Hi Everyone!
I’ve been fostering an orphaned bottle baby since she was three days old and she’s now six weeks. Her stools have always been on the firm side and she was always constipated when she was a baby. Three days ago, I brought home another orphaned foster baby, five weeks old. He had terrible diarrhea and the smell was so powerful I couldn’t be in the same room as him for too long without feeling sick. His stools have improved in smell and consistency since he’s been with me (I’ve been giving him bene bac every other day and other probiotics at every meal) but they’re still not normal.
My problem now is that my older foster is suddenly exhibiting the same symptoms as my new foster. I’ve been very careful to keep them separated, but there must have been some accidental contamination. Her normally light, firm stools are now liquidy, dark brown, and with the same “off” smell as my new foster’s. I feel just terrible about this, and the new foster has already been to the vet’s and is on metronidazole and seems to be improving. He also had a fecal exam, but I have to wait days for that to come back.
What could he possibly have that could infect and show signs in my current foster in just three days? And that could be so contagious that even though I separated them and they didn’t share ANYTHING, she still caught it? I’m going to call the vet’s tomorrow and ask if I could have a second dose of the metronidazole to start giving her, but I’m worried sick in the meantime. Their energy levels and appetites are fine, they just smell completely horrible. They’re going to peel the paint off the walls in my bathroom if I don’t get them sorted out soon.
If it helps diagnostics, the abnormal stools are dark brown in color, liquidy but still able to form a pile, and shiny-looking. I don’t know how to describe the smell, it just smells… wrong.
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