Loss of motor control, general disorientation?

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teppi

teppi

Active member
Joined
Jul 6, 2013
Messages
44
Location
San Francisco
Hi everyone,

My little 5 yr. old beige boy Toby was acting strangely this morning. He seemed completely normal the night before, but he wouldn't come to me from his cage, I had to scoop him up for his daily play time (mine get morning and night :) I thought he was just sleepy. But when I placed him down on the floor, I noticed he was suffering from some kind of loss of balance, couldn't use his hind legs very well at all, to the point of falling over to one side and not being able to right himself. He just seemed generally out of sorts, limp, and not very alert, however took some treats and was pooping fine.

I got an emergency appointment with our regular exotic vet and the three guesses were: stroke, seizure or inner ear infection causing vertigo and imbalance. The only physical "anomaly" she noticed was his right pupil didn't seem normal. We were sent home with some antibiotics and a mild pain killer for discomfort, in the event it was the latter cause.

I was really scared that we were going to lose him this morning, although he seemed a little perkier at the vets. He was moving around better but definitely not normal. I am still so worried about him that I can't concentrate on anything at work, and can't wait to get home to be with him :-(

We have a follow up appt. on Monday, to see if the meds actually helped anything. In the meantime, just thought I would query the forum to see if anyone had experienced anything similar with their chins?

Thank you.

 
Day 2. Yesterday we took out shelves and lowered things in his downstairs level of the cage, while we let him recuperate, separated from his cage mate upstairs. It was like a handicap chin zone. Today he's doing much, much better. A lot more energy, and alertness, but he doesn't have his full mobility back. Can't jump like normal and still seems a little wobbly. I wonder if this will be a permanent condition or if he'll make a full recovery, or if he'll have another episode of whatever this is in the future. We'll just take it day by day, this little fur ball is worth it. :)
 
He needs time for the meds to take effect. Just like people his recovery won't be overnight. Also please post the meds you were given. Some meds are hard on stomach and they will quit eating. Regardless be prepared to hand feed him. There is great info on hand feeding pinned to one of the forums here, I just can't remember which one! LOL! you already did great with changing his environment for safety. Try to do daily weight checks to monitor for weight loss. He may need hand feeding regardless. Praying for you and your baby. You are doing your absolute best for him already!:hug2:
 
Toby's meds

Thanks for the reply Mercynursie!

The prescriptions are for Metacam (1.5mg/MI) to be given once a day for 7 days, and Sulfatrim suspension, to be given twice a day for 14 days. It's a miracle that we discovered he loves peanut butter so we put a bit of that on the syringe tip while we administer the meds. No burrito-ing necessary :)

I did not know about hand feeding, I will order some critical care right away. I do weigh my chins about once a week, but good idea to step it up to daily while he's recuperating.
 
My chins hated regular antibiotics. They got the cherry flavored sulfatrim and they love it. They come right up to the syringe.

I dont know if this story will rly help at all, but i had something similar happen with Chico. He went limp one day as well, looked practically dead but still breathing and his eyes were open. Rushed him to the vet and just as we pulled on to his street he started coming around. They found a heart murmur that day.- The next time he started losing complete control of the back half of his body. Flopping around, dragging himself around with his front paws. Both times were scarey as **** for me.

As it turned out, chico had the heart murmur and seemed prone to seizures. But it wasn't random. He had been separated from his female companion into different cages. When i let her out to run a bit and chico could see her, he wanted to get to her. Being in the cage he couldn't. But he would get himself so worked up, that he would start having these problems. - In the end i had to put a fleece barrier on both cages to make sure chico would never see the girls again. I couldnt let that keep happening. And its been several years since then, but so far he has not had any more episodes like this.
 
Thank you for sharing your story Godofgods. I didn't actually observe whatever fit or seizure he might have had, but the symptoms you described sound almost exactly what I observed with Toby. I was scared it was the end for him :-( I can't say that I noticed anything out of the ordinary with him previous to this, no specific event that might have triggered this episode.

Four days later he seems to made almost a complete recovery, although I don't know whether it's due to the meds or not. Like you, I noticed that he started coming around by the time we got to the vet. We'll keep going with the medication until our follow up appointment next Tuesday and see what the vet says.

Our other chin Taro, a black velvet and the runt of the litter is the one with the heart murmur, but you'd never know it by the level of energy he displays. He is.... magnificently acrobatic. And maybe a bit ADHD? :)

Anyhow, we've returned the lower level of the cage to normal conditions, separate him from Taro at night and let them enjoy some snuggle and grooming time during the day. Hopefully this has all passed, although the nagging thought remains in the back of my mind that perhaps this could occur again in the future.
 
Please help!!!

Hi Teppi!

I know it's been more than a year since you've posted you had that emergency with your chin, but we are desperate and your post is the only thing we managed to find online.
Our chin has the exact same symptoms as yours, however, he is slightly older. Unfortunately, in Romania, we didn't manage to find a vet Specialised in chinchillas. We did see a vet, who was seeing a chin for the 1st time, we told him about his symptoms and the treatment you got for your little one and he suggested we try the same treatment.
Do you remember by any chance what the dosage for Sulfatrim you gave him twice a day? Our little one recovered a bit after the first day of treatment, but it's been about 5 days now and we haven't seen any further improvement in his condition.
We only gave him Sukfatrim once a day 1Mg.
 
Mihai; what he described and what i had happen was likely a seizure. Most of which i talked about in the above posts. Antibiotics (which is what Sulfatrim is) arnt really gonna do anything for that. But it is a first go to for many vets. More of a just in case some thing is going on, or something else is going on.

The dosage is dependent on your chins weight, whats wrong with him, and how much he needs for what ever issue they might be thinking of. So i cant give you an exact dosage to use or anything. - I can say however that iv had to give antibiotics a number of times. Every time it fell in the range of 0.12ml to 0.19 ml once a day. Small dosages that require a smaller med syringe.

You said its been 5 days without much improvement. What exactly is wrong with him? What symptoms is he showing on a daily basis (for this long)?
 
Hey Godofgods!
Thank you for your reply!
Whenever I came to work one evening, I found my 14 year old chin lying on his left side, sleeping at the bottom of the cage. This is very unusual for him as he usually spends most of his time in the upper side of the cage. When I called him, he woke up and came to me, but was shaking his head. I got him out of the cage and noticed he was walking bad, he did not jump as he usually did, he seemed confused and lost. As soon as he was climing anything (not very tall as he could not make the jump) he was falling down on the side. It was a nightmare to watch him go through that. I inspected every inch of him, everything looked normal, no swellings, eyes normal, no liquid in years. I called a neighbor that loves him and is a MD and she told me to let him sleep and recover. It was heartbreaking and most of the night I watched him. As soon as I heard a noise, I went there's and talked to him. He eats normally, drinks, poops and pees.
The next day I found a vet that agreed to see us. We went there, explained everything, saw him moving and said he would not go as far as saying that he had a stroke, but is eighter having a internal year infection or had some kind of stroke. I told him I would prefer to have the treatment I found that Teppi had and he agreed, although the wanted to give me another antibiotic that he usually gives to hamsters... the dosage was a challenge for him and he said 1ml/24 hours... after the second treatment my chin was better! More active, present and stopped shaking his head...
I don't have a exotic pet vet in reach, I tryed calling one 300 kms away and he told me (yelled at me) to call the emergency line 112 for advice and not him :(((
I love my chin a lot and I want to help him :(((
 
Our chin never had any problems in his life, never took any medicine and never went to a vet as he was always great, playful and active. Never even had diarrhea, colds or anything like this.
After these 5 treatments, he is not so confused anymore, still eating and drinking, sleeping a lot, not falling that much but still dizzy at times and he still can not get to the upper side of the cage :(
What should I do? How should I continue his treatment? 1 dose of sulfatrim per day or split in 2?
 
Here is an update, this is the third time I am giving the treatment at every 12 hours. Chin is more active, ran and played for a bit when I got him out of the cage, but he did not want to get out... he made a squick sound and then actually tryed to bite me... that never happened before... after I got him out, he was fine... after the treatment he ate, drank some water and went to sleep.
 
Few questions. What is the temperature of the room hes in? What is his diet? Is he still eating, drinking, pooping? And when he does walk, is walking in a circle?

One other thing, does the label on those antibiotics say what the dilution is? (Something like .5mg/ml or something similar.)
 
Hey!
Answers to your questions:
Room temperature is usually set by thermostat between 19 and 21 degrees, his cage beeing down on the floor, his temp is usually 1-2 degrees less. He is not near a radiator.
He usually eats chinchilla foods from the pet shop (mixes with pellets and stuff) and vitakraft sticks with seeds. He also enjoys almonds as treats and he loves the sugar free rodent drops with parsley from vitakraft.
Now, he eats everything he usually eats, plus I got him some alfalfa hay that he loves! He is drinking all by himself with no problem, pooping normally and peeing normally.
Yes, at first he was walking a bit in circles, then the circles got bigger and now he is running normally, but he is not jumping... it is a bit weird, it is like he does not remember his old regular places in the house. As an update, since I started the smaller twice daily dosage he is much better: he is present, much more active, lot less confused, more playful and eating more!
 
The Meloxicam anti-inflammatory came in a seringe from the vet, I don't have any info rather then the name on the seringe. It is graded and I am giving him less then a drop only once a day. This will stop tomorrow as it will be the last dose. I will continue with the antibiotics until we reach 14 days.
By the way, my pet never ate any wet food: he always rejected apples, carrots or anything that I tryed. More them rejecting them, he is taking them and throwing them out of the cage :))) this is what he has been doing since he was a baby chin.
Ooooh, I forgot to tell you: he loves dried goji fruit! If he could only eat that it would be perfect!
 
A few things of concern regarding your posts today about what you are feeding your chin. Chinchillas should be fed a pellet only food, no extra treats/junk mixed in, just a grass based chinchilla pellet along with plenty of hay and water. They are not designed to eat seeds, nuts, fruits, or veggies, also no dairy or other animal products. They are pretty much grass herbivores, so the extra sugars in fruits and veggies even dried, can cause all kinds of health issues, and wet can also cause diarrhea (so it's good he rejects them). The high fat content in the seeds and nuts, a chin can't properly process either and once again that will cause health issues. Much safer treats would be rose hips, a cheerio, a shredded wheat piece, a small pinch of oats, or some dried dandelion or red clover (among other dried herbs).
 
Thank you for the very good and welcomed advice Amethyst, I have been reading up and it seems we have to change our diet as we are a senior and I don't want to harm him. I think it is going to be extremely difficult and he will be reluctant to all non fruit or seed diet, but it is all for his wellbeing.

Peekapooka, Bucharest is a 3 and 1/2 hour drive from me, so going there and returning it takes about 7-8 hours. The stress would be too much, he gets agitated at a 5-10 min drive to the local vet. By phone they will not help me because they can't charge!

Chin update:
It has been 5 days since we are taking the 0.75ml dose of sulfatrim twice a day, everything improved: present, responsive to name, not going in circles anymore, remembered all his favorite spots in the house, little beggar is now taking profit and always wants to go outside the cage. Biggest surprise was yesterday when I saw him jump again up high. After I finish the sulfatrim I'll reset the cage with the second level back. Now he stayes down and keep staring up for the second level. :)))
I am extremely happy to see him recover so good, this situation gave me a huge scare... to be honest, at one point I thought he is not gonna make the it as he was so weak and confused. :( Awful fealing to see him suffer Andy not know what to do.
I am also grateful I found this post that made the difference and helped my chin survive! Thank you guys!
I am now starting to improve the quality of life of my chin with better diets and more exercise!
Really, really, really THANK YOU all!
 
sorry for the delay. Was trying to find more information, but came up a little short.
A few basics that amathist mentioned. Chin food shouldnt have any form of seeds, nuts, or extras in them. They are all bad for them. Vitakraft in general usually makes bad products for chins.

Seeds, nuts, fruits, veggies, sugars, you should avoid all of these. In both food and snack. Chins cant process sugars and nuts. It can build up and lead to things like fatty liver diseases.

For his hay, youll probably want to stick to western timothy hay if you can. Most chinchilla pellets are alfalfa based. So its good to have a different kind of hay to balance it out and give them more of the nutrients they need.

Unfortunately, chins do love to eat things that are very bad for them.

The walking in circles makes me think of an inner ear infection. I believe it can throw off their equilibrium like that. It would be my best guess but im not positive.
 
As stated above, walking in circles "generally" is an ear infection, but it can be a more serious issue like nerve damage if he had fallen and landed wrong. My guess would be though that it is an ear infection because there is improvement with the sulfa. Ear infections are incredibly hard to treat and many chins die from them. It is very encouraging to hear that your little one is doing so much better with the antibiotics.

As for the diet mentioned, try taking your chin completely off the pellets and only give hay for a few days. When you reintroduce pellets, make sure it's one of the recommended ones that are the best nutritionally for your chin. Trying to do a cold switch to pellets may be hard because of his age, even though that is what is usually recommended. By taking away the pellets and only providing hay, his pickiness may diminish when you offer him the new, better quality pellets.
 
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