Chin doesn't eat pellets but eats other food

[Riven]

I would get him acidophious in a tablet or a capsule instead, it is more concentrated than the yogurt and less disruptive to his digestion.

Do you have any farm stores around that might carry antibiotics? Here kinds you can find over the counter are tetracycline and albon. That way you would not need a script.

You can not solve enteritis at home or naturally with home remedies. It is an infection and needs an antibiotic. The only true way to diagnosis it ( there is no test for it ) is to due a necropsy. With enteritis no matter how much he eats he won't absorb it.

You are getting a lot of good information, but seems like you want to just go get some miracle cure from the grocers, unfortunately that won't happen. He was "blessed" with possible problems from the start if the "breeder" was saying that the dad wasn't any bigger than he is "normally". I don't know how many chins your vet sees a year, but I deal with over 100 a day, that is what I do I care for my chins and if they get sick, I treat them one or all and sadly I have dealt with my entire herd having, and dying from complications of enteritis. Likewise Dawn ( Ticklechin ) has dealt with chins that live with severe digestive issues their entire lives...

Basically enteritis is one of the most painful things, it's like having a stomach ache x 10, plus bloating, all of the time. With enough time and the right diet it "might" cure itself, but really with his weight and the fact that he is severely malnutritioned... I personally wouldn't take that chance.

 

[Narea]

You are getting a lot of good information, but seems like you want to just go get some miracle cure from the grocers, unfortunately that won't happen.

Well, I kinda am for seeing the vet makes him traumatized and the vet herself told me that she doesn't see anything wrong with him and would give him only another nutrition shot which would make painful scab. That really didn't sounds me like a treatment for the REASON of his state.

I can't say a number of chins that vet has experience with. Her specialization are rodents and unfortunatelly she's the best I can get in our country. Problem is that chinchalla really isn't a common pet around here and there's less that 50 breeders with various counts of chinchillas (from few animals to several hundreds) in our country that I know of. Not saying that they can help - that's why I used this forum. I haven't found single one with this kind of experience who would help.

I'd go for enteritis because it "fits" the fact that he is hand fed and even he gains weight for a while he looses it again. That vet is on vacation right now but shall be avaible tomorrow so I'll call her and present the theory. Maybe she'll be helpful. If she won't I guess I'll have to search for some other way to obtain the medicine. Can you answer some questions regarding enteritis in the meatime please?

• You asked whether his poos had any smell or look like swiss chees in the middle. Is that the symptome of enteritis or something else? Because his poos doesn't seem to look that way. Nor do I see slime connecting them.
• Is bloating inevitable when having enteritis? Because this second vet told us specifically that she didn't "see" anything in his intestines - nor a lot of food stuck in there nor the gas.
• Is his behaviour normal for someone with enteritis? Jumping, biting wood, if given raisin eating it without trouble, running around when on his evening run..
• Is the ATB given orally or by a shot. How long and how often will he need to use it?
• Where or how could he have gotten infected?
• The day before yesterday he managed to sustain his weight for 10hours by eating dried bread. Doesn't this go against enteritis? He clearly must have absorbed something in case he didn't lose weight.

That's all I can come up with right know. I don't mean to offend you but I really want to be 100% sure that this is enteritis and the ATB will help him and not make him worse as did the first ones.

 

[ticklechin]

The poo question was not only for enteritis, it was for parasites and gas also. The shine on the poo indicates there is mucus due to increased intestinal secretions that form a protective coating over the intestinal lining, it is one of the symptoms of enternitis-that term just means inflamation of the intestinal tract, but the cause can be from many things-too much protein, fat or carbohydrates, too little fiber, a bacterial infection, hypomotile caused by genetics, parasitic infections, food switch, overuse of antibiotics.

Albon (Sulfadimethoxine) is a very mild antibiotic used to treat it, it seems to also sooth the digestive tract along with killing the bad bacteria.

Nix the bread, its not helping the situation, he needs fiber and water.

 

[Narea]

So there's a huge chance he has enteritis even if he's running around, biting and acting normally? Google says that when having enteritis chin will be rather not moving and more lethargic. That why I ask.

Could you please show me how should a healthy poo look like when broken in half?

That reminded me: this lower count of white blood cells - considering other symptoms does that point to some illness?

Btw, one breeder sold us another pellets with higher fibre share - 17,6%, so I mixed them into his bowl with his old pellets and will add it to the mash for hand feeding.

 

[Riven]

Good on the higher fiber.

The enteritis can come from low fiber diet or tons of other things.

As for temp weight gain if he only eats say... 10 grams of pellets normally, and he ate say 20 grams of bread because he likes it better, he will have a temp. weight gain because there is more food in his belly. Long term weight gain happens over weeks, you will not see a 10 gram long term gain in one day because the body has to take time to store and rebuild.

Normal activity can be found with enteritis, and will actually help with the healing process. I know that a chin can not loose 100 grams over night, which means he's probably had this for a long time. Like Dawn said earlier about the pain around his eyes, that is the same look you see in people with a long term disease, their body gets used to fighting it and to an extent the pain because they deal with it all of the time, every day.

Do you have any local feed stores that sell medicines for cattle or hogs? In the US these stores will also sell Albon over the counter. That would eliminate you need for the vet, and it is very gentle, if for some chance he doesn't need it or it won't help, then won't hurt either. If you can't find these locally, you may be able to have someone ship them to you from US. Even with the shipping there via Priority it will probably be cheaper than a vet visit.

 

[ticklechin]

When you say the biting-has this activity increased during his problem?

 

[caiti]

I am also interested in how a poo looks broken in half. If anyone has any pictures that would be great.

As for the higher fiber pellets, that's a good idea.

Chins can be sick and not really show it like other animals do. They try to hide their pain as much as they can because they are prey animals in the wild. This helps them not look like they are weak and therefore not be picked out as an easy target by predator. They don't have to have every sypmtom of a sickness to have it but I understand your need to fingure out exactly what is going on and match what Ronnie has to a diagnosis.

 

[Narea]

I'll try to search for Albon. I don't know about any feed store and google gives me no pet store in Czech rep. Can you tell me what I am looking for? There are tablets and solutions with various percentages. I'll try to ask the vet tomorrow, maybe she has it in stock.

When you say the biting-has this activity increased during his problem?

I wouldn't say so. In the first and part of second week of his "hunger strike" he just sat at the branch and didn't bite anything but after the medicine from second vet he went back to normal intensity of biting. I can say for certain because we have been up with him for few nights and so we were able to monitor it. He also found himself some new spots to bite and left some of the old ones, but that's just what he has been doing last year.

 

[Riven]

Where do people go to buy horse feed and other livestock feed like for sheep or people who breed rabbits in large numbers? That is where you will find it if you can get it OTC.

You want the oral suspension, which is 5%. The generic name for albon is Sulfadimethoxine ( sulfa - di - meth - ox - ine ), so you could also look for that.

 

[Narea]

Finally found the vet outside the operating room.
I told her about the poos and enteritis and she agreed that the problem seems to be somewhere in his belly. She was familiar with albon and told me that they don't use it anymore and that she'd go and search for similar drugs with sulfadimethoxine in it. They use drugs with sulfadimid and trimidin. Hope I spell it right.

She also said that there's metronidazol which is toxic for chins if given in the long term but short-term appliacation help to kill the bad bacteria in his intestines. But she added that she'd like to go with gentle ATB first.

All of these are given orally. Another way would be a drug named borgal which is also from grop of sulfa- drugs, but has to be injected. When I told her about Rony's problems with scabs from the shots we agreed to leave this as the last option.

So for now we're told to hand feed and call her tomorrow evening, well, almost night (8-9pm). She'll give us the name and tell us whether we can buy it somewhere or need to go to her clinic.

Thank you again, guys, for your advices. We seem to be on the right track. Hope this drug will finally help Rony digest normally.