mysteriously dead chinchilla...

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.
S

slodden

Chin Mom
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
17
Location
North Dakota
I am trying to figure out what could have happened to my chin.

I have not been home much this past week due to a tragic death someone close to me. However, I was able to make it home almost daily to give all my pets food and water.

The last time I saw my chin alive was Friday night around 10pm, I filled the food bowl, and the 16oz water bottle. I gave them each a rose hip as a treat and left the house again. Saturday was the funeral and I didnt get home, and Sunday I was going nonstop on ambulance calls (I'm an EMT) so didnt get a chance to check in. Sunday night (4am Monday morning) I was sitting on my couch, looked up at the cage and noticed he was in his house, with his head resting through the hole of the house. He was dead, but I'm unsure why.

When I picked him up he was in full rigor, he had blood at his nostrils and mouth. He was housed with another chin, but they are well bonded and I've never seen any squabbles between them. The food bowl was empty, but still plenty of hay and water. I dont see any damage to any of the fleece liners, hammocks, or tubes. I tried to purchase the best of everything for my chins so as to minimize the possibility of a tragedy like this.

Please share any ideas or suggestions you may have on what could have happened to my little guy. Anything I should be concerned about with my other chin? He was young, only 6 months old. I purchased him directly from his breeder, he's never been in a pet store and had full 30 day quarantine before being introduced to his cage mate. Food was Oxbow Chinchilla Essentials, Water is clean, filtered water, Hay is Oxbow Timothy Hay, and Rose hips were purchased online by organic retailer for use as a tea (human grade). Chins are in a Critter Nation cage which is very safe, and are housed in my living room which is 68 degrees. They have lava blocks, organic lufah chews, and plenty of wood to chew on. I got them a chin spin wheel and cannot think of anything that may have caused him to die. :cry3:
 
Hi, I'm sorry to hear, it's always hard when things happen suddenly. Hope you're holding together well.

With the blood from the head the tendency would be to think of a choking incident involving splintering wood (i.e. can happen with bamboo), a tongue laceration perhaps due to a seizure, or trauma from an unfortunate head injury , chinchillas have been known to run into walls when startled.

Do you see any fur slip that may indicate a fight, (any blobs of fur in the cage/missing from their bodies?).

If you're worried of viral haemorrhagic illnesses, they don't tend to affect chinchillas like how they do rabbits, and other infectious causes that may threaten your chinchilla can be spotted in advance if he or she starts to labour with breathing or wet their genital are fur from incontinence (UTIs and pneumonia are the most common). You probably have little to worry about for your other chin if there is no sign of illness in him/her.

He would have been too young to die of cardiomyopathy. Which can be the issue with chinchillas in later age.

I'm sorry im only helping to tell you about possible negatives. It's really hard to tell :( Sometimes there may be no answer but I would rely on the experts on this forum who may have experienced what you have.

Have a look around for fur and wounds on the other chinnie. I hope things get better for you in general, fingers crossed
 
Last edited:
I've had chins die from injuries sustained using wheels of all different types. Blood coming out of the nose would indicate some type of trauma - the chin could have hit his head, gotten stuck somewhere and had been crushed, etc. I've heard of chins dying of internal bleeding after being thrown out of the wheels or falling from a distance.

I'm sorry about your chin, that's very sad that this happened to him.
 
I agree with either head trauma or if the nose/mouth area looks kind of bitten up, then possibly a fight. No matter how bonded chins are they can change their minds at any time. The mouth and nose is usually the first area that gets attacked.
 
Thank you for the replies, from the answers given I think a trauma from his wheel, running into something, or splintered wood sounds most likely in our case.

There were no signs of fighting... hair loss, tufts of fur in cage, or bites to either chin that I was able to see. My other chin is doing fine and doesn't appear to be ill in any way. I understand that being a prey animal, they will hide any illness so I watched her closely last night and didnt see any unusual behavior.

I just feel so helpless that I came home and didnt have a chance to do anything to help him. The other thing I considered was bloat, I had a chin that got bloat and I was able to get her into the vet and have emergency surgery and she survived it. However I dont know if bloat would cause the blood, unless it caused a disorientation that resulted in a fall.
 
the blood in the nose suggests trauma to me, maybe he fell and gave himself a concussion that he couldn't recover from, they're so delicate...
 
Trauma is not the only cause of nose bleeds, a heart attack can cause it also. I had one sudden death confirmed by a necropsy that was "fresh" since he died in the vets parking lot, and he had bloody discharge from his nose. Chins can die of things humans die of and since heart murmurs are a issue and there were no other signs of distress I would lean this direction.
 
Thank you Dawn, the thought of it being a trauma is devastating to me because I hate the idea of him suffering until his passing. If it had been a natural death, I find it to be a bit more comforting although this does not mean he did not suffer. I just feel so bad because I really did try to do everything I could to create a safe environment with quality in mind.
 
Sudden death in chins sucks, one day you have your loving pet and the next he is gone and when there is no explanation its worse, take care.
 
I can't offer any words of advice, but wanted to offer you my deepest sympathy for your devastating loss. I hope you can get some closure by finding out how your chin died. Give your other chin plenty of love right now as he may be confused as to what happened to his cagemate. Extra time together could help you both out right now as you heal.
 
Its too late for a necropsy and frankly it was probably too late when the chin was found to have a accurate necropsy result.
 
ticklechin said:
Trauma is not the only cause of nose bleeds, a heart attack can cause it also. I had one sudden death confirmed by a necropsy that was "fresh" since he died in the vets parking lot, and he had bloody discharge from his nose. Chins can die of things humans die of and since heart murmurs are a issue and there were no other signs of distress I would lean this direction.
Click to expand...

I am so sorry for the loss of your beloved chin.
I just wanted to chime in and say I agree with this information. I just recently had a chin that passed, he had blood coming from his nose as well (believed to be a stroke). At the vets we found he had a grade 5/6 heart murmur and on the x-rays was shown a mass (most likely a tumor) pressing on the top of his heart and lungs. Chins can most certainly die of things humans die of.
 
I'm with Dawn!

"He would have been too young to die of cardiomyopathy. Which can be the issue with chinchillas in later age"

In my opinion, I find this statement to be false. I've seen plenty of puppies with heart disease so one can assume it can happen in all species.

I have seen blood in the nose with heart related issues. I have also seen it with a chinchilla that had pneumonia (although the nasal discharge was blood tinged I can see where an owner could get confused with that).

There are many reasons why an animal would just drop like that. Unforuntely you would not know without a necropsy and even then you may never know. In your case a necropsy would be too late.
 
Gino was 4 when he went into congestive heart failure, he was 11 months when diagnosed, started showing symptoms that there was a issue at 2. I had one stroke out at 3 years old, confirmed with a necropsy.
 
I dont have any words of advice, but I just wanted to say that I am so sorry you had to come home to find that your darling baby had passed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top