Gizmo had to get a catheter.

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.
X

xBrianx619

Android Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 3, 2011
Messages
238
Location
SAN DIEGO
:( I brought him to the vet because he wasn't eating or drinking at all, he pooped a little bit but it wasnt enough. The vet said that his bladder felt extremely full, and he wasn't able to pee. So they catheterized him and now he's doing all better! Back to his chipper, jumpy self! Just glad he's okay...thought I'd share with you guys because you are the only people I know that seem to know what a chinchilla is..haha
 
Brian! What happened? Did the vet say if he has an infection or something else?

I'm so sorry you had to go through that. It just happened out of nowhere? I'm so glad that he's doing better and I hope he stays that way for you.
 
Thanks Susan, Yeah it happened out of no where, when my wife and I left that morning for disneyland, he was running on his flying saucer, when we get home he would barely move. But the vet gave me antibiotics because he said that he had a bladder infection. He still isnt really eating much, I have to syringe feed him every 8 hours. He'll eat the occasional hay though..and hes pooping, very little, but its increasing to normal, I hope! We'll see tomorrow morning when I wake up. Gonna sweep his cage clean tonight like I always do. :)
 
It's good that you got him in to see the vet when you did and got him the antibiotics. Normally they get back to normal in just a day or two with antibiotics. The inflammation goes down and they can urinate normally. Hopefully by morning you will see improvement. When they in pain from a urinary tract infection they don't want to eat much at all because they feel icky.
 
That's crazy! I don't think I've ever heard of that before on a chin. Glad to hear he's doing better though.
 
@susan. Yeah he has a corner that he goes to in the bottom of his cage. It's the only part where the wire isnt covered with tile, I guess he taught himself to pee there. But he has gone down there a couple of times and I look through the wiring since there's a drop pan under it, and I definitely see that he is going pee. It's just tough syringe feeding him without getting any food by his bottom lip. He has been mopey for alot of the day. Is this normal? @javachin, yeah I know! I just thought it was bloat because he was stretching alot. I tried giving him regolan but his poops were far to small, but at least he was pooping. I'm just glad the vet got the blood clot out of his urethra!
 
If he is not eating you HAVE to eat him more than once every 8 hours. He needs at least 65ml at day to keep up his weight. It is better to divide that into several feedings a day
 
He's in bit of pain from the catheter and from inflammation, so he's going to be mopey. You do need to make sure that he's eating on his own. I try to load them up on hay if they aren't feeling well just to help with digestion and get them to keep making droppings. I avoid handfeeding if it's possible, sometimes it's necessary to start just to keep the chin's blood sugar up and keep the digestive tract going.
 
I handfeed when there is any doubt the chin is not eating, I will start out with a smaller amount, watch poo and weight and increase or decrease feeding from that point. When they don't want to eat, they won't eat on their own, not matter what I offer.
 
Chins usually can eat 10-15ml per feeding, some more. When I am questioning if a chin is eating when sick, I will start out with 3 10ml feedings, breakfast, lunch and dinner-its not enough to make the chin full and not want to eat on its own, but its enough to keep the digestive tract moving.
After dealing with stasis because of not eating, I don't personally mess around with waiting anymore, I feed and watch rather than watch and then feed. If a chin is not eating at all then can need up to 100ml + a day to maintain weight, most seem to need around 60-80ml a day.
 
Last edited:
I see, yeah his poops are not really frequent, and they're pretty small. I guess we'll see how he progresses through the day. He moves around and everything..I just think hes not eating much right now because he'd usually be sleeping right now.
 
I would up the syringe feedings. When Tucker was being syringe fed, he needed to eat 60 - 80 ml a day to sustain his weight.
 
I agree, up the feedings since the poo is small and infrequent, you don't want to end up with stasis.
 
Just wanted to get some personal opinions on this. When I put Gizmo in his playpen, he runs around, is active, and he seems to poop A LOT more (I am guessing because he's up and running around/active, etc.) I did find a piece of poo on his flying saucer too..Anyways..the one on the left is a normal sized poo (im sure you all know this..lol) and the one on the right is a recent, smaller one. Is it smaller because he isn't eating that much hay? Or maybe it could be because of the antibiotics??
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20120808_131925.jpg
    IMG_20120808_131925.jpg
    39.5 KB · Views: 19
Im feeding him plenty of food. he's had about 55ml throughout the day. it's only 2:30 here though.

Update: Just watched gizmo eat some hay, looks like things are getting better, he didn't want anything to do with it earlier. :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top