Yogurt and diarrhea

Good evening all!

I'm looking for some advice on one of my girl's stomach issues. She is a small black hoodie, roughly 8 months old. She just finished 10 days of amoxicillin on Sunday, and has had some soft stools as well as diarrhea. I fed her Activia every day while she was on the antibiotics, and have continued to give it, or Yoplait (the label says it has active cultures), ever since. Unfortunately, her squashy poops have not cleared up.

I haven't been giving her anything else but Oxbow and Cheerios. It occurs to me that she may be getting too much yogurt, as I give it to her and her two cagemates on a plate (a generous tablespoon for the three of them). Could this be the case? I'm thinking of restricting her to dry food only for a couple of days to see if that helps.

I don't know the background on her so it's hard to say. You may want to leave some more details such as why she was on Amoxicillin. I know rats have difficulty with dairy so the yogurt could be causing the problem.

She was on amoxicillin for an upper respiratory infection, but she seems pretty healthy and active in general. She didn't have soft poops prior to taking the antibiotics. I know it's her and not one of the other girls because she's had a dirty booty (she didn't appreciate a baby wipe under her tail before I let her crawl all over me!).

I had my husband forgo yogurt last night (I had to work), so I'm hoping her poops firm up in the next day or two.

First of all 10 days is not enough time to clear up a URI even if she seems better. You need a combo baytril/doxy for a minimum of 4-6 weeks. Second, activia has probiotics which if given within 2 hours of the antibiotics weaken there effects. I would stop giving the yogurt all together and keep her on a regular diet of oxbow and veggies/fruit. Hope she feels better soon.

I agree, your little one will need more than just 10 days. And in fact, I would ask for Baytril instead of amoxi. And for the diarrhea, I would give her pumpkin puree, not the pie filling kind, the real pumpkin puree.

Thanks everyone for your recommendations. I'm going to try the pumpkin tonight.

I'm also going to have to take them all back to the vet tomorrow, as I've seen Lynn and Lil doing the "hiccupping" thing that's really sneezing. Annie (the one with the soft poops) is still making a grunting noise on and off when she exerts herself. I'm not too sure about the vet they saw last time--he is attributing their continued respiratory issues with poor husbandry and recommending that I switch to a dust-free bedding (after I told him they were on fleece/bare shelves that I clean every other day). So, I hope to get them in to see one of the other exotics vets, and talk to them about a longer treatment regimen.

Thanks again!

Rats do hiccup.

Hopefully your vet will do a bit of research and see that rats need a much longer course for treatment. Ask for baytril and doxycycline. This combo is usually quite effective but needs to be done for 4 weeks.

Thanks again for all your advice! We saw the vet who seems to have more experience treating rats this time. She put all the girls on Baytril now, initially for three weeks, but I plan to take them back sometime during the third week and see if we can get another couple week's worth. Now the challenge is to get Annie to take her meds (Lynn and Lil lick it right up when I mix it with chocolate syrup). I've been paging through the "Masking meds" thread and trying different things, but I haven't hit on what works for her yet.

I thought I had read that rats don't hiccup--thanks for clearing that up. I do believe what I was seeing was sneezing, though.

The pumpkin was helping with the soft poops, but we're back to them again today. I gave them a Cheerios/dried fruit garland last night; we're going back to dry food and pumpkin to see if that makes a difference.

Remove all food except for blocks and pumpkin until poops are back to normal. Good luck in finding a making food that works!

Chocolate isn't good for them. I would mix my meds with a small amount of peanut butter then add crushed gerber puff to make a small treat size ball. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't - sometimes it worked better if they were refridgerated over night. Rats also pass gas - they certainly do. Hope they feel better soon...

jorats said:

Remove all food except for blocks and pumpkin until poops are back to normal.

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Aw man! I'm going to lose Most Favored Human status if I take away the Cheerios... I guess it's worth it if we can get over the squishy poops. :rathugz:

dspch911 said:

Rats also pass gas - they certainly do. Hope they feel better soon...

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Yes, I've become acquainted with rat flatulence (ratulence?). It's good that they are so small--if they were any bigger, they'd clear the room!

Thanks for the well wishes!

DawntheSnipe said:

Yes, I've become acquainted with rat flatulence (ratulence?). It's good that they are so small--if they were any bigger, they'd clear the room!

Thanks for the well wishes!

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I had one poop and clear out the room. Thought it was the hubby since there was no way a rat could produce that smell - until I saw him pooping. It was so bad he covered it with litter.

lol dspch911... always blame the human first.

dspch911 said:

It was so bad he covered it with litter.

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Wow. That's pretty bad!