Lethargic and not eating much?

[PikoriDelurio]

My chinchilla has been lazing around her cage a lot lately, and when I went to investigate I noticed that she had urine all over her private area. I immediately called a vet (because it's very hard for me to go to one in person), and she told me she might just have low blood sugar, and to just clean her up. I washed her with warm water and then blowdried her fur. At the request of the vet, fed her 2 tablespoons of sugar water (ratio 2 tablespoons of water, 2 teaspoons of sugar). This seemed to help for a day or so. Then I noticed her dragging her back legs and having trouble climbing to the second level of her cage, but then she'd jump right up and walk almost normally again, before sitting back down and slumping to her side. On top of all this, she seems to not be drinking as much water and refusing to eat anything but hay and the treats from her pellets (VitaNature brand). She won't eat her normal treats either (cheerios or dried pasta noodles). She's less than a year old, and I'm a first time chin owner, is there anything I can do? Is she sick?

Thank you for reading

 

[ticklechin]

The symptom of dragging the back legs is important, its a sign of bloat which can kill in a very short time, you need to find a vet that treats chinchillas on a regular basis, if you can't find one look for one that at least treats rabbits and guinea pigs, the advice that was given by them could in my opinion kill the chin on its own. The sugary treats, pasta, cheerios all need to stop and this chin needs a emergency vet visit today, in my opinion.

 

[Cuddlebug]

Dawn is right. This chin needs a vet. How is she doing? Just to let people know, sugar water is asking for trouble, it will only make things much worse. Any vet would know that those symptoms are not from low blood sugar and that you should never feed sugar to a chin.

 

[PikoriDelurio]

Thank you for the replies, after posting this she stopped dragging and she's back to zooming around her cage at top speed, and I stopped feeding her sugar water. As for the vet, I hope he doesn't work on chinchillas a lot if his advice could have killed poor ChiliBean

Thank you so much for the help!!