Hi everyone,
Our 5 year old chinchilla Rahl passed away unexpectedly this week after managing to get out of his cage and needless to say my wife and I are devastated. I've never posted here before, and now I don't have a chin to talk about anymore. I guess I'm looking for closure, or some answers, because I just don't understand what happened.
We had a big cage from Martin's Cages for him, I believe the skyscraper. Around 11 the other night my wife fed him and we went to bed. At 7:30 in the morning she found him under the couch in the living room, alive but barely moving or breathing. One of the cage latches wasn't secure and he managed to push the door open a tiny bit and get out.
We rushed him to an exotic vet near us who took a look. They did X-Rays and did not find any broken bones. They did say his stomach was full so he had eaten the night before. They did some in-house bloodwork while we were there and said that he was a little dehydrated, his blood sugar was somewhat low and his liver looked like it might be having issues (i forget what numbers exactly they used to see that). He was also still breathing shallowly. They said he might have ingested something. They put him on some oxygen and kept him, giving him some water and food/sugar. They wanted us to go home and see if we might find what he had eaten, and they would call us after lunch with an update.
We went home and took a look around but did not really find anything he may have chewed or eaten. We did find a lot of poop in our den so it looks like he was in there the majority of the time he was out.
Come 12PM the vet calls.. and said Rahl passed away. They said he had gotten a little better so they put him in a cage to watch him, and then he started having difficulty breathing. They put him on oxygen again, and even attempted CPR when it was necessary, but it didn't help. Within 12 hours of last seeing him healthy and happy he was gone.
The vet did X-Rays after he passed away, and a necrospy, and said it looked like he had internal swelling and fluid in his lungs. Their final call was that he had internal trauma from a fall or something falling on him, and it had gotten worse since the morning which is why it wasn't on the first x-rays.
I guess that makes sense.. I just don't understand. I guess he could have climbed on on something in the den and tried to jump to another and misjudged it, but the tallest thing in the den is six feet. Is a fall from there onto carpet going to cause internal injury and death to a chinchilla?
We do have other pets, two older cats and two dogs. The dogs were in a pen and unable to get to the chinchilla. The cats are older and have been around the chinchilla when he's out before and they don't care. They just stare at him. The vet said they did not see any signs of being attacked by other animals.
Rahl was smart, super friendly and cute, and had many years ahead of him. We don't know what happened. But we feel like pretty bad pet parents right now.
Our 5 year old chinchilla Rahl passed away unexpectedly this week after managing to get out of his cage and needless to say my wife and I are devastated. I've never posted here before, and now I don't have a chin to talk about anymore. I guess I'm looking for closure, or some answers, because I just don't understand what happened.
We had a big cage from Martin's Cages for him, I believe the skyscraper. Around 11 the other night my wife fed him and we went to bed. At 7:30 in the morning she found him under the couch in the living room, alive but barely moving or breathing. One of the cage latches wasn't secure and he managed to push the door open a tiny bit and get out.
We rushed him to an exotic vet near us who took a look. They did X-Rays and did not find any broken bones. They did say his stomach was full so he had eaten the night before. They did some in-house bloodwork while we were there and said that he was a little dehydrated, his blood sugar was somewhat low and his liver looked like it might be having issues (i forget what numbers exactly they used to see that). He was also still breathing shallowly. They said he might have ingested something. They put him on some oxygen and kept him, giving him some water and food/sugar. They wanted us to go home and see if we might find what he had eaten, and they would call us after lunch with an update.
We went home and took a look around but did not really find anything he may have chewed or eaten. We did find a lot of poop in our den so it looks like he was in there the majority of the time he was out.
Come 12PM the vet calls.. and said Rahl passed away. They said he had gotten a little better so they put him in a cage to watch him, and then he started having difficulty breathing. They put him on oxygen again, and even attempted CPR when it was necessary, but it didn't help. Within 12 hours of last seeing him healthy and happy he was gone.
The vet did X-Rays after he passed away, and a necrospy, and said it looked like he had internal swelling and fluid in his lungs. Their final call was that he had internal trauma from a fall or something falling on him, and it had gotten worse since the morning which is why it wasn't on the first x-rays.
I guess that makes sense.. I just don't understand. I guess he could have climbed on on something in the den and tried to jump to another and misjudged it, but the tallest thing in the den is six feet. Is a fall from there onto carpet going to cause internal injury and death to a chinchilla?
We do have other pets, two older cats and two dogs. The dogs were in a pen and unable to get to the chinchilla. The cats are older and have been around the chinchilla when he's out before and they don't care. They just stare at him. The vet said they did not see any signs of being attacked by other animals.
Rahl was smart, super friendly and cute, and had many years ahead of him. We don't know what happened. But we feel like pretty bad pet parents right now.
