Chinchillas 'Cycle'?

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feistychins

feistychins

The Chinchilla Lady
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
327
Location
Connecticut
I have a rescue that has only been with us for a month. She is about 10 years old. She had a complete physical exam by a vet right after I got her and was in good health. She was fed a lot of junkie treats before coming here and she had very small poops. It has taken me all this time to get her system regulated and she now has a good appetite and has normal poops.

When cleaning her cage yesterday there was a small amount of smeared blood on a couple of her wooden ledges. I checked her and it appears to be coming from the area right above her rectum (not where she pees). It is dark blood and not bright red. I do have a couple of females that on occasion will have a small spot or two of blood for a day and then stops so I assumed it was there heat cycle, but they are much younger.

There is a very tiny amount of blood above the opening today, but nothing smeared on anything in the cage. So basically; is this normal at her age? How long would a female that has never been breed continue to have a 'cycle'.
 
Well a chinchilla would have a cycle no matter if she was in breeding or not, and I believe it is around 28 days. I know of chins who were 16 and still breeding so obviously they can stay fertile for that long or longer.

You should not see any blood smeared though, or at least I have never, and I have quite a few chins. It is a tiny bit of discharge, pinkish clear for a normal cycle, if anything, and they are just a little more open than normal.

I would bring her to the vet and make sure it is not pyometra or some infection, or maybe a hemmoroid or prolapsed rectum? Blood is just not normal from my experience, especially enough to get on the shelves.
 
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It is definately not a prolaspe. It is not coming from the rectum at all. It is a very tiny amount of blood that I think when she moved it just smeared it a little. I cleaned all her ledges and they have stayed clean and she is eating and active, so I think it has basically lasted the one to one and half days that has happened with my younger chins.

Of all the females that I have, only one maybe two occasionally do this and it is not every month or least there are only a spot or two of blood that I see every few months.

I just wanted to make sure that a female will still 'cycle' in her later years with no stimulas of breeding.
 
A prolapse doesn't have to be rectal. It can also be vaginal. But as Chantel said, I would be concerned about pyometra. There should be no blood.
 
I agree blood coming from anywhere around there is not normal. Last time I saw blood like that it looked like it was coming from the vaginal opening but was actually coming from the rectal opening of a female who had her intestines blocked off by her kits. Now I know this female isn't in breeding but gravity does move blood. Even in a breeding female noticable blood isn't normal and is usually and indication of a problem
 
Could it just be a small cut at the vaginal opening? I wonder if it is a cut of some sort.

Every great once and awhile I will find a tiny bit of blood when a female goes into heat. But, I never notice it smeared on anything in the cage UNLESS that female has a male in the cage. Sometimes the male will cause a little bit of blood or brownish blood discharge to come out. (I'll stop here, I had a story that is really quite gross and will help nothing.)
 
She barely has a very tiny spot of dried blood around her private area. I tried taking a photo, but they were blurry. The blood was a small amount, but darker than when I have seen spots for my other girls. That is what concerned me.

She is seeing the vet tomorrow. I will let you know what she says.
 
Could she by any chance have been pregnant? Could this have been a miscarriage? I've seen miscarriages that leave just a little tiny bit of blood a few times.

Gently feel her belly if you can, maybe palpitate it a bit to see if you can feel anything. See if anything oozes out of her vaginal opening when you squeeze her belly a bit.

I hope the vet can give you more answers. If she's eating and drinking and acting like a normal chin, don't worry too much. :) It's probably just something really simple. Pyometra and other uterine infections usually leave the chin acting like there's something wrong - either the chin is lethargic, has labored breathing or just won't eat anything.
 
Well I brought Josey to the vet today. There has been no sign of blood since Sunday night. Today she did have a small amount of brownish discharge coming from her vaginal opening. The vet took a couple of cultures. She looked at one right away and it appreared normal and the other she has to send out for a more in depth reading. We will not know those results for 2-3 days.

The vet manipulated her abdomen and found nothing abnormal that stood out and Josey was not bothered at all by the physical. She is eating, drinking, peeing and pooing normally. She has bright eyes and her normal energy level.

So I am keeping a close eye on her and we have to wait and see what the test results bring back before we decide the next step or what antibiotics she may have to go on. Hopefully, it is just a minor infection that can be easily resolved.

She has only been with us for about a month and has improved greatly since we got her. For the first three years of her life she was kept in a glass tank. Then the person we got her from put her in a large cage with lots of exercise time, but fed her a bad diet of crappy food, with junky pet store treats. She told me 1/2 a walnut was Josey's favorite treat! She barely had dots for a poop when we got her, but now has nice normal chinnie poops.

The second owner had her for 7 years and she was always a single chin so no pregnancies.
 
That is what I thought happened when I first posted about this, but then everyone thought that was not normal and I did not want to take any chances. The vet thought that since Josey was so bright eyed and eating and drinking that it may have been just a lingering affect of her 'cycle' also. Of course the test are the only way to confirm one way or the other.

I really hope it is just that simple.
 
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