Today is an extremely sad day for me. My girlfriend introduced me to chinchillas with her bundle of joy named Thor who is about 6 years old and very vibrant in his personality. After having him for a few months, it was pretty obvious that he was a bit bored and needed a friend.
So around my birthday in April, I found a breeder who brought over the cutest and fuzziest little fluffball of squee I'd ever laid eyes on and I called him Loki.
Thor and Loki didn't really get along too well, Thor was an "only-chin" for a long while and I was certain that it was going to take a while and plenty of attention to bring the two together. Over the last few weeks, things were looking better and there was less incidents of fighting when I let them play together (which I monitored heavily and made sure that it never got to a point where either chin was hurt). The last time I let them out, there wasn't even a fight, just a bit of chasing, neither Loki nor Thor were stressed out by it anymore and it bordered on playful.
Last weekend, I left the chins in the care of my roommate and headed to go pickup my girlfriend from a few states over. The whole trip lasted 4 days, however on day 3, the AC in my house went out. My roommate acted as fast as he could, ice packs, putting Loki in the fridge, etc. We eventually had to move Loki to a friend's place who had proper AC, but he was still on his side. Neither my friend nor my roommate had any money to help take him to a vet, so they had to wait for me to get back from my trip.
When I arrived around 1am on Tuesday, I stopped in my friend's house to check on him. He was not in good condition, but he was still alive. I made an appointment at the only vet clinic I could find that has experience with Chinchillas and took him in as soon as I could.
The vet showed us a treatment plan involving an IV, medication and syringe fed food, all of which Loki was very responsive too and appeared to be making an improvement. Yesterday morning was good as well and he still showed he had some fight in him. I left for work very hopeful of his recovery.
However, my girlfriend had noted he wasn't eating the fully recommend amount of food, which I thought was okay since he was still just a baby (7 months as of yesterday). But when I got home and saw him, I could feel that he was hanging on by a thread. I managed to get him his meds and IV, and my girlfriend managed to get him a little bit more food, but he pretty much wouldn't take it.
This morning, my girlfriend went to check on him while I took a shower and she came back in and I knew instantly that he hadn't made it through the night.
I'm heartbroken, I can hardly focus at work right now but I need to make a few more hours so I can avoid losing more time off. I'm exhausted mentally, physically and financially (the Vet bill was ~$260 and now I'll need to pay for cremation).
I am trying so hard not to blame myself. Not to blame my landlord for a faulty AC unit, not to blame myself for being unable to have gotten him to a vet sooner or gotten the landlord to repair the AC unit when I noticed it was having troubles...
I know there's not much anyone on here can do, but I needed to get this out. Thank you.
So around my birthday in April, I found a breeder who brought over the cutest and fuzziest little fluffball of squee I'd ever laid eyes on and I called him Loki.
Thor and Loki didn't really get along too well, Thor was an "only-chin" for a long while and I was certain that it was going to take a while and plenty of attention to bring the two together. Over the last few weeks, things were looking better and there was less incidents of fighting when I let them play together (which I monitored heavily and made sure that it never got to a point where either chin was hurt). The last time I let them out, there wasn't even a fight, just a bit of chasing, neither Loki nor Thor were stressed out by it anymore and it bordered on playful.
Last weekend, I left the chins in the care of my roommate and headed to go pickup my girlfriend from a few states over. The whole trip lasted 4 days, however on day 3, the AC in my house went out. My roommate acted as fast as he could, ice packs, putting Loki in the fridge, etc. We eventually had to move Loki to a friend's place who had proper AC, but he was still on his side. Neither my friend nor my roommate had any money to help take him to a vet, so they had to wait for me to get back from my trip.
When I arrived around 1am on Tuesday, I stopped in my friend's house to check on him. He was not in good condition, but he was still alive. I made an appointment at the only vet clinic I could find that has experience with Chinchillas and took him in as soon as I could.
The vet showed us a treatment plan involving an IV, medication and syringe fed food, all of which Loki was very responsive too and appeared to be making an improvement. Yesterday morning was good as well and he still showed he had some fight in him. I left for work very hopeful of his recovery.
However, my girlfriend had noted he wasn't eating the fully recommend amount of food, which I thought was okay since he was still just a baby (7 months as of yesterday). But when I got home and saw him, I could feel that he was hanging on by a thread. I managed to get him his meds and IV, and my girlfriend managed to get him a little bit more food, but he pretty much wouldn't take it.
This morning, my girlfriend went to check on him while I took a shower and she came back in and I knew instantly that he hadn't made it through the night.
I'm heartbroken, I can hardly focus at work right now but I need to make a few more hours so I can avoid losing more time off. I'm exhausted mentally, physically and financially (the Vet bill was ~$260 and now I'll need to pay for cremation).
I am trying so hard not to blame myself. Not to blame my landlord for a faulty AC unit, not to blame myself for being unable to have gotten him to a vet sooner or gotten the landlord to repair the AC unit when I noticed it was having troubles...
I know there's not much anyone on here can do, but I needed to get this out. Thank you.
