Soft poop pregnant female

[symphle]

She's 1 month and 7 days into pregnancy and has been displaying softer stool in the past three days. First time mother. Not slimy, discolored or different in size. Just soft enough to squash when jumped on.

Our care has not changed. Always free fed filtered water, timothy and pellets. I did stop our supplement tonight and offered burnt toast crumbs instead. We'll see if that helps.

Her behavior has not changed either. Food/water intake have increased slightly since breeding. She still tries to escape her cage for run around time.

We have another female that is 1 month into pregnancy that receives the same care and she does not have this issue. Thoughts?

EDIT I should mention her weight gain has been very steady and continues to slowly go up.

 

[Zoaea]

I don't think soft stool is a symptom in pregnant chins but i could be wrong. I know in normal animals you would switch to hay only for a week to see if it clears but idk if that would apply to a pregnant chin.

Hopefully an experienced breeder will chime in. You might want to call your vet and see how much a stool culture costs, then you wouldn't have to wonder if it's infection or not.

 

[AZChins]

In pregnancy there are a lot of changes in the body. Sometimes diarrhea can be the result of a chin eating more to sustain a pregnancy or even is due to hormonal and physical changes. Although, most of the time it would occur later in the pregnancy. In this case it could definitely be a change in appetite since it is so early on. The burned toast will probably do nothing to help. It would be better to supplement with probiotics on the pellets.

 

[Zoaea]

In pregnancy there are a lot of changes in the body. Sometimes diarrhea can be the result of a chin eating more to sustain a pregnancy or even is due to hormonal and physical changes. Although, most of the time it would occur later in the pregnancy. In this case it could definitely be a change in appetite since it is so early on. The burned toast will probably do nothing to help. It would be better to supplement with probiotics on the pellets.

AZ (Susan) what type of bacteria is best to use for chins? I notice in the stores they have several strains of Bactria, also how much daily for a chin?

 

[AZChins]

Any of them will work. Some of the strains are more effective than others, all of them help to crowd out the less desirable bacteria present in the digestive tract and aid in digestion. Look for the highest organism count on the bottles. Most of the time the highest count is in a refrigerated section, so you have no real guarantee that it was always kept cold (and not sitting out on a loading dock) so it may lose its potency. Shelf stable brands are going to be the best. I like the PB-8 brand, the vegetarian one with the green cap has been the best. (http://www.vitaminworld.com/probiotics-acidophilus-621/pb-pro-biotic-acidophilus-vegetarian-084119) It has a 7 billion count to each capsule, which is pretty good for a shelf stable probiotic.

Pull apart a capsule and sprinkle it over the pellets...try to mix it in so it coats the pellets. It seems to tack onto the pellets without too much of an issue. I put a capsule a day in with some of the chins when they have problems. A few weeks back one of the pregnant girls had one squished dropping in her cage. I gave her probiotics on her pellets immediately and she didn't have any more at all after that.

 

[symphle]

Susa, Thank you for all the info. I'll look into buying some.

She seems to be doing better. No squashed poops. Perhaps I was placing too much suppliment.