Chinchilla eating very little, skin and bones, sleepy a lot.

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SarahLynn

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2017
Messages
14
Location
USA
My chinchilla, Toby, is very thin. I can feel all his bones. He has mild diarrhea, better than it was, but still diarrhea. He seems tired a lot. He keeps chewing at his teeth when he sits around, or maybe grinding them, but nobody sees anything wrong with his teeth. He has been sleeping in my lap all day.

I have been making sure every day that he eats. I put food to his face and wait until he eats, and I don't put him back in his cage until he has finished. I watch him drink his water, and he does drink it.

He keeps trying to find warm places to lay. I think he's leaving me. I am very sad, and don't know what is wrong.

I fed him some pumpkin. I read that it helps with severe diarrhea. All he will eat from me is his food watered down, anything mashed like banana, sweet potato, squash, pumpkin, etc, and he will eat hummus. He won't eat hard foods, but he will take a cuttlebone and chew that.

He's just been laying in my lap. I'll put him on the couch to let him run around, and he will just crawl sadly back over to the end of the couch and reach out for my computer chair, so I hold my hands out, he jumps to me, and then curls up in a blanket on my lap. I feel so sad for this little guy. I have a vet appointment in a few days, but I need to do something to help him in the meantime...What can I do? And what do you think is wrong??

I was told it could be giardia, which luckily has antibiotics as treatment, but I still am wondering if maybe it is something else.. He seems so weak.

He also has blisters on his ear, and my boyfriend told me that my other chinchilla was chewing his ear. I don't know what is going on, and I'm scared. I love him so much.
:(

16298772_148604165645667_3449839358927518670_n.jpg


16388331_148604162312334_1803650187904929814_n.jpg
 
If it was my chin I would be getting him to the vet NOW not in a few days! Chins are very good at hiding illness so when they get to the point of showing signs they are very sick. Chins can go down hill and die in a matter of hours.

You should not be feeding fruits and veggies, they will cause diarrhea and make it worse, a very small amount of pure pumpkin might help, but only because it's high in fiber. Also definitely no human food like hummus, that will make him sick. I would just encourage hay consumption, pull the pellets if needed rather then adding sugary foods that chins can't digest. Another option if he wont even eat hay is to grind up the pellets and make a paste with water to feed the chin. Cuttle bones are also very bad for chins as well, they give the chin way too much calcium.

You can't know the teeth are fine by just looking at the front teeth, the back teeth also always grow too. If the teeth are over grown the roots grow too, into the jaw and skull. Unless you have taken him to the vet and had x-rays done, or at the very least scoped with a camera/light thing (sorry can't remember what it's called) then you don't know for sure the teeth are fine. However, teeth grinding is more commonly a sign of pain, either tooth pain or gut pain (which sounds likely with diarrhea).

How much are you making him eat? Chins should be eating roughly 2 tb worth of pellets and about a handful worth of hay everyday. If you are feeding a meal replacement like critical care or crushed pellets with water you need to be feeding I think something like 50-100ml per day spread over the day.

The blisters don't look good either, but I don't know what the would be from, but I would definitely get that checked out too before they pop. If the other chin has been chewing on him they could actually be abscesses not blisters.
 
He didn't get thin and in this condition overnight. This is something that had to be ongoing. Waiting "a few days" will most likely result in him being beyond help and he will die.

Get him to a vet now.
 
a similar thing happened with my first chin, Faust. he was still eating and the poo was normal but he would whine when i would put him down/ back in his cage. he would try to nuzzle back into my hands and slept all the time. i didnt have a scale at home to weigh him so i did not realize how skinny he had gotten til it was too late. I noticed the behavioral changes Monday, we took him to the vet on Tuesday, they gave him fluids and sent me home with critical care. he died on my lap by noon that Friday...Get your chin seen fast!
 
Unfortunately he passed away last night on my lap.

We do not have emergency vets in the area, the closest is hours upon hours away, and they don't see chinchillas since they're an "exotic" vet. And to Tunes, a chinchilla's condition can worsen quickly, and without signs beforehand since they're prey animals.

I tried setting up a veterinary appointment, the soonest one available was today at 3:00PM. He didn't make it that far. He got worse quickly, and so much worse that it was impossible to keep up with. We laid in bed together for 3 days, and I helped him get to his cage and drink and eat his food. I don't understand how he died, and I am very sad.

My other two chinchillas are healthy still, and run around like normal, have a huge appetite. They're doing well.

My chinchilla came to me from a previous owner very small compared to the others, but I was reassured by the previous owner that he is just a "small chinchilla". Why that wasn't a warning sign to me? I don't know. But all of this was a good learning experience and helped me realize I need critical care food with me at all times, need to have an exotics vet ready at all times, and need to look for signs more closely. Thanks everyone for your feedback, but I had no way of finding him a vet in time. I wish my area had a 24 hour vet that takes exotics, but we don't..
 
Back
Top