Sick chinchilla week2

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chilla44

New member
Joined
Oct 19, 2017
Messages
4
hi all,

I have a chinchilla that I've had for 11 years now. She was a fully grown adult when I rescued her, so she could potentially be quite old. She's traveled with me, lived in my hoodie back when I was in highschool, overall best thing ever. I've been wondering how long she's got left to live for a while now since she's getting up there (although I know they can live up to 25). I'm having some tough decisions to make.

Tuesday the 10th of october, evening, she was lying down, extremely hot, grumpy. I got her an icepack although it wasn't that hot in our apartment. She sat on it right away. I checked her out and couldn't figure out what's up, so I figured I'd wait till morning. Come morning she didn't move. Took her to the only vet in a 8 hour drive radius that knows anything about chinchillas, who prescribed antibiotics for a UTI - Baytril 2 times a day, .12 ml. She said she can run blood tests and send them 18 hour drive away for analysis, however that would cost me upwards of 500$ since they can't do them in town and it's all crazy complicated. There's not much the vets here can do for her and I don't have the ability to leave where I'm resigning at this time.

She said the tests would show if she has a kidney stone (although so does not peeing) and they could potentially show kidney failiure however she will be a gonner if that's the case anyway, so it's not super worth it to do the tests.

So fastforward, thursday 19th oct. She isn't eating pellets, but she's eating her hays (little alfaalfa, timothy, oathay all from oxbow) and chewing a little on her apple sticks. She's skinny as can be but she's still fighting being forcefed with all her strength, I've been advised to not forcefeed her if she eats on her own.

She's still on antibiotics which I will continue till next thursday. I also give her probiotics about 3 hours after her medicine (inside of a goji berry). Lethargic, skinny, hiding in a box in her cage. Loves cuddling with me from time to time, sleeps on my hand about an hour a day, holds my hand in her cage when she wants me there. All sounds ok, and i've been waiting to see what happens. Been reading up on this a lot. So she's pooping little poops, but at least she's pooping. she's eating a lot of her poop too which is good for probiotics.

Until today she's been peeing twice a day however today I saw her squat without peeing. Now here's a big danger flag for me. Maybe she will pee.. I don't know.

Also, her paws have been dry-looking, and today I noticed she has been biting a bit off of the bottom of her front paws, it's red, swollen, and there's skin missing. Put some polysporin on them.

I can't afford 500$ for her, which is sad, and horrific but it's a reality. I'm a student and have my own issues I'm struggling with, and she is old. I know it's horrible that I can't take her in for extra tests, but such is life sometimes. Doctor said there's not much she can do besides run the tests anyway. I'm looking to see if anybody knows why she's biting her paws, if they've experienced this with a chinchilla, and anything I can do to help her. She doesn't look in pain but of course I will never know for sure. I'm ready to put her down if she's in acute kidney failiure, and ready to do anything I can personally do for her otherwise. She's my best friend. I feel stuck between a hammer and a hard spot.

thanks
 
update

she peed, just somewhere i didnt see it so she is still doing that. today she ate the most out of last week, drank lots too. still chewing paws.
 
Haven't figured out how to delete this thread and nobody replied, but she is almost fully recovered, putting on weight, started running around, chewing paws less and less. she's become a bit of a picky eater so now i have to get her back on her old diet of timothy hay and pellets rather than alfalfa and oat hay as a main food. but she's peeing normal, pee back to regular colour. good news good news good news
 
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