Back to small/irregular fecals...

[Jenk]

My Cali boy has been having intermittent fecal issues--namely small fecals and an overall decreased output at times. As always, there's more than one thing going on that could be causing digestive upset (e.g., sensitivity to various hay types, shedding,ingesting cotton from the canvas we put downfor his exercise time).

For the past few days, I've offered him one papaya tablet (since he's shedding). And for two days, I gave him a small amount of oat hay.

He had a slowdown issue in Dec. and one less than two weeks' ago.

This morning, I found six teeny-tiny specks of fecalson his floor, which was my first head's up of a problem. He also has normal-sized fecals in his litter box but is still passingsmall ones, too.

I'm about to pull my hair out! Could these issuesbe caused by a combination of ingested fur, ingested cotton material (about a 1/2"-square piece), and sensitivity to certain hay types (e.g., oat)?

Age: Approximately 22 mos. old.

Breed: Californian

Background: Unknown; he was found as a stray and brought to ashelter, where he was neutered.

Thank you,

Jenk

 

[Maureen Las]

Myrabbits intermittently have bigger and /or small fecals and many times it resolves itself.

At this point (other than to possibly add a little juice to his waterbowl ), brush him and give him a probiotic I would not be alarmed but just keep an eye on him ; it most likely is the result of a combo of issues including molting .

 

[Pipp]

Canned pumpkin. It fluffed up Pipp's little bits of poop into nice round balls everytime.

Her output has been tiny (but numerous) for the last year, sometimes misshapen, but she's very healthy. I think its just because she's chewing things differently.
Or something. onder:

I don't give her pumpkin all the time because its better for her teeth to eat more veggies.

Hope it works for your Cali boy!

sas :clover:

 

[Raspberry82]

Maybe trying the probiotic would be a good idea. Do the papaya enzymes have sucrose in them? Maybe he stomach doesn't like sugar.

 

[Jenk]

angieluv wrote:

Myrabbits intermittently have bigger and /or small fecals and many times it resolves itself.

At this point (other than to possibly add a little juice to his waterbowl ), brush him and give him a probiotic I would not be alarmed but just keep an eye on him ; it most likely is the result of a combo of issues including molting .

When I say that theseveral fecalsfound on the floor were tiny, I mean tiny misshapen specks--not "small" fecals.As soon as I saw them, I ran to check his box (and my heart was inmy throat).

I felt better when I saw that he had a number of normal-sized fecals in his box, but he also had ones that were half their normal size (or smaller). And he continued passing occasional small ones yesterday.

Then around 8 pm last night, he finally passed some large, dark (i.e., moist) fecals. I felt a little better. But it's still touch-and-go. What he passed overnight is okay in size, but lighter in color (i.e., drier). So I wonder if his gut has developed a dry patch due to shedding, eating oat hay, and sucking down a smallcanvas piece.

I think that he overgrooms himself, and it comes back to bite me in the backside. But I don't know how to reduce his behavior. And I already brush him thoroughly twice daily.

I will give the probiotic a try at this point. (The last time he had poop problems, about two weeks ago, I gave it for just one day.)

 

[Jenk]

Raspberry82 wrote:

Maybe trying the probiotic would be a good idea. Do the papaya enzymes have sucrose in them? Maybe he stomach doesn't like sugar.

When I got the papaya tablet samples from my vet, she read the ingredients to me. I recall us both saying, "Well, there's no sugar added to them." Still, at this point, I'm going to stop giving them to him--just in case they're the cause (or partial cause) of his current digestive issues.

 

[tonyshuman]

Lighter in color isn't necessarily bad. For my guys, their poos are lighter when they eat more hay than veggies. I know his diet isn't changing, but light-colored poos are good poops for my guys.

The papaya tablets don't have added sugar, but the papaya in them already has a moderate amount of sugar.

 

[Jenk]

tonyshuman wrote:

Lighter in color isn't necessarily bad. For my guys, their poos are lighter when they eat more hay than veggies. I know his diet isn't changing, but light-colored poos are good poops for my guys.

I'm not overly worried about his fecals' coloration as much as I am about the size that he passed two nights ago. The few of them on the floor were mere specks of fecal material.

This morning, I found normal-sized (lighter-colored) fecals, which made me breathe a little easier. I still plan to give him Probi (a pre-/probiotic) for the next few days; I may have thrown off his gut flora by feeding him one papaya tablet a day for five days straight. (I truly thought such a small amount wouldn't affect his system negatively. )

The papaya tablets don't have added sugar, but the papaya in them already has a moderate amount of sugar.

You make a good point. There have been several timeswhen my guy has had gut issues seemingly from relatively small amounts of sweet meadow hay fed as a treat. (He showed signs of much gas and digestive slowdown anywhere from two to 24 hours after eating it.)

I'm strongly starting to suspect that his gut does its best on his standard diet (Oxbow BB/T pellets, 1st-cut timothy hay, and a few types of greens).I'm getting to the point of being unwilling to deviate from it in any way.