Many thanks to everyone who posted and gave me peace of mind last month when this happened to me. We ate in a very nice restaurant that served what they called "butterfish", and the next morning I could not believe what was happening. It was exactly like what others have posted: not diarrhea exactly, but really just orange oily drops that leaked out. I could not believe it. I borrowed a laptop and found this thread and others, and was so relieved to have an answer. It did indeed resolve in a day or two. Thank you all! Others, beware. I followed a link to an Australian study that showed this may happen in about 40% of people who eat escolar, which I read here is often sold as "butterfish.". Thank you all!

i first had the discharge about 10 years ago went to the doctors but they didnt really know what it was and then it went away so i didnt follow it up. It just comes whenever more recently ive had it about 3 times this year and i cant find anything in common with what ive either eaten or drunken.
i hardly eat fish and when i do i dont get it. i eat a bit of subway but cant relate it to that either. I know im sensitive to wearing tight pants or skirts around my waist as it causes a lot of wind. Im know i will be heading back to the doctors sooner rather than later as it does become embarrasing when im out in public as its mainly wind that comes out with the oil.

The previous Sunday I visited a local fish market in Hawaii and purchased what was labeled as "Fresh Butterfish".

I prepared it the same way as other butter fish that I had purchased from the super markets that were previously frozen.

After eating the cooked local fresh butterfish, my daughter and wife had an uncotrollable discharge of oil the next morning that continued throughout the day. We didn't know what caused this problem because I too had eaten a large portion of this fish with my family and didn't experience the same.

On Monday my daughter and I ate the remaining portions of this butterfish that I had baked on Sunday. Tuesday morning I experienced an uncontrollable oil leak that followed me throughout the day. My daughter continued her oil problem like me.

I contacted the Department of Health and an investigation was made. The
inspector found out that and informed the fish stall owner to relabel his "Fresh Butterfish" to Hawaiian Butterfish of Walu. The inspector also asked the owner if he told his customers of the uncontrollable oil discharge that can happen after eating this fish.

The owner claimed that all customers were told of this. That's strange because I was not told of it when I purchased that fish. The inspector told me that the owner probably told some customers but not all customers.

From my view, I don't believe an owner of a fish stall would tell customers something that could slow down or stop the sale of his fresh fish. The inspector said I was probably right in saying that.

I had a bout of "Uncontrollable Discharge of Oil" when I was taking a drug called ZENICAL. This drug stops the absorption of oil in the gastrointestinal tract thus causing this uncontrollable leakage.

Clothing can be easily cleaned by spraying "SIMPLE GREEN" full strength
on the soiled area, and using a strong stream of warm water to rinse this area. Repeat this several times if the oil is still visible. I was able to clean my underwear and outer pants by doing this.

I also used a half length of a "light day panty liner". Remove the paper and fold the adhesive side together and place it between your buttocks
by your anus. Check often every 1/2 hour to an hour. Then sit on the toilet and do a forced bowel movement even if don't have to. You'd probably squirt oil out that will look like oily soup in your toilet, and your butt will have to be wiped clean. A moist towelette or final wipe can be used.

That oil smells bad!

The Health Department informed me that ESCOLAR, WALU, or Ruvettus
are known to have oils in their flesh that can not be digested by humans and will just pass through the body -- that is the cause of this uncontrollable oil discharge.

I hope my posting can help someone who is experiencing an oil discharge.

I had an oily orange colored blobs of oil floating in the toilet this morning along with oily sludgy stool and a gurgling tummy all day. No discomfort or pain accompanied this.

I am a totally healthy 33yo male who exercises regularly. This oily stool phenomenon has happened about once every 6 months for 2 years. I've never been able to connect it with cashews until I read this forum.

Sure enough I bought two cans of Planters halves and pieces at Kmart the other day and have been working on them consistently. Last night I had, what I thought was, a healthy midnight snack of Planters cashews and orange juice. This morning I had one of the worst oily stools yet.

I was worried because most search results talking about mal-absorbtion or the pancreas sound very bad. I made a Dr's appt. but just canceled it after cluing in on the cashew culprits!

I have in the past two years feasted on salted cashews from Safeway/VONS brand with no ill effects. I'm wondering if anyone else can connect the oily stools with a particular brand? or perhaps the cottonseed and/or peanut oil listed on the ingredients?

I'm going to do an experiment and not eat any cashews for a few weeks, make sure my bowels clear up, then partake of the remaining cashews and see if the oily stools come back. (OH The things we do in the name of science!)

Maybe I'll do the same cashew fast and then try eating other brands and see what we can come up with. If anyone else can share which brands/ingredients gave them trouble maybe we can figure something more out.

Also going to email Planters to find out where the offending cashews originated from. I shall report back!

signed,
An Oily (but determined) Cashew Lover

I love butterfish, but about 10 years ago had a terribly embarassing experience at work. I was at the staff lunch table by myself and casually farted, and to my dismay an oily discharge blasted through my pants into the seat, leaving a 'halfmoon' stain that was impossible to get out. Anyway, to cut a long storey short, months later, the chair was gone and everyone in the office thought that i shat my pants that day. My wife and i has butter fish again last night and it wasn't until she said she was leaking?? that i decided to google. Wow, that has solved a 10 year mystery of mine. Thanks

lol i think yall got sumthin going there....i believe its nuts! cashews!

i ate a bunch of salty cashews, planters brand, and had this problem! SCARED ME! lol
(ofcourse after finding out i have high pottasium levels) oops!

its probably just sumthing they put in nuts? also i had spahgetti with that orange oil in the sauce....plus sum mt dew. healthy diet, i know.

i guess its just that? i mean, still you should atleast call yer doc and ask, because it can be caused by sum other things...but if it only happens on a certain diet...suggest that to yer doc and just switch diets.

maybe you guys should also see if you have any vitamin issues like low iron and high pottasium like i do, they can do that with just a blood test...better safe than sorry? i try to have the tests done every yr or so, because i know that i have an issue with vitamins because i eat like one type of food, and i dont eat much.


is this problem more common in girls?

I ate some cashews at work and 24 hours later orange oil comin out my butt!! Thank you for putting this out there! I was scared I would be wearing depends for the rest of my life every time I ate something greasy!!! I had eaten really bad that day so I though it was the pizza and pop from my nephews birthday party.

Does anyone know what causes this reaction?

Thanks!!!!!
SunshineK

I noticed orange discharge from my anus sitting on my knickers as i went to use the toilet. I am terrified as I was very very sick yesterday, pale in face, and back pain behind my ribs. I am hoping it is just something I ate. I took three vitamin c tablets the day before and they are orange, so maybe this is the cause, but i am not sure! HELP

I had sushi for lunch yesterday ( white tuna sashimi, which was really good by the way) and that afternoon, I started having these "symptoms" that everyone is talking about. No discomfort at least. Seems my symptoms have shown up sooner that for most people. Hopefully they'll go away sooner too. I just put all my clothes in the laudry and ran it on sanitary. Hopefully my "infected" clothes don't ruin the whole load.

I also have suffered from orange oily discharge. Had to skip work today just in case. I had a fillet of grilled orange roughy (well done) for dinner last night and the night before. I also had maki sushi for lunch yesterday, with a variety of fish. From hearing all of these other accounts, I believe it is likely due to the fish, though I am not sure which one. I think it is likely the sushi or the combination of the two, as I routinely eat the orange roughy and have never had this problem before.

I was told to eat foods like rice, dry toast, saltine crackers, or bananas. I just gobbled up about 2 cups of rice. Hopefully that takes care of the problem.

Best of luck to everyone and may you have the good fortune to not have this happen at work.

I have this oily orange discharge too. Almost 3 or 4 days now. The only thing different in my diet is that I've been drinking Vitamin Water. I was wondering if anyone out there has got this problem from drinking too much of this stuff?

This is an old post, but it helped me to identify what is happening to me today! After eating was was labelled as rudderfish cod on saturday, from sunday night I have had spotty orange diarrhea. According to the Canadian Food Insepection Agency website Escolar has occasionally been mislabelled as "gemfish", "rudderfish", "butterfish", "sea bass" or "blue cod". Thanks to this site, at least I can relax today.

yep... definitely cashews... same thing happened to me and when i got the post about cashews it all clicked. i think i'll stay away from them for a while.

Thank you for all of the posts!!! I've had these symptoms for 2 days now and couldn't figure out what it was.... i know now that WALU - a hawaiian "butterfish" is the culprit!!! (it is also called... ESCOLAR!) I ate it on a Friday...and had a "reaction" Sunday (thank God for oxyclean and clorox!) and still, today, Tuesday, I'm having some residual affects. Tomorrow i'm calling the place where i ate it to let them know they need to put a disclaimer on their menu!

Happened to me too, except the escolar was so yummy, I had 6-7 ounces for lunch two days in a row. OUCH! And the oily discharge was an awful greenish-yellow color... looked sorta like insect guts or something. The oily farts were funny though... I am on day two of my period, so I was wearing a pad, which caught only 1/2 of the discharge (the rest of the oily discharge traveled onto my panties which i ended up throwing away). I thought the oily fart sound was due to some sort of odd heavy menstration. I was thinking, "uh-oh, time to change the sanitary napkin!"... much to my surprise (and amusement), i had a pretty dirty sight to see when I visited the toilet!

One other symptom that i had was a really really upset stomach the entire time that started right after eating the fish. I thought it was the greek salad I had (it had feta cheese on it, and i am also lactose intolerant). It was a feeling of extreme bloating... I felt really "fat"... i attributed this to my period/pms ... but the oily-ness feeling was overwhelming. I wanted to throw up. I *SHOULD* have thrown up, had I known it was something I ate and not my period (i had also taken some painkillers/MIDOL so i thought maybe the nausea was my stomach not reacting to the meds very well).

I also wanted to add that escolar was the yummiest fish I've ever had. But I wish I went with my instincts and immediately tried to force myself to throw up upon the extreme stomach discomfort.

Fish is usually my favorite food, but I am turned off by it right now.

I am so grateful for this site. I was alarmed to be experiencing this exact orange oily diarrhea problem at work today. But after visiting this site and learning about the side effects of Butterfish I was much relieved to learn that it wasn't anything serious, albeit very embarrassing. Had Butterfish for lunch the last couple of days, it's ver tasty.

i have that alot right now. also my stomach is REALLY sick. but like i dont eat fish or cashews. i have been eating A LOT of sunflower seeds. and i dont chew them i swallow them whole. and since i started eating those ive had this problem. i just hope its not something serious since my stomach is sick too. =/

i haved orange loose stool for over a week with lower back pain and sometimes pain in my right lower stomach. I have not eaten fish and I do not have my appendix. I can't eat anything without have to run t o the bathroom?

Your situation sounds like gallbladder problems, you'll get pain in your right lower stomach area, you'll get radiating pain around your back and sides, sometimes up to your shoulders too. I recommend you get to your doctor right away because it won't get better, I waitied 3 months in agony while they figured out what it was, because I didn't have any gallstones so the only way they figured it out was with a HIDA scan to test my gallbladder function. I recommend alot of rice and don't eat anything that has oil, butter, is fried, or has corn syrup, all make it much worse. I got my gallbladder out and still have problems, I can't eat anything fried or with butter, but many people have sucessful operations so I wish you the best.

Oh my! Why did this happen to me! Oh yeah I know, it's because I'm moving and decided to empty out my freezer. There was a bag of Orange Roughy with 7 filets in it. My wife and kids flew to our new location and I am here finishing the move. I didn't cook any sides so I figured I would "get full" on the main course. I had never eaten Orange Roughy before and I must say I did a really good job cooking it. The 6 filets I ate were very tasty. I know, I know... Why in the world would someone eat that much fish in one sitting. I was hungry. I'll never do that again. I always thought I could fart my way through the thinnest of stools however, when it came to the orange oil of ooze, my SFS didn't perform with the control that I was so proud of. (SFS is your ShitFartSeparator)

WHY SELL THE STUFF IF IT DOES WHAT IT DOES? Orange Roughy is also known as Slimehead Fish. Gee, I wonder why they call it Orange Roughy.

If it wasn't for this forum I would've gone to the ER thinking the worst. Sleep well america, this Air Force Sgt made a bad decision. I hope this helps someone like it helped me. "It's" caused by wax esters. Wax esters are there in the place of the good Omega-3 fatty acids. I think it's because the fish is from deeper water. Here I am sitting with a paper towel folded in my crack debating whether or not I should risk sleeping. The thought of putting a tampon up my hole crossed my mind but I would'nt be able to look my wife in the eye.