Petey has loose poop

[Monipenny]

Petey is 8 weeks old, has been doing great up until yesterday. His poop is very soft, not diarrhea but close, it is the consistency of peanut butter. He is slow to eat his HH blocks and veggies, meaning he just recently started eating/shredding these things. He refuses to drink water, I have a water bottle hung in his cage and now he is refusing to drink milk. He will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. What should I do?

On another note, my female squirrel I released last year Dani had her babies in a tree hole then 2 days ago she moved them back to the nest box my husband built for the squirrels last year. They are about the same size as Petey, would it be a stretch to give Petey to her to raise? I keep contemplating this idea thinking he would be better off being raised by a squirrel. Dani comes to me every night for her HH blocks and nuts.

[Milo's Mom]

Try doing a flush on him for 24 hours.
Not eating can be a sign of cramping, GasX will help soothe.
Is the poop discolored at all? Green, grey, whitish, anything other than normal?

I would not offer to Dani...could end badly.

[Monipenny]

Try doing a flush on him for 24 hours.
Not eating can be a sign of cramping, GasX will help soothe.
Is the poop discolored at all? Green, grey, whitish, anything other than normal?

I would not offer to Dani...could end badly.

Thank you, he drank his milk good last night and this morning, his poop is the color of peanut butter. He gets his block and so far has had sweet potato, apple, avocado, broccoli 'slaw' if you know what I mean. I gave him an almond last night for the first time.

I didn't think it would be a good idea to give him to Dani, wishful thinking on my part that she would be a good mommy to him. :Love_Icon If I do the 24 hour flush and I had thought of that, do I withhold solid foods too?

A few days ago, I started to tapper him from 4 milk feedings a day to 3 when he showed no interest in the afternoon feedings, he was taking up to 24cc of milk 3 times a day, then he started the loose poops, so I went back to 4 feedings giving him less at each feeding except he resisted drinking it for both feedings during the day. I think he doesn't want 4 feedings a day. He is delayed by a week due to the rough start he had in the beginning when I got him, though he is 8 weeks old, he seems like a 7 week old baby in his development.

[Monipenny]

I am really concerned, I did the hydration fluid flush for the past 20 hours no food/milk during this time I just now fed him diluted esbilac milk 1/2 and 1/2 water to milk ratio. Afterwards he pooped a watery diarrhea which had been very watery and loose during the hydration fluids . I am worried, I do not know why he has diarrhea, the only thing I could figure was over feeding him at the 8% body weight recently, so I had cut back when his poop became pasty soft but it went full diarrhea anyway. Help.

If I do not get a response soon, I will be giving him some sweet potato baby food at around 3:00pm.

[lukaslolamaus]

Do you think that there might be a chance Petey has parasites? My little girl Sabrina (now getting ready for release) had them really bad last year. I tried the 24 hour flush, formula change and everything else that was suggested and nothing helped.
I bought a microscope (one of my best buys) as suggested by a member, and thats how we figured out what was wrong with her.
I hope Petey will be better in no time.

[Monipenny]

Do you think that there might be a chance Petey has parasites? My little girl Sabrina (now getting ready for release) had them really bad last year. I tried the 24 hour flush, formula change and everything else that was suggested and nothing helped.
I bought a microscope (one of my best buys) as suggested by a member, and thats how we figured out what was wrong with her.
I hope Petey will be better in no time.

Thank you, I had thought that as a possibility, I sure hope not. His poop is the color of peanut butter, not, white, yellow, green or some off color, but I am wondering. I will call the vet tomorrow and see about having that checked out. Thank you. I just got home and seen diarrhea on his pad in the cage. :( I had hoped this flush would have put him back on track.

[Monipenny]

I bought Immodium for kids, he weighs about 260gr. how much do I give him?

[lukaslolamaus]

:bump

[Monipenny]

Imodium is not working, his poops are loose, not watery but color has changed to a dark greenish brown color. He eats good, is active and gaining weight, he now weighs 272 grams. I have been giving him benebac morning and night. He does not like water and is having nothing to do with the water bottle. I mix a little sweet potato baby food with water and try to get him to take that to get extra fluids into him.

My vet has been out of town for the past week and will be back in Thursday, I will be taking Petey in that afternoon.

[CritterMom]

I honestly prefer Pepto Bismol to immodium or Kaopectate. I would give him about 5 drops of Pepto and see how he is in half a day, then give another 5 if need be. Note: It is easy to know when the pepto has gone through the system because the poops will be tar black! Don't freak out - it is normal - from the bismuth, but it is kind of handy, too.

And in addition to that, my little secret weapon, are rice chex! Rice binds because it absorbs fluids, and it doesn't cause more problems because it is very easy to digest. Bonus is that they usually LOVE them - rice chex are my squirrel's absolute favorite treat - over ANY nut.

Sometimes diarrhea causes diarrhea...that is, they get diarrhea, their little bowels get all inflamed from the nasty stuff flowing through, and the inflammation causes more diarrhea, which causes more inflammation... So if you can slow everything down with the combination of the pepto and the rice chex, they often will come out of it.

You DO need to ensure the little one doesn't have internal parasites though, because they can certainly cause this and no amount of immodium or pepto or rice chex are going to do anything about those.

[Monipenny]

Thank you crittermom. I will get some rice chex and pepto bismol. Do you know why the color is dark greenish brown? Is that a sign of parasites?

[Monipenny]

He spit the pepto out. He ate a little bit of rice chex, had his milk. His poo appears to be turning to a mustard yellow color, I hope that is a good sign of returning to normal. Otherwise, he is active and eats good.