Bowel Problems --Update - Likely late onset Mega Colon

[kelsey514]

Hey all, it's been a while!

I'm working through quite a few issues with my rat family right now, the major one being Misty's bowel problem. Wednesday night I came home and she looked like she was at death's door. Her eyes were closed, she was breathing rapidly, dragging herself with her front legs towards the corner where she layed down on her side and well, looked like she was waiting for death.

I picked her up and noticed that she was extremely bloated. Her belly was puffy and very soft. Right away I noticed that she was impacted and could see that the feces was about 4 times the normal size. I brought her to the sink and disimpacted her (which she was surprisingly grateful for!) and she then had diarrhea on and off for about 45 minutes. After that she pepped up right away! Her eyes were wide open, her belly was practically down to normal size and she was running around happy and able to use her back legs again.

I watched her carefully over the next few days and she was drinking, eating, pooping and urinating normally. Actually she seemed to even be a little more hungry than usual. Last night I was playing with her and she all of a sudden went from happy and energetic, to hunching over in a corner with her eyes shut and stress bruxing. She looked like she was trying to poop. She was getting puffier by the hour all day but not as badly as before and didn't have any obvious impaction. I felt her perineum and it was bulging, so I tried to massage her tail/butt area while she was hunched over because that had helped while she was having diarrhea on Wednesday. When it didn't help I decided to try disimpaction again and it worked. This time is was only twice as big as usual, but she continued to have intermittent diarrhea for the next couple hours. Her skin was very stiff as well so I assume she was dehydrated. She is energetic, happy and social. I gave her some prune and apple to try to prevent the constipation. Her eating today has been normal or a bit excessive. I haven't been around long enough to observe her drinking but her skin rebounds quickly. I have her with a cagemate, Barret, and I am pretty sure there are only poops from him in the cage. Her anus still looks there is pressure on it but the perenium doesn't look abnormal.

Should I try to disimpact her again tonight before it gets too bad? I don't want her to become dependent on it or desensitized but I don't want her to be in pain or in danger. Do you think this could be a simple case of constipation or is something else going on? She is 13 months old and had a large little when she was just 10 weeks old. Otherwise she has always seemed very healthy!

I'm aware that the other group issues might be stressing her out. We're working on all of them, so maybe that will also help. The "protector" of the group Mackenzie died a couple months ago, and shortly after Theodore started tormenting everyone. It was very bad, drawing blood of some (not Misty) and everyone was scared to leave their safe spots. I moved him into another cage for a trial seperation, and it was great for a few days (although I felt bad for him) but then Thriller started tormenting everyone to a lesser extent. I don't want to make this post toooo long but I tried to pair him up with each of the others and the best one was Thriller, after a couple days the fighting stopped except for the occasional screaming wrestling match, no blood. I am trying to slowly reintroduce the two groups using the bathtub and a little bit of peanut butter on their backs. They are getting along wonderfully and cuddling, bruxing & boggling and sharing food nicely. I also just started treating them for lice with ivermectin on Wednesday (because of all the extra attention Misty got, I realized she had some eggs and saw one moving lice. No idea, how they got 'em, I've never had any bugs here before and haven't been around any other rats, I use clean towels for bedding...But I suppose my dad's cat might have carried one inside?


So that's my story, thank you so much for reading!!

 

[jorats]

My sister is having the same issue with her cat. But I fear this might be an ongoing thing for her. Can you tell us how you do the impaction? One think you could try and make sure she gets loads of water. So many water down some blocks and see if that helps any. Oh and veggies too.

 

[kelsey514]

For the disimpaction all I do is place some moderate pressure on her perenium with my thumb and index finger to expel the feces. I was worried about giving too many veggies because of the diarrhea after the disimpaction....i don't want her to get too dehydrated or an electrolyte imbalance. She wont eat block mush, but she will definitely eat veggies so I'll try some extras for her. I'm just so worried it might be a tumor or something.

 

[Aida]

Not much I can say, never had this issue. Just lots and lots and lots of water, ecpecially when she's having that diahreah. Even people get it and go to the ER, when the issue is that they didn't drink enough. It drains you quick.

Maybe put her in a seperate cage with fleece or white bedding for a day or two, to see if there's any blood, etc.?

 

[lilspaz68]

The impaction plus diarrhea is something serious. does your little gal have any high white markings incidicating a more likelihood of late onset megacolon? Have you gently felt her belly and palpated it to see if she might have internal masses inside?

 

[kelsey514]

http://mainelyratrescue.org/rattieblog2/?p=742
That is a link to her adoption page. She is "Timothy" and her brother is Theodor (You can see how she got pregnant lol) My own pictures are so disorganized so this is easier, plus you can see her brother's markings as well. She does have a white wedge blaze that starts at her nose and goes up between her ears. I thought that high white didn't start at the nose, but I just looked at more websites and I guess it does...? I also had no idea it could manifest so late.


There is definitely no blood in the stool, I've had her in the tub or sink while she was having diarrhea so I was able to get a good look at it. On Sunday night when she was bloated I *thought* I felt a mass in her belly in the upper right quadrant but I wasn't able to relocate it. It could have been her liver? Today she seems fine, I can't see any bloating or feces in the rectum, but I did end up disimpacting her last night around 8pm I think. She nips at me now when I pick her up...I'm sure she's sick of all this butt inspecting.

 

[lilspaz68]

She is very high white and she's showing classic symptoms.

It sounds like you could try her on the special MC diet called Woody's diet, but does she have cagemates? If so she won't be able to have them anymore, as she will have to be separated from any access to regular food and a better diet for her is not a better diet for healthy rats.

I am very sorry

 

[kelsey514]

My poor girl!!! So my only options are to isolate her from her family; keep them together and have her suffer a painful death, or have her euthanized?
This sucks. Barret would end up either alone or back with Theodore and Thriller who were beating him up badly.

 

[lilspaz68]

Get it confirmed with a vet, but my gut is screaming MC. Isolate her and try the Woody Diet and see if it stops her issues, or not.

 

[Joanne]

Late onset megacolon was the first thing that popped in to my my mind as well.
Try the specialized diet and see if that helps. If she has been doing OK up until now, she may be able to tolerate that diet.
I wouldn't be as worried about the diarrhea as it seems to follow the disimpaction, so if you can keep her moving regularly, the diarrhea shouldn't occur (my theory, anyway...)
If the impaction starts to occur more and more frequently regardless of her diet and management, then it may be more humane to let her go.
Sorry
See what the vet says, and go from there...Good Luck!

 

[*Rebel_Angel*]

Wow what terrible new's!
I'm so sorry!!

 

[SQ]

She will still be able to spend some time snuggling with her friends every day ... as long as there is no food available that she can not eat.

 

[kelsey514]

That's true SQ, thanks for thinking positively! Thanks everyone for the advice, I'll keep you updated.

 

[kelsey514]

So does anyone have a more specific guideline as to how much of each category she should get each day?
http://ratguide.com/health/figures/mega ... gure_5.php

And do I have to do soy baby formula or can I use soymilk? I always have some open anyway. What about mashed watered down beans? I always have beans cooked too and I assume since soy is ok that other beans should be...

 

[lilspaz68]

PM Henry's_Mum (lyndsy) and she had an easier version of Woody's she used for 2 MC babies she had. The thread might be on here...so I'll look later on.

I can also give you the contact information for Bella of Florida Ratlist who owned Woody and created the diet. She helped Lyndsy through with her babies as well.

 

[SQ]

Soy infant formula is very similar to a mother rats milk and has important nutrition.

Soy milk is for adult humans and is very very different from soy infant formula.
It does not contain the same nutrition, etc.

If it calls for soy infant formula, that is what you need to give,
soy milk would not be a substitute.
Soy infant formula can be purchased in powdered form and mixed up as needed.

 

[lilspaz68]

Can you PM me your email address for Bella?

 

[kelsey514]

PM sent.
Ok I was hoping they were just using soy powder because it wouldn't go bad as fast as soy milk but I can get some of that. It seems like soy formula would be too fatty for an adult rat but I guess the small amount used to make the cereal wouldn't be too much.

Misty is doing well today, I still had to disimpact her but it was about normal size...I've been giving her the new diet since yesterday afternoon. I'll be taking her to the vet tomorrow.

 

[lilspaz68]

So you would say you see a little improvement?

 

[kelsey514]

I think so. She is not as bloated and I think I see one of her poops in the cage (It's a different shape from Barrets, like cut off at the ends) She's loving the cooked carrots but not much of anything else, like mashed potatoes or fruit cocktail. I'm going to get the rest of the stuff on the diet tomorrow when I go out.