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melbur10

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
436
Location
Toronto, Ontario
This is a bit of a long post/story so please bear with me.

-On About Oct. 29 I ran out of the girls (4 chinny girls) fav. Oxbow hay, I was due to pick up a large amount of timothy and orchard grass hays as well as several other items from another member of the forum the following week and was preparing apple wood to trade said member. In the meantime I had a bag of another brand of hay to offer them for the next few days until I could pick up their oxbow. I didn't think much of it at time, they seemed to be eating the hay but it's hard to tell who eats what with four of them in one cage.

-About two days later I noticed that Sage would not flock to the 'hay hammock' for 'fresh hay time' like the others were still doing. So was a bit concerned but chocked it up to the change in hay (she never was much of a hay monster until I switched to oxbow hay).seeing as how I would be getting more oxbow in a few days I didn't think it was a big deal...

-On Nov. 1 I checked her weight, it was 534g a good drop from her last weeks weight of 574g. Now before they I switched them over to oxbow hay her weight would sit between 525g - 535g and over about 6 months of eating oxbow hay she had gained weight and gone up to 574g.
-At this point on Nov. 1 she was still chipper, would come out for play time, chew apple sticks and dust. I chocked up much of the weight loss to the hay situation again, which was the only thing that had changed during the week. But to boost her back up I mixed about 2 table spoons (wet) of LifeLine and she munched it down like a little monster off the spoon on her own, weighed her after the feeding and she was about 550g so I figured to boost her weight I would give her LL for the next couple days, just to supplement.

-Wednesday Nov. 2 she was about 532g still the Same range, gave her LL went back up to 550g.

-I was out most of the day on Thursday Nov. 3 and when I got home at about 8pm every thing had just fallen apart, she was sitting hunched over on the very bottom of the cage, bum and tummy covered in urine. As if she had gone down to pee in the bedding and just didn't move. I opened the cage Door and she slowly hoped over to the edge of the cage pan and attempted a jump to the shelf 8" above. She didn't make her jump and just kind of flopped over.
I picked her up and tried to dry her off, then got a bunch of LL into her which she willingly scarfed down and got some electrolyte solution into her as well. At the time I didn't know what was wrong as she didn't feel bloated to me. Otherwise I would have administered simethicone right then and there.

-Our normal vet (whom previous to this I was trying my best to find an alternative for) was closed. It was either wait it out till morning, or go to the emerge clinic who doesn't know a thing about chins. We waited, I got about 30 ml of electrolyte solution in her from 9pm to 3am. As well as some more lifeline.

-At 3am I made the call to take a cab to the e-vet for sq. fluids, she was just so lethargic only laying on her side would just flop over and squint her eyes.
She was so soaked in pee when we got there, I don't think she retained any of the fluids I had given her. The E-vet had us wait an hour in the waiting room as she 'was not an emergency' I was almost crying at this point! How was this not an emergency!?
-She finally saw the vet at 4:30 and he told me he had only seen 1 chin in 20 years and it had died ten min into the appointment. :(
When he felt her over he agreed that she did not feel bloated.
He got 25cc's of sq fluids into her and gave her vit. B to hopefully get her through the night. We went home. 250$ +40$ for the two cab rides.

-As soon as the vet was open at 9am we were at there front door.
They poked and prodded her taking temp, and weight (even though this was done at the e-vet a few hours earlier) she said her tummy felt fine but that she looks neurologicly drained, she wanted to do blood tests, xrays, fecal, give sq fluids and then hospitalize her for 3 days (which I said no way to) they close at 6pm and open at 9 she would be on her own for all that time!! How was that a good Idea I thought to myself?! She showed me her x-rays she was full of gas bubbles! She was in stasis. Not pooping at all at this point.
-There were a few things that did not sit well with me after this appointment. I felt that a repetitive exam, temp, weight etc, was unnecessary. I had mentioned all this was done at the e-vet but also said that he had only seen one chin ever previous to this. When i mentioned this she made a snarky arrogant remark directed towards the e-vets knowledge saying "this is why I should be on the veterinary board, so I can tell the other vets what they should do." When several days of hospitalization was added to my orig. invoice i had her remove the charges and refused to leave her for more than the day, knowing very well how much diligence and work with massages, and hand feedings bringing her out of this would take.
At this point i was kinda like... 'umm wow'
-They took her for the day and hand feed cc I picked her up at 6 and was sent home with Torb. .03ml every 8 hours for ten days, metroclopromide .25ml every 8 hours for ten days, cisapride .25 ml every 8 hours for ten days, ovol .3ml every 8 hours for ten days.
When I picked her up I was under the impression he vet would talk to me. She did not. I thought she would have added cc to my invoice as I had discussed that I would have given her cc last night if I had any on hand which I did not. It was not added to my invoice and there was no note that I should go home with cc. (really? A lot of other people wouldn't even know they had to hand feed!) so I grabbed two packs of cc and payed the 1200$ bill +$50 for the two small bags of cc. We went home.

-After re-reading through many of the stasis threads on here again we were doing hand feedings every 8h with the meds, she has a warm compress rice sock, and was getting tummy massages every 3Hours around the clock. I could only get 5-7ml of cc in her per feeding the first day, evening of nov 4, day of 5th.

-Nov. 5th I called the vet about giving her .6 oval instead as she was getting quite bloated between feedings. She said ok but watch to see if anything negative happens... ? I didn't know simethicone could harm any thing...?

-On Monday nov. 7 she went back to the vet for a recheck, she was still only eating about 8ml of cc and I was syringing water to keep her well hydrated but Sunday night it occurred to me to ask the vet about the amount of water she should get and if there was a risk of damaging her kidneys with too much water, the vet did the general check up and said 'i don't feel any gas at all' which to me makes no sense because I know for a fact that she would get very bloated between feedings. she was gulping air with her syringe feedings. There was quite a difference in the way her stomach felt.
-She was down to 496g still loosing weight.
We discussed x-rays to check her teeth as for the 6 months prior to this she had ongoing eye problems, a milky discharge and watery eyes on and off. (which she had given me one med to try, ignoring my recommendations of what has worked well with chins after reading many of the eye problem threads on here, saying 'yeah well, were going with this') which did nothing for her. And then the vet refused to try any further meds and told me to work on 'environmental issues' At the time I didn't have 700$ for x-rays and decided to hold of on them and if I saw any weight loss, appetite loss ex, I would need to look into it.
This being what I was looking for I wanted to get skull x-rays to check her teeth, she told me we would not be doing x-rays yet 'maby next week'
-The blood tests showed a minor infection of some sort so we started her on TMS .3ml every 8 hours for 10days
At this point I was extremely frustrated with this vet. the way she would talk to me was the way you would talk to a child, and at times a rock. Treating me as if i was dumb and had no idea what was going on.

-Well I continued her meds feedings and tummy rubs, she started showing improvement and we had medium sized poops now! (nov 8) and I was now able to get 20ml per feeding into her. But she was flicking globs of cc out of her mouth with her tongue.. I started mixing in fresh ground pellets with her cc to cover the taste of the cc which she now hates.

- Friday Nov. 11 she had been eating her 30-35 cc's of CC/ground pellet mix 3 times a day and been taking it well but was still gulping air and getting bloated between feedings.
-I increased her simethicone to .8ml 3 times daily
-she was able to bounce and run, but could not make any jumps over 12-16" butt we had normal sized poops now! and good quantities! i was so happy with her progress!
-She scared me in the evening and was laying upside down with her legs in the air. she was quite bloated. I administered 1ml of simethicone for her next two doses, and massaged her belly for 2 hours during each of her next two sessions. She leaned into my hand with her head for support as if she knew i was there to help.
-she was pawing her mouth and grinding her teeth often during the week.
-i had also seen a slight bit of moisture from her nose about 3 separate times. maybe the slight infection detected by the blood tests was a URI? also still worried that root growth could cause this as well.

-Nov. 13 the syringe stuck with one of her motility meds in it and then dislodged and quickly shot into the back of her throat. she made the worst kind of choking sounds and i felt like the worst mom ever!! it was like she was going to die right there! :( so now I'm worried she may have aspirated fluid.

-Monday Nov. 14 she was scheduled for a recheck and x-rays.
-The trip to the vets stressed her and she had softer poops during the trip, and for the rest of the day afterwords
-weight up to 540g
-vet said "she is completely out of stasis"
-we discussed what xray shots to get i opted for two lateral views i could really only afford one, but managed to find the extra $100 Total for 'two' xray shots $650 + $60 for exam. when i asked if she could help me with the cost at all she replied "i don't really see how, the cost is the cost!" At this point my total for the last two weeks is over $2000 and the majority of this money borrowed from my bf, as about a month before this i drained my emergency vet fund for my hamster who needed an operation $800 to neuter a hamster at the same vet (necessary as his testicles abscessed).
financial stress + very little sleep + roller coaster emotions from sage = one very frustrated mom.
-x-rays appeared fine roots were not elongated but lower teeth are very slightly elongated (she could prob fix this herself it was so mild)
could the slight elongation of the back teeth be from not grinding down/eating hay for the last two weeks?
-when looking at the x-rays they had taken many shots 7+ indicating (as i already knew) that she could in fact help me on cost if even to charge for one shot instead of two. She then made a snarky remark referring to the several extra shots inferring that i should have payed more!!
....i don't mind paying to make sure my kid is alright and taken care of. i do mind when there is a total lack of sympathy and I'm then talked down to by some one who has such an arrogance you can't mistake it...
-To conclude this exam we decided to continue with the TMS for two more weeks and i was told to take her off every thing else.

- on sunday I had already started to tapper down her Torb dosage just incase she could have developed a dependancy etc.

-Tuesday Nov. 15 she got her last dose of Torb that night. and i decided i would take her off of things one at a time so that i could monitor changes one med at a time.

-Wed. Nov. 16 she got her last dose of Metrocloprimide, as i felt a second motility med was likely only necessary in sever stasis cases and used in conjunction with opioids (as opioids can slow GI movement)
-i lowered her dosage of simethicone to .6ml as she wasn't becoming as bloated between feedings at this point.
-she still seemed peppy, could run, hop, eat and pooping well. my only concern was that she would occasionally have REALY big poops like double the size about 6-8 of them at a time and then they would go back to normal size.
-i kept her on cisapride, ovol and TMS

- over the next few days i noticed her stool would become small and hard for the hour before feedings/meds and she was becoming more uncomfortable between feedings, didn't want to run much any more, would flick more food out of her mouth than usual/ sooner than usual
-On Sat. Nov. 19 she was very uncomfortable would chew NO hay at all, NO pellets at all (up till this week she would take a couple pieces if i offered by hand)
she was peeing on herself and not moving away from soiled fleece/shavings/paper towels allowing her self to become soaked (she would still do this last week but it had lessened on torb and she had started to move away from pee spots)
-she didn't want to eat as much syringe feed and she was becoming very bloated between feedings again.

-I called the vet to ask if i could start her on Metacam for her obvious discomfort as i needed to know the appropriate dosage, i had metacam on hand. She called me back, as i asked her about the metacam she said "i don't feel comfortable changing medication over the phone, but as its the weekend and we are not open tonight or tomorrow, and you say she is uncomfortable, but i would like to see her in on monday, what's the problem with the Torb? are you OUT of torb?" i said "no" i was not out of torb but expressed my concerns for her becoming dependent on it as well as the fact that opioids can slow GI movement. she ignored what i said about slowing GI movement and said "They do not become dependent on it at all. I see not issues with it. or its ongoing use" i again asked about metacam instead she replied with "No, metacam we would use if there was inflammation, as there is NO inflammation theres no reason to use it." said in a very snarky tune. at this point i was a little annoyed. and said "um. ok? but from what i have read and what many others have had experience in treating stasis metacam is what is usually used for ongoing pain management? and i don't see a reason or feel comfortable using some thing as heavy duty as Torb, with it being an opioid." she said "yes well thats why we shouldn't all be getting our information from Google, because GOOGLE can't give you all the answers!" AT THIS POINT I WAS VERY MAD! UGH! i replied "YES, well I'm not USING google I'm on several forums consisting of many owners, breeders, ranchers and MANY people who have gone through every thing from A to Z, who know what works, and what doesn't, I'm speaking with information from people who have EXPERIENCE not just information from google!" she said "WELL I'm trying to help you here melinda..." ugh i wanted to say are you sure that your trying to help me because it sure doesn't seem like it! butt instead i said "alright then with the torb should i re-start her on metrocloprimide since it could possibly slow her down?" she said "no because that would be counter intuitive as i want to taper her OFF meds not put her on more ideally" no duh i would want that too...grr o said "okay..." she continued with "but because i cant touch and feel her i have no way of knowing what's going on, really there is likely some thin else going on and you would be surprised how much a dental would help, we need to get her in as soon as possible so i can examine her and we can do that dental" i said "well i really DO NOT want to bring her in as soon as possible and stress her out even MORE, through stasis i believe your supposed to take a chin in as little as possible to reduce stress." vet- "well its obviously not to stress her its important that she has regular check ups" i didn't say any thing at this point as all i could think to say was WHY? so you can get more money out of me, stress my kid, and prescribe some thing i don't feel comfortable giving! she ended the conversation telling me that the receptionist will call monday for an update and to make an appointment time with her then.

-Today Wed. Nov. 23 she has made progress with the pain meds in her, wants to run away and is a bit of a but head at times! struggling out of my arms and what not. she still gets bloated between feedings but i am hoping that will decrease when she gets less hand feedings and starts to eat on her own. yesterday i got her to chew an apple stick!! I'm so excited i made a rose hip powder to dip the stick in and it was enough encouragement for her to take it from me and chew!! :D she will now eat a few pellets out of my hand and a cs rose hip piece or two.
-But what I'm still worried about the fact that she will not move away from her pee spots... is this some thing any one else has experienced??

any way I'm sure there are a few things I'm missing, but will update when i remember... ANY info or help is appreciated
I'm trying to find a new vet i hate this vet! I'm so frustrated any one in Toronto, Ontario who has a great vet that can work WITH me and actually LISTEN would be amazing any info help is greatly appreciated! THANK YOU ALL for reading through this lengthly thread! Love and whisker kisses to all!
 
Wow, that sounds like a vet I'd stay away from.
I did find this page, maybe you could call the ones listed under Toronto and see?
One is listed as open 7 days a week. (Riverdale)
http://www.ontariochinchillas.ca/health.php

Good luck with your chin, I hope she gets to getting better.
 
what an ordeal, and what a bleep of a vet! i do hope Sage is feeling better soon!

as for a good vet in T.O., i would ask Tagna on here. she is pretty knowledgeable about chin stuff/places/people in Ontario.
 
Thanks guys! It's been a roller coaster ride for sure!
Already contacted her chinnymom, she has a few suggestions for me, a couple were already on my list to contact, but my experience thus far with vets has been so off putting I'm almost scared to call! Hopefully I can get a few of them to talk to me in person b4 I bring sage into see them... I've asked a couple other clinics for this very thing but was told a. That I would be charged any way and b. That's not possible ... Neither of which makes sense to me. *sigh* I really need a vet who can work with me.
I grew up on a farm treating all sorts of animals for an assortment of things, my aunts a nurse and mom a pharmacist so I grew up with medical terms, meds, treatment left right and center. I then took vet tech in collage (actually found it boring and kind of typical... Most seemed like stuff I already knew) I constantly research and read vet texts. So I really need some one who can work with some one hands on and quite experienced with a variety of things (def. Not everything) but I have a good knowledge base.
Blah I'm so tired my brain is starting to go to mush!
 
Wow. what a Rollercoaster. Keep up the good work though, sounds like you're doing a good job.
 
She was pretty dry last night when I finally went to sleep, a few hours later and she's sopping wet this morning! I'm not understanding this whole pee and lay down in it thing. I opted to water bath her lower end today, towel dried then hair dryer on low and cool. I'm soo not understanding? Is it just that she doesn't feel 100% and there fore doesn't bother to move away? And just opts to pee in the same corner she sleeps in?
 
So every thing just fell apart. Just wants to Lay on her side, leans into my hand for massages, very tinny poops and only 6 of them, now no poops at all! Thinking the torb slowed down her gut, started metroclopromide again. Hopefully we will see poops again by next feeding! Will call other vets tomorrow morning see if I can't find a better one. :cry2: I just want my baby to be happy and heathy again!
 
:( Best of luck! Sending good thoughts and chinny paws crossed here for you. It sounds like you've been through heck and back.... and that vet! Omg Best of luck finding a different one... I'm mad at the vet just reading your post...

Wishing Sage all the best...
 
So instead of screwing around and looking for new vets yesterday i went back to see the orig. vet...*sigh* i didn't want to risk it if she had some thing drastically wrong that needed to be addressed right away. Soo i took her in for a 4:30 appointment.
Through the night i opted not to give her the full 30 ml for her 5am feeding, and instead gave her 5ml at a time about 2 hours apart. my thoughts were to constantly have a bit going in, but not to stuff her all at once and stress her stomach too much.
She got her first Metoclopramide dose at 9pm, and second at 5am.
through the night until 5 am there was no change, she was not pooping at all.
at about 7am we had a few very small poops.
all through the night at 2 hour intervals i would take her out and massage her for as long as she would take it. about 30 min at a time. feed her 5ml. then lay down and sleep for 1.5 h only to be woken up by my cell phone alarm and 'wash rinse repeat'
By 1pm yesterday we had a few more very small poops.
when we got to the vet she had about 30small poops in her carrier.

the vet wasn't so bad this time around, but got excited to 'prove' to me that its her teeth that are 'too long' that are bothering her. she stuck the video scope n her mouth and started to say 'see her teeth are a bit longgg....oh maby not, lets check the other side, yep this side is much too longg, no wait thats just her gum line thats light colored making it look longer...hmm'
:rolleyes:
she was still pushing getting this unnecessary dental done, not surprising as she said it would be roughly $700-800 seems ridiculous doesn't it??

She felt her and got told me to feed her less? as in don't feed her to get her to eat on her own... see heres the problem i have with that... she's not close to feeling good, she wont eat on her own no matter how much i feed her. not feeding her is just going to make her weak. i will cut it down to two feedings a day opposed to 3 when she's doing better to encourage her to eat on her own... not just yet.
her weight was 566g yay!

vet said that nothing stood out as being something else wrong... wait? on the phone you told me to come in because you thought some thing else was going on! grr :hair:

so lets do blood tests to see what's changed.

we did blood, and she was now all for giving me the dosage for metacam and some metacam to go home with so i have enough... :banghead: i had to spend another $250 for blood, 'exam' and metacam just to get her to be 'ok' with it... clearly all about $$$$

This time she said she would check the bloods for when they are ready and had them rushed & told me she would call if any thing was wrong even though she wouldn't be in the clinic.
Ok cool, at least she cared enough to do that.

she called today and left a msg for me to call her on my cell (i was sleeping, so exhausted) she left me her cell number THAT was surprising this was deff. the first time she showed she cared.

i called back and left her a msg, but she called right back.
apparently her bloods showed an elevated level of toxic nutraphils (sp?) which was why we started the TMS in the first place but they were higher now, so she put in an order for Metronidizol (sp?) for me, which i would have to pick up monday since the clinic closed at 2 today. she also mentioned Hepato Support. and then told me i should administer the hepato support in yogurt! and asked "maby ur giving yogurt already are you?" i said "DEFINITELY not!" and didn't bother explaining to her why i wouldn't give a chin yogurt, instead i quickly said i could add it to her cc. lol some times its just better to divert questions like that...
now i have used hepato support on my hedgie 6 years ago, but don't know if its alright for chins? ? so if any one had any info on it would be great!
its $60 a bottle too. so being supper expensive and im already hesitant to use a vitamin i know nothing about... i would rather not pick that up just yet. (i got rid of the hepato support i had for hedgie years ago to a tech in my class who needed it for one of her animals.)

so for now we are doing Metacam every 24 hours .04ccs....Metocloprimide, Cisapride, Simethicone every 8 hours, and TMS every twelve hours.

we still have only very small poops and not very many of them...

Thanks y'all for the support and warm wishes! <3
 
So after only sleeping 3 hours last night I woke up at 8 to get on the subway and make my way to the vets so sage could have her metronidazole. I got it, came home and gave her a dose... Took a look at her nose after she wiped it, and she's got a definite runny nose, with crusties and greenish yellow snot... *sigh* URI now?
Called vet and asked about getting baytril ... She told me that she can't give me any thing with out seeing her. I tried to explain that two hours on a crowded loud rocking subway isn't the best thing for her. She said no. :banghead:
 
Aw man!!! Did you see about any of the vets I told you about, or did Tanya give you any that would be close by? Thas so ridiculous! Poor girl :( whisker kisses to Sage!!t
 
Thanks raych, I've been a bit weary of going 'behind the vets back' as I understand not too many vets appreciate that, And the next vet usually doesn't like to clean up another vets mess so to speak, so it's a bit tricky.. My bf is himself fed up with the way the vet is treating the situation and decided to call his old vet (he use to take All 70 rats to her) who he's also friends with. He didn't want to do it before incase some thing bad happened, he didn't want to be caught in the middle of it... But after seeing her go so down hill and the vets 'unconcerned' approach he wanted to step in to help get her figured out... So tomorrow morning she's going in to see her with my full write up of her history ... She's already expressed her concern about chins going down hill fast with URI so I know she knows her stuff, and she really does listen. So hopefully we can finally get the help sage needs tomorrow... Mean while the first vet is still calling me telling me to bring her in. Ugh. She also was like 'so this is something new you think?' I was like 'no!' that's why we continued with tms in the first place :banghead: so bf will bring her in for me tomorrow while I finally get some sleep. I feel narcoleptic now, passing out all over the place...
She's been so lethargic today, not wanting to move, breathing heavy, sneezing, her eye glued it's self shut with white discharge twice!:cry3:poor baby!
 
So she went to the new vet today, she took swabs of her nose and eyes, to figure out exactly what to proceed with instead of just throwing baytril at it just yet. Did not hear any thing in her lungs, which is a good sign. Also took fecal to see if we can pin point a bacteria in her gut that's messing her up.
From what this vet can see and the detailed history I gave, she still having a hard time with stasis. And she knows very well how serious of a problem stasis is.
The vet told my bf the only reason sage is alive is because of what I have been doing for her and the round the clock care she has been receiving.
She recommended feeding her my other girls poops to get some of that good bacteria into her. I love that she suggested this as I was all set to start that yesterday but didn't have much time to to grab the other girls and wait for piles of poop. So we will start this tonight :)
One of the off hand things I noticed is that her poop smells quite bad, poor girl you can even smell that some thing isn't right inside her.

She always goes into movie star mode at the vets, loving the attention, and acting as if she's fine, I hate that... She hides illness so well when she's outside her home, makes it hard for the vet to see what I'm talking about.

So for now the main thing is to keep doing what were doing and give her round the clock care.

One thing I love, this vet photo copied the entire chinchilla chapter out of the veterinary text she had and sent it home for me :) il have to put some of the info up! Great resource to have! I doubt many vets would do this! :D

She's a little more mobile today and can run around for short periods of time.
 
Soo we are making good progress! Sage is able to run now, can finally jump up to different levels, sits up a lot more, will take pellets from my hand again, and eat hay from my hand!
It's so amazing to see her run and play, she's bonded to me to a degree I never thought possible! She runs and plays, then comes running up to me just to burry her face and snuggle in my lap, or under my chin, in between my arms! She's just such a sweet heart!
We have news from the vet on the swabs, she came up with strep, and another secondary bacteria. This vet figured out both are resistant to a many things, but are sensitive to both baytril and torbramicin(sp?) . So we will start her on tobramicin eye drops (so as not to beat her entire body down with the baytril) since the infections are just effecting her upper sinus/resp. Tract.
She's sneezed a few times through the week and I have seen her eye weep a bit, and mild nose discharge.

But seeing her improvement and knowing what the swabs cultured I think we are ready for even more improvement, and hopefully can get this beat!:wink2::thumbsup:
 
WOW holy crap Im so happy your seeing it get better!!! and im so sorry you had to go threw all that with most owners that guy would be dead already you are a great human and Your chins are very lucky to have you!
 
Glad to see sage is still hanging on it there and that you've found a vet you're happier with x
 
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