Black things in stool? Plastic or blood?

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SqueakyBois

New Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2020
Messages
3
Location
USA
Hi y'all. Not sure if this is something you'll be able to answer, but thought I'd check and see. I was cleaning my boys' cage today and saw some of their dried out poops had these little black bits. I kind of panicked, since that often means blood, but this seems far more solid than I'd imagine dry blood to be, and they're both absolutely fine. They're still running around, playing, climbing, eating, drinking, etc. They are on Baytril/Doxy so I wondered if that could be the issue (though they've been on it before and I've seen soft poos but nothing like this). OR, and this is what I'm pretty certain might be the culprit, one of my boys ate the plastic wheels of a little lego car the other day. I keep seeing people say that rats chew but don't swallow most non-edible items, but these boys do love defying expectations in the worst ways, and I also definitely didn't see nearly as much shredded plastic as I'd expect at the scene of the crime.

Few questions -have any of y'all experienced this before? Do you think, if they're playing/eating/drinking the same, that this is cause for concern? I was going to wait a few days and see if there were more poops like that before emailing my vet but I don't want to wait if there's a risk they'll die in the meantime. And if it is plastic, should I be concerned that he ingested so much? Attaching pics, though I'm not sure how helpful they are.
 

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