Soft poos out of nowhere

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Essentia

Essentia

Jax Chinchilla Rescue
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
4,312
Location
Jacksonville, FL
I got new Timothy Hay from the feed store. I chose the greenest and best looking bale. Weirdly, 2 days later Chula has soft poo, and Buttons' poo isn't soft but looks strange. The only thing different in both chins is the hay. Could new, non Oxbow, hay cause this? I'm more than willing to throw away the bale if I need to, I'm just trying to figure out if this could be the cause. They are both on PANR, no treats other than wood for the past few days, and are both on UV filtered water. I'm completely stumped if it isn't the hay. I am thinking of getting a bag of oxbow and just trying that to see if anything changes. I just wanted to get people's opinions.
 
Do you think it's possible the hay had alfalfa in it? I believe that can cause soft poo. Hope their poos get back to normal soon!
 
I specifically asked the feed store if it was a pure timothy bale and they said yes, but I can really only go on their word. If I take a picture of the hay is someone good enough here that they could tell me for sure that it's Timothy? It didn't smell like the Oxbow I usually buy. It just smells like....hay. The normal hay smell that you smell when you go to a farm.
 
Not hay, only my PANR and alfalfa cubes. They are the most recommended in the area. I can go back to the 40 oz bags of Oxbow. I just figured the bales would be more cost effecient in the long run, especially with me selling my cookies (which are made of mainly timothy hay). I haven't made any cookies with it yet, thank god. I'm actually glad they got the soft poo that way I didn't make any cookies with it and sell them to other people. I'll go ahead and toss it in case.

If the soft poos continue I'll update to see if anyone else can think of what may be causing it.
 
Was it from like a petstore? I'm always careful with hay and food from those types of places because some of it is hard to pick through and you really don't know how long it's been there...

Good luck and keep us updated!
 
In a brick building across the street. I went over there because the Timmy didn't look great inside the actual store so a worker took me to the holding area to see if there was anything there I liked. It was clean and dry, and I didn't see any bugs or mold anywhere. It's basically just a large building with nothing in it but feed, hay and bedding.

Should there be something more to look for? This is my first bale, so any advice would be amazing. For now I'm going back to the bags, it just made so much more sense to go the bale route since a 40 oz. bag is $9.00 and a bale is usually around $16.00 here (I paid a little more since right now everyone is more pricey on Timmy, at least here).
 
If the hay has grey dust in it that could be mold. It's most definitely a better deal to get bales of hay rather than bags. The problem is finding a good source. Your source may be fine. I would be cautious though because of the soft poo.
 
I've had days where one of my chins either Mei or Kona, not sure which since they're in the same cage, will get soft poo for one day and I give them a shreddie and the next day they're fine. Did it just start today?
 
No it's been the last 2 days. :(

For now I have thrown the hay away. I still had a little Oxbow left so I will grab another bag on Monday. I'll make it a point to contact Winmar Farms (Jacksonville chin breeder) to see where she gets her hay from. Hopefully she can give me some insight.
 
Yeah, it probably was the hay then. I just wonder though if it wasn't because the hay was bad, but perhaps it was fresher than the oxbow hay? Or wasn't as dry? I don't know, just trying to think of other causes. Hopefully it was nothing serious.
 
It definitely didn't seem as dry. Honestly they didn't seem to be that into it. When I put the Oxbow in their cage they go crazy. With the new stuff they kinda just picked at it. Their were also a lot of purpleish strands of hay. Is this normal in Timmy? None of my Oxbow has ever had any of these purpleish colors. I can take a picture when I get home from work in the morning. Because of the not normal timmy smell and the purpleish strands I'm almost tempted to say it wasn't timmy hay. It had different seed heads than I'm used to as well.
 
I have had HORRIBLE experiences with feed store hay here, so I would toss it immediately. A breeder friend here had her herd get roundworms after eating bad hay. She found spiders and eggs in the hay. That is why I am paranoid about where I buy hay here, they store it badly or leave it in the sun and or rain for a few days and look what happens. It could kill my whole herd. I use T&A cubes and either oxbow or cruddy kaytee hay, but at least do not have bugs in my hay!
 
It's already been tossed. Now I'm really worried... I would be completely and utterly devastated if both of my chins passed away, especially if I was at fault.

Where do you find Timmy/Alfalfa or just Timmy hay cubes? I have only been able to find alfalfa anywhere around here. Also, have you been able to find Oxbow in bags any large than the 40 oz? I know the larger you go the cheaper it ends up being.

I will keep an eye on them over the next few days and hopefully the soft poo clears up. I'm going to give them both a shreddie when I get home. Hopefully that will help. I honestly didn't find anything really strange about the hay other than what I listed above. I pulled apart the bale completely and didn't find any bugs so that's a good sign. I'm hoping they just sold me something that wasn't Timmy like they said and it just didn't agree with chinnie tummies. They are both still eating their pellets great. I filled their bowls earlier today and by the time I left for work this evening half the food was gone from both. It's almost like they know something isn't right with the hay. They normally go crazy for it, and they had barely touched it. That's what caught my attention, then I saw the soft poo.
 
If she's getting alittle alittle soft pooh, try using either activated charcoal, which should be in your emergency kit, and put it on some non-shredded wheat, If you don't have the charcoal, burn some toast and let her eat that, it's the burned part that will help. ALthough you do need to be concerned as long as it's not super running, I would try do these things at home before rushing her to a vet, but if I'm wrong, as always I always ask someone to correct me.

I have one of my chins have soft pooh for about a day or so and I treated at home and all went well, so I wish you good luck. Oh and keep out the raisins if you use any (they are bad for them anyways--but you may already know that).

ALso i think they say (i forget which one it is) but either take out all the pellets and just give hey and take out all the hey and just give the pellets, hopefully again, someone will correct this for me and you.

Jean
 
Well, obviously she doesn't want to take away pellets if they hay is bad. I would get your regular hay again and see if it gets better. It seems hay has been very iffy lately, I have read so many similar threads. Good luck, hope both the boys feel better soon!
 
It does sound like a hay problem, so I would try the activated charcoal or burnt toast. From time to time this happened with my chins while they were on Mazuri. I switched to Nutrena Rabbit Feed and haven't had the problem. I think since it sounds like a hay problem if you do the burnt toast or charcoal or even give a shreddie daily for a couple of days with the pellets it should clear it up.
 
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