poop patrol question

[ChrisK]

seems my raison d'etre is picking up rattie poop ! lol.. but I've noticed the past several days that my old girl has been leaving mostly very dried out poops. The color is partly white-ish -- i.e. the dried part -- and her poops are smaller sized. I know she's got two tumors in the area which could be causing the size to be smaller. but I'm somewhat concerned about the dried-out-ness. I don't think it's due to dehydration from the weather because we've been running the a/c already. And she still eats all her fruits and veges daily, so I would expect she's getting fluids.. Do you think she maybe just needs more fluids? Is this something to bring her to the vet for? Has anyone seen this before? I'm wondering what this could be due to?

 

[Godmother]

Some of my old ones, because they eat less, have smaller poops. But a sudden change is worth watching. Tumours can make them back up quickly. If she is still eager to eat then she is OK.

 

[ChrisK]

Oh yes.. her appetite is still very good. (she must get those genes from me! :cheeky: )

 

[Godmother]

A couple of years ago I had an elderly rat (she had just turned three) who was frail and not very mobile... but her appetite was fine. Suddenly she stopped wanting to eat. The vet discovered that she had a tumour blocking her intestines, and he euthanized her asap. I was in shock at how quickly it all happened.

 

[purinpurin]

The dried white parts sound like mucous coating the feces (that dried out). There may be something wrong with her digestive system. I'm not sure about rats, but for humans, milky mucous in feces can be caused by a number of things--ulcer, irritated bowel and colitis just to name a few off the top of my head. You might want to get her checked out by a vet if you feel there is something wrong (sometimes you can trust your gut feeling more ).

 

[jorats]

When mine are on mostly soft foods their poops are smaller and dry. When they have a lot of Ensure, their poops are tiny, dry and almost black.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

When mine are on mostly soft foods their poops are smaller and dry. When they have a lot of Ensure, their poops are tiny, dry and almost black.

When mine have lots of Ensure their poops turn pink :giggle:

 

[jorats]

When mine are on mostly soft foods their poops are smaller and dry. When they have a lot of Ensure, their poops are tiny, dry and almost black.

When mine have lots of Ensure their poops turn pink :giggle:

Pink! Are they on the strawberry one?

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

Yup!

 

[ChrisK]

Brought Skittles to the vet today to evaluate her tumors and while there, I asked about the poop... actually, I brought some in with me in a plastic bag! :lol: Anyway, by the time we'd arrived at the vet's Skittles had given us ample fresh samples in her carrying case :roll: and all was looking very normal! She's been pooping normally since too! So whatever it was, it seems to have worked it way out of her system.

Vet said it could have been related to something bacterial, or to stress, and he checked for parasites, but didn't find any.

 

[Godmother]

Good news! Now you can hang up your poop-ologist hat for a while.