Activated Charcoal, I'd take his pellets and feed only hay until it cleared up, I'd give him extra shreddies hoping that would help, and I tried a number of other things.

The ONLY thing left to do was change his food. When all of this was going on I was feeding Tradition. I switched all of the boys over to PANR over a months period of time. They have been on straight PANR for almost 2 months now and so far NO PUSHY POO!! I've also noticed a nice weight gain in him, which he needed to gain a little IMO...all of my boys have gained more than usual over the last 2 months. I don't know, but maybe give it a try.
 
I used to see this in Bobo every once in awhile when I fed Mazuri. I would take pellets away and feed both her and GiGi nothing but hay until it cleared up. GiGi is Bobo's daughter and they share a cage so she had no choice with pellet removal. Since switching to Nutrena Rabbit feed I haven't noticed the sometimes mushy poos anymore at all.
I agree it could be a food allergy. Is it possible for you to try a food switch and see if it clears up?
 
"I've noticed if I give hay (timothy or alfalfa), he eats it with enthusiasm but it invariably makes his poos mushier."

What brand of hay do you use? Could it be that there is something wrong with the hay?
 
"I've noticed if I give hay (timothy or alfalfa), he eats it with enthusiasm but it invariably makes his poos mushier."

What brand of hay do you use? Could it be that there is something wrong with the hay?

That is what I thought as well. There have been lots of people getting bad hay lately, that very well could be the problem.
 
I agree, it seems odd that the hay would increase the mushy poos, as it's usually recommended that you reduce or eliminate pellets and increase hay for a few days when they have diarrhea.

Are the poos just plain mushy/sticky, or do they have a film mucous over them? If I recall, mucous-covered poos generally indicates some type of intestinal disturbance (usually parasitic, like giardia or intestinal worms). How is he feeling otherwise in terms of appetite/activity?

Kenai recently went through a good bout of diarrhea and was diagnosed with a possible roundworm infection - they prescribed a 2-dose treatment of Ivermectin (one dose 2 weeks apart). After about 3 weeks of mushy poo, it cleared up just after the 2nd dose and he's been fine for over a month now.

IMO, if none of the medications have worked and it's still sporadic, then perhaps it is more of a sensitive GI/food related issue. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the responses so far, folks.

I don't think it's the hay. I've been feeding them all the same stuff and only Flubbs has the issues. Also, he's had far less hay than any others because of how he reacts to it.

I've been feeding a guinea-pig pellet for a while as it was the only one available locally that a) was sold in bulk and b) they wanted to eat. I used to have them all on Oxbow until it dried up locally. When I went to try and put them back on Oxbow, they decided they liked the new stuff better and wouldn't budge. Cosmo started to lose weight, he was so stubborn.

I've just got a large bag of Mazuri after finding a local supplier and they all seemed receptive, even Coz. I did the first mix last night and noticed they're eating the Mazuri as well as the old bulk mix (the appearance is different enough to tell).

Recently, I'd cut back on the shreddies after a recent flare-up on the forums over what's healthy and what's not for treats. This coincided with a flare up of Flubber's mushy poos again. I made this connection this morning. I'm going to let him chow on the Mazuri for a bit to see if that improves anything and then try upping his shreddie count after that.

He's otherwise plump, active and normal. He's my second-heaviest chin. I don't get this.
 
Any change in diet can cause mushy poos, even moving to more hay. Some chins are just more sensitive to everything, others couldn't make a difference if you tried.
 
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