Looking for cause of diarrhea

sandtigress

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I gave Chay and Billy a tiny bit of squeeze cheese before taking them on a car trip today, and when we got home, I came back to my room to discover Chay had had some mucousy diarrhea on my comforter. (Heh heh, that went straight to the washer, and mom doesn't get to know he made a mess....) His back end was so messy I had to give him a little bath, and he was surprisingly very good! No scratching, just climbed on top of me to get away from the water, meaning I got soaked as well.


Anyways, I'm trying to figure out why the diarrhea...it seems to be on again, off again, as in he'll have diarrhea maybe once or twice over the course of a day or two, then didn't have it for a week, then again today. I think I fed him a little pre-packaged raw (kept in the freezer, thawed in the fridge, eaten very shortly after being put out) last week as well as last night, but there don't seem to be the bubbles I've heard associated with salmonella poisoning, and Billy shows no symptoms but ate more raw. Could his tummy just be that sensitive to the lactose in cheese, or maybe the richness of raw? I've kept a close eye to make sure he's not dehydrated, or he would be at the vet right now. Thanks for suggestions!
 

menagerie mama

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How old is he? Have you had his stool checked a few times for parasites? I would say if his stool is negative, he may have a slight food allergy to what you're feeding him...or it's too rich.
 
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sandtigress

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He's 9 months old and had his stool checked when I got him 4 months ago and that was negative, but of course, that was some time ago. Can parasites really cause on and off again diarrhea?

I'm leaning towards it being too rich/allergy....he didn't have a problem with the raw before, but then he wasn't too interested and only took a few bites before as well. Might need to check up again on the ingredients when I go back and see if I can find a culprit there. Thanks for the advice!
 

menagerie mama

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You're welcome, and yep, it can cause on again, off again diarrhea. The fact that you said it's mucousy, make me wonder about coccidia. It's hard to see sometimes under a microscope, and I know from first hand experience that newer technicians don't always know what they're doing when reading it, and stuff can be missed. I test my techs routinely on stool samples, and sadly, they miss stuff a lot at first.
 
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sandtigress

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Its only started recently though, say the last two weeks tops. What are the sources of coccidia? I know my former roommate's puppy had it, but she came to us with it. Oh, and I'm a bad momma, Chay is 10 months old.
 

jennyr

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My immediate thought weas parasites as well - several can cause intermittent diarrhoea, including coccidia, giadia and others. But food can too so maybe it is best to get a fecal check.
 
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