Kula
Pokemon Master
I'm sorry if I don't make sense at times. I'm still trying to deal with losing my baby girl on Thursday, and losing my grandpa only three weeks ago. I'm an emotional mess at this point.
At 10:30 pm Monday night, I noticed Jigglypuff had abnormally small poop. Normally hers are really big and there's a constant flow. This time, they were irregularly coming out and very small. She didn't want to play, and she didn't want to take a dust bath. The night before (Sunday), I noticed their food was past the halfway point, which meant I'd need to fill it on Monday. It had barely moved by Monday, which surprised me, but this is somewhat normal because Pikachu (my other chinchilla and her best friend) isn't a huge piggy and I assumed she didn't eat her usual share. Anyway, after I saw Jiggly's poop (which was small and unusually dry), I began orally forcing a bit of water into her, along with simethicone to relieve the gas (she seemed a bit larger than normal), and I know this is a symptom of GI stasis. I stayed up all night massaging her belly and using a small heat compress. She seemed to enjoy this. Her energy appeared to be declining by the hour (she just sat next to me when I wasn't massaging her, not wanting to move) and she wasn't pooping much anymore. Unfortunately, the 24/7 emergency vets in my area don't see exotics. So I waited until 7 am to call her vet and they said I could come in at 9:30 am as a walk-in, but I'd probably have to wait 30 minutes to see her vet. I went in there and the doctor agreed she definitely was experiencing GI stasis, but agreed it was only a symptom of something else that was wrong with her. She was hopping around and exploring his table, acting a little more normal, especially compared to earlier, but her little body was so swollen (he also assumed gas), and she was grinding her teeth every time I'd talk to her. He prescribed oral Reglan, Baytril, Metacam (I had to tell him I wanted this one because he wasn't going to give her a pain medication at first), and he gave me a bag of Critical Care. I told him I'd rather have the injectable version of Reglan, but he insisted I caught the GI stasis very early and the oral medication should be enough, but if it wasn't, I could come back for the injectable version. So I went home and gave her the medications. She unhappily took her medication, but readily ate probably 14 ml of the Critical Care and drank some Pedialyte (all through oral syringes, though she ate more Critical Care off my finger). She was doing way better after this. She wanted to sit on my shoulder and run around! I thought I was extremely lucky and she'd get better. I continued with the massages and heat on her GI tract. I gave her the same treatment 12 hours later, while giving her tummy massages, heat, and critical care every couple hours. Toward the end of the night (I guess after midnight), she started refusing the medication and Critical Care. I kept trying to force her to take it. I wasn't going to give up! I continued massaging her belly and using my little rice heat pad. I went to bed at 7 am and woke up at 10 am. She was much worse and extremely weak. When I picked her up, this white/semitransparent (pretty much looks just like oral Metacam), nearly odorless fluid poured out of her vagina. It just wouldn't stop. Her whole underside was covered in it, and there was a spot on her bed where it soaked through from where she sat while I slept for 3 hours. I held my hand under her while more poured out as I carried her to the bathroom. I put her on top of a bunch of paper towels and held her above them, letting it pour out. It seemed like like it was never going to stop. I think it took an hour to fully empty out of her. After this, she was no longer swollen. What I thought was gas was actually this fluid. At this point it became very difficult to get medicine into her. She was weak and not willing to swallow. I had to stick the syringe into her mouth to force her to do the swallow reflex, after I had already injected the medicine into her mouth. And it just got worse. I tried feeding her Critical Care through the syringe, but she let it sit in her mouth. She didn't try to spit it out or swallow - it just sat there. This went on all night, with her getting progressively worse. She began to get cold and shiver, so I kept her on my chest with her head on my shoulder, with a towel on top of her, and a heating pad set to low on top of the towel. This kept her from shivering. She got so weak that she couldn't open her eyes anymore, then breathing became very difficult. She tried her very hardest to stay alive, but she died at 2:45 am Thursday morning. Pikachu and I are devastated.
I started Pikachu on the antibiotics as a precaution, since she was Jigglypuff's cage mate. I also noticed her poop was smaller than normal, and she stopped eating and drinking after Jigglypuff died, so I've been giving her Reglan. I obviously can't tell if she's sick, but I do think she's depressed. She just sits in the same spot in her cage and won't move. I take her out several times a day so she can get medicine, Critical Care (I have to force it into her), water (again, I have to force her to drink with an oral syringe), and then play time. She seems to enjoy the play time, and it's the best time for me to monitor her poop. I don't want to lose her too. She won't do anything in her cage, not even accept treats or chew on her favorite apple sticks. Does this sound like depression? What can I do for her that I'm not already doing? Her cage is in my bedroom, so I'm around her almost all the time, since I have to study for finals. I leave the tv on when I'm not going to be in my room, so she has some sort of entertainment.
Little background on both of them (all that I know) - I got them as "rescues", though they were bred and born at the girl's apartment. Jigglypuff was a year old when I got her and Pikachu was a year and three months. They told me none of their chinchillas ever had health problems. I swear, I'll never trust people like this again.
After doing a lot of reading, it seems Jigglypuff had pyometra - I'm assuming the closed version because I held her almost every other day and never saw any sort of fluid coming out of her (and I look over both of my chinchillas every time I'd take them out). So, based on what I previously described, would you say it was pyometra? If it was a regular bacterial infection of her vaginal canal, that large quantity of fluid would have been seeping out. I don't know what else it could have been. She was fine (normal poop and behavior) on Sunday.
I really need to focus on Pikachu. She's obviously lonely and misses Jigglypuff. I feel so horrible, seeing her all alone without her cuddle buddy. After she (hopefully) gets back to normal, would I be able to get her a new friend? She's getting close to three years old, but she was always the submissive one. If I did get her a new friend, I already know I'd have to keep them quarantined in another room until I knew it was definitely healthy. Any thoughts on this too?
Sorry for writing so much
At 10:30 pm Monday night, I noticed Jigglypuff had abnormally small poop. Normally hers are really big and there's a constant flow. This time, they were irregularly coming out and very small. She didn't want to play, and she didn't want to take a dust bath. The night before (Sunday), I noticed their food was past the halfway point, which meant I'd need to fill it on Monday. It had barely moved by Monday, which surprised me, but this is somewhat normal because Pikachu (my other chinchilla and her best friend) isn't a huge piggy and I assumed she didn't eat her usual share. Anyway, after I saw Jiggly's poop (which was small and unusually dry), I began orally forcing a bit of water into her, along with simethicone to relieve the gas (she seemed a bit larger than normal), and I know this is a symptom of GI stasis. I stayed up all night massaging her belly and using a small heat compress. She seemed to enjoy this. Her energy appeared to be declining by the hour (she just sat next to me when I wasn't massaging her, not wanting to move) and she wasn't pooping much anymore. Unfortunately, the 24/7 emergency vets in my area don't see exotics. So I waited until 7 am to call her vet and they said I could come in at 9:30 am as a walk-in, but I'd probably have to wait 30 minutes to see her vet. I went in there and the doctor agreed she definitely was experiencing GI stasis, but agreed it was only a symptom of something else that was wrong with her. She was hopping around and exploring his table, acting a little more normal, especially compared to earlier, but her little body was so swollen (he also assumed gas), and she was grinding her teeth every time I'd talk to her. He prescribed oral Reglan, Baytril, Metacam (I had to tell him I wanted this one because he wasn't going to give her a pain medication at first), and he gave me a bag of Critical Care. I told him I'd rather have the injectable version of Reglan, but he insisted I caught the GI stasis very early and the oral medication should be enough, but if it wasn't, I could come back for the injectable version. So I went home and gave her the medications. She unhappily took her medication, but readily ate probably 14 ml of the Critical Care and drank some Pedialyte (all through oral syringes, though she ate more Critical Care off my finger). She was doing way better after this. She wanted to sit on my shoulder and run around! I thought I was extremely lucky and she'd get better. I continued with the massages and heat on her GI tract. I gave her the same treatment 12 hours later, while giving her tummy massages, heat, and critical care every couple hours. Toward the end of the night (I guess after midnight), she started refusing the medication and Critical Care. I kept trying to force her to take it. I wasn't going to give up! I continued massaging her belly and using my little rice heat pad. I went to bed at 7 am and woke up at 10 am. She was much worse and extremely weak. When I picked her up, this white/semitransparent (pretty much looks just like oral Metacam), nearly odorless fluid poured out of her vagina. It just wouldn't stop. Her whole underside was covered in it, and there was a spot on her bed where it soaked through from where she sat while I slept for 3 hours. I held my hand under her while more poured out as I carried her to the bathroom. I put her on top of a bunch of paper towels and held her above them, letting it pour out. It seemed like like it was never going to stop. I think it took an hour to fully empty out of her. After this, she was no longer swollen. What I thought was gas was actually this fluid. At this point it became very difficult to get medicine into her. She was weak and not willing to swallow. I had to stick the syringe into her mouth to force her to do the swallow reflex, after I had already injected the medicine into her mouth. And it just got worse. I tried feeding her Critical Care through the syringe, but she let it sit in her mouth. She didn't try to spit it out or swallow - it just sat there. This went on all night, with her getting progressively worse. She began to get cold and shiver, so I kept her on my chest with her head on my shoulder, with a towel on top of her, and a heating pad set to low on top of the towel. This kept her from shivering. She got so weak that she couldn't open her eyes anymore, then breathing became very difficult. She tried her very hardest to stay alive, but she died at 2:45 am Thursday morning. Pikachu and I are devastated.
I started Pikachu on the antibiotics as a precaution, since she was Jigglypuff's cage mate. I also noticed her poop was smaller than normal, and she stopped eating and drinking after Jigglypuff died, so I've been giving her Reglan. I obviously can't tell if she's sick, but I do think she's depressed. She just sits in the same spot in her cage and won't move. I take her out several times a day so she can get medicine, Critical Care (I have to force it into her), water (again, I have to force her to drink with an oral syringe), and then play time. She seems to enjoy the play time, and it's the best time for me to monitor her poop. I don't want to lose her too. She won't do anything in her cage, not even accept treats or chew on her favorite apple sticks. Does this sound like depression? What can I do for her that I'm not already doing? Her cage is in my bedroom, so I'm around her almost all the time, since I have to study for finals. I leave the tv on when I'm not going to be in my room, so she has some sort of entertainment.
Little background on both of them (all that I know) - I got them as "rescues", though they were bred and born at the girl's apartment. Jigglypuff was a year old when I got her and Pikachu was a year and three months. They told me none of their chinchillas ever had health problems. I swear, I'll never trust people like this again.
After doing a lot of reading, it seems Jigglypuff had pyometra - I'm assuming the closed version because I held her almost every other day and never saw any sort of fluid coming out of her (and I look over both of my chinchillas every time I'd take them out). So, based on what I previously described, would you say it was pyometra? If it was a regular bacterial infection of her vaginal canal, that large quantity of fluid would have been seeping out. I don't know what else it could have been. She was fine (normal poop and behavior) on Sunday.
I really need to focus on Pikachu. She's obviously lonely and misses Jigglypuff. I feel so horrible, seeing her all alone without her cuddle buddy. After she (hopefully) gets back to normal, would I be able to get her a new friend? She's getting close to three years old, but she was always the submissive one. If I did get her a new friend, I already know I'd have to keep them quarantined in another room until I knew it was definitely healthy. Any thoughts on this too?
Sorry for writing so much
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