What is the medical term for a "turd"?

Not a general term for the substance, i.e. feces, but for one "unit"? Is there one? It isn't "fecal unit", is it?

Bowel maybe?

------------------
Formerly known as Nec3f on the AOL SDMB

For rabbits (and I think deer) the term is a "pellet".
"Bowel movement" I think applies to the substance as well as the action. But I think it also refers to everything in a single evacuation, not the unit you're looking for.
"Dung heap" applies to an animal's BM if it makes a nice pyramid shape. But it's still not a unit measurement.
"Cow pie" for cattle. And since theirs coalesces after evacuation, it's a unit.
"Road apple" is a unit, but only if it's in the road and about the size of an apple. :)
Well, it's getting rather slangy now. Maybe if I'd gone into scatology... (I betcha there's a field with a lot of work/shit jokes. "I don't have to put up with this shit. Oh, wait. I guess I do.")

"Stool".
You can have a loose stool, formed stool ("twice around the bedpan and pointed at both ends"), watery stool, (god forbid) frothy stool, bloody stool, black stool, hard stool...

"Bowel" refers to the intestine, not the product thereof.

"Bowel movement" technically refers to the act of producing a stool.

In the ICU, when your patient tries to die, you call a "Code Blue". When your patient begins to helplessly squirt stool in the bed so that the stool works its way into the bedrails and up the patient's back to his neck and drips onto the floor (this happens all the time, which is why I really need a raise) you call a "Code Brown".

That's the last time I read the Straight Dope Message Boards before breakfast. :(

------------------

Thanks for sharing that Holly. Urgh.

------------------
It only hurts when I laugh.

[NanoByte]

Not sure I'm up to more hospital humor, but the question remains as to when 'stool' is a mass noun and when it's a [I forget the term] noun with the plural 'stools'.

Ray (not stool pitchin')

[NanoByte]

So what's wrong with there being a countable/discrete noun 'fecis'?

Ray (a no 'count)

[mangeorge]

"which is why I really need a raise"
---Holly
------------------------------------
Hey, watch it there, Holly.
We don't want those poor administrators to go hungry, do we? :)
Ain't "managed care a wonderful thing?
Peace,
mangeorge

[Pooch]

I think you are all being fecetious.

[Olentzero]

I think 'stool' refers more to the substance, rather than an actual unit (so to speak). As for fossilized poop (I will never forget the episode of 3-2-1 Contact where a scientist actually re-softened prehistoric caveman doody and gave the kids a sniff), the substance in general is coprolite, while an individual 'stone' is a coprolith.
Since we apparently do have a Greek term for turd, why don't we call it a coproid?

On the same note, the Latin word for 'thrush' is turdus - hence the common American robin, being a member of the thrush family, bears the taxonomic name of Turdus migratorius - an apt description if I ever saw one!

------------------
Cave Diem! Carpe Canem!

[omniscientnot]

A log.

[matt_mcl]

Faeces is a Latin word, the singular of which is faex. Or in the American spelling, fex. So a single turd is a fex.

[MrKnowItAll]

So, if I tell my buddies there was a "three flush fex" in my toilet, they'll know what I'm talking about, right?

I know a fossolized turd is called a coprolite.

Why would you need a singular term for feces?

Oh and check out the rich tapestry of poop names:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_287b.html

[TheIncredibleHolg]

Just a little off-topic, this reminds me of one of my favorite math jokes. Draw three pines (firs, oaks, whatever) and ask a friend, "What number does this represent?"
Answer: 9 (tree + tree + tree)

Now there's a sandstorm. After is has settled, what number have you got?
Answer: 99 (dirty tree + dirty tree + dirty tree)

Finally, a bird comes along and drops a stool/fex/whatever on each tree. What number?
Answer: 100 (dirty tree and a turd + dirty tree and a turd + dirty tree and a turd)

[omniscientnot]

Holg, you crack me up.

[BunnyGirl]

Holly, geez, thanks for the memories..uck!

------------------
And can it be that in a world so full and busy, the loss
of one weak creature makes a void in any heart, so
wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth
of vast eternity can fill it up!
-Charles Dickens "Dombey and Son"

[Alphagene]

Me:
Why would you need a singular term for feces?

MrKIA:
So, if I tell my buddies there was a "three flush fex" in my toilet, they'll know what I'm talking about, right?

Fantastic answer.

[Chef Troy]

Holly said:
When your patient begins to helplessly squirt stool in the bed so that the stool works its way into the bedrails and up the patient's back to his neck and drips onto the floor (this happens all the time, which is why I really need a raise) you call a "Code Brown".

Holly, as hurl-inducing as this description was, it made me want more information. To wit: How do you deal with a "Code Brown" when the person's injuries make it extremely dangerous to move them (e.g. a spinal injury)?

------------------
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef

[handy]

haha,

say Reverend Tim, as usual, why did you want to know? Is it once again part of your sermon?

Do tell! SOunds exciting, I think to join your church, if you use a sign language interpreter, you won't need to be concerned with a singular turd word.

[B. G. Kimball]

Well, I'll tell ya there's nothing better than a nice well formed stool in the morning. Feces is what a stool is made out of. GI docs use the term stool do describe a stool or parts of a stool.

Are there terms for stools that float and stools that sink?
Are floaters simply sinkers that have microfarts trapped inside or can stools have such differing densities? Do certain foods increase or decrease stool density? And what about those skid marks?

[Revtim]

Handy, I was afraid someone would notice the running "theme" of my last couple threads...

Since you asked: I got this sick-ass email from a friend entitled "Lesser Known World Records". One was the following:

LONGEST TURD
The longest dump ever verified was produced by an American, who produced a ‘staggering turd’ over a period of 2 hr 12 mins which was officially measured at 12 ft 2in. The offender is banned from 134 washrooms in his state.

I doubt this was anything more than a joke, but I got to thinking, if someone somewhere was to record things like this, they would probably like to use a more "sophisticated" word than 'turd'. And I couldn't think of one.

[handy]

Billyrubin makes shit brown, its the medical term for old blood in the poop.

[Holly]

"How do you deal with a "Code Brown" when the person's injuries make it extremely dangerous to move them (e.g. a spinal injury)?"
I'd be happy to explain, Chef Troy. If the spinal injury is stable (i.e. no loose vertebrae slipping around) you coerce some other nurses to assist. The number depends on the size of the patient, but generally at least 3, and to make up for it you have to buy them lunch later. You logroll the patient, moving the whole body at once so the spine stays in perfect alignment. This is scary because if you screw up, whoops! the patient is paralyzed forever! With unstable spinal fractures, the patient is usually on a rotorest bed, a horrible contraption which makes bathing nearly impossible. The bed has sections on the bottom that detach, so you can climb under the bed and wash whatever parts you can reach. This bed was not designed by a nurse.

"Billyrubin makes shit brown, its the medical term for old blood in the poop."
Actually, handy, old blood in the poop turns it black, hence the term "tarry stools". Or, to be really technical, you call this "melena". Bilirubin is a pigment derived from old red blood cells that is excreted by the gall bladder as a component of bile. If your gall bladder is plugged up, your poop turns gray and your skin, eyes, and urine turn yellow because the bilirubin is absorbed into your blood. It makes you itch, too. :)

[Chef Troy]

Okay, what if the patient is, say, badly burned over a large percentage of her body?

I know this is really morbid of me but enquiring minds want to know.

------------------
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef

[Holly]

We don't treat serious burns at my hospital- which is good, because I'm not sure I could do that. BUT I have had several patients with flesh eating strep, really bad bedsores (which they developed at home, not under MY care), and other conditions that create large areas with no skin. It's awful when liquid poop gets into open wounds. I give the patient as much morphine as I can, then use a special skin care product that comes in a squirt bottle, then blot blot blot.
When the skin is torn up and the patient has frequent loose stools, you have to put in a rectal tube or use an ostomy pouch. Then you'll still have problems, because the tube itself can contribute to skin breakdown, and it's nearly impossible to get a good seal with an ostomy bag around the, ah, orifice. Some patients actually have to have colostomies to keep the poop out of the raw flesh.
Aren't you happy you asked?

[Olentzero]

You gotta love people who've studied enough Latin to give us the declinations of all the fun words. I have now officially adopted "fex" into my vocabulary. "Coproid" just doesn't hold a candle to it.

Oh, dogfex!

------------------
Cave Diem! Carpe Canem!