Chinnie died, don't know how

[furrylovables]

A friend of mine emailed me this morning about his chinchilla dieing. He said his chin was acting lethargic, normally he's enegetic and social. He took him to the emergency vet where the vet discovered there had been blood collecting in his lungs. The vet did a necropsy and found bruising on his chest along his sternum. He did say that he didn't see his chin fall from anywhere and didn't notice anything wrong with his chin up to this day. I wish I had answers for him, but I haven't ever experienced this before. Thats why I'm posting this. If anyone has any answers or causes, he's at a loss right now, and I'm trying to help out my friend.

 

[Claire D]

I am sorry the chin died in such an unpleasant manner. Poor chinny

It is almost impossible to be sure but, from your description, it could be blunt force trauma from a fall.

 

[InkedupTara]

Poor Chin, May he be at peace now.

 

[furrylovables]

I'm still waiting to hear back from him. I asked him how tall his chinnies cage is, maybe he fell in there when nobody was home?.? He never noticed a fall during playtime.

 

[Jenn]

I'm so sorry your friend lost his chin so unexpectantly. He must be devastated! I don't know what would cause bleeding to occur in the lungs...I'm so sorry.

 

[Cuddlebug]

The only things I can think of are falls, something falling on the chin, or someone holding the chin way too tight. I am sorry for your friend's loss. I hope one of us has been of some help.

 

[AZChins]

That seems to be an injury that would happen not from a fall but maybe from being stepped on. I can't imagine that someone would hold a chin tight enough to do that to it without knowing it. How could a chin fall and hurt himself that much? Does he have a cagemate? Maybe he got kicked by the other chin really hard? I have no idea...

Poor little guy. I feel so bad for him!

 

[Chinniechantel]

That seems to be an injury that would happen not from a fall but maybe from being stepped on. I can't imagine that someone would hold a chin tight enough to do that to it without knowing it. How could a chin fall and hurt himself that much? Does he have a cagemate? Maybe he got kicked by the other chin really hard? I have no idea...

Poor little guy. I feel so bad for him!

I thought the same thing. Even a fall from a tall cage should not do that much damage. I am guessing he was stepped on or injured outside of the cage somehow. I am very sorry for his loss.

 

[Claire D]

Whilst I agree with you in theory I have known similar damage caused by a fall during a fit - the chin landed on it's chest and continued to thrash around, leading to bruising on the chest/sternum.

I wonder if there was also bruising on the back as well? If a chinchilla was stepped on them I would expect some bruising to the back/spine. To have done that amount of damage I would also be looking for underlying bone involvement and possible fractures.

I guess it is also possible (but rare) for some type of blood clotting disorder to be involved.

Sadly I do not think we can provide anything more than educated guesses on this one.

 

[AZChins]

I guess it would depend upon how the chin was stepped on?

It's so sad! That is a very painful way to go.

With falls I always think of head injuries. I've seen chins that have really hurt themselves when they've had the rolling around type seizures. One chin I had hit his head and rolled around as he was seizing from it, he lost so much fur. I can see how a chin would hurt themselves in the neck and chest during something like that.

This is just something that I really hope I never have to see or hear about again. But, with chins, if there's a way to get hurt, they will find it.

 

[Claire D]

I guess it would depend upon how the chin was stepped on?

To get an injury purely to the chest/sternum like that it is more likely to be a kick (possibly when walking) than being stepped on - as the foot comes forward the chin is hit in the chest. :hmm: But again, I would expect some more bruising to the back or head or hips etc because to do that amount of damage there would have been considerable force involved.
I would also expect some signs of fractures.

As I said above though, sadly for this chin, all we can provide is conjecture. *shrugs*

 

[JennyBug]

That is blunt force trauma. Sharp blows, like being stepped on or falling onto a shelf or a wheel, cause internal bleeding (think about an EXTREMELY horrible bruise on an internal organ - I've had this happen to my brain, that's how I recognize it). I'm very sorry for your friend's loss, but he should check out the cage and see if there is any way a fall could have caused this, that way he doesn't go through this again.

Best wishes :flowers5:

 

[AZChins]

I know. It's so hard to say what happened sometimes.

Everyone does just need to shuffle along when they have chins...make it impossible to kick or smoosh a chin that is running on the floor. (I know that I don't walk normally anymore!)

 

[Ruby]

Just another theory, something heavy could have fallen on top of him. Maybe a chinchiller could have fallen on him while he was in the cage? Who knows.

 

[Claire D]

That is blunt force trauma. Sharp blows, like being stepped on or falling onto a shelf or a wheel, cause internal bleeding

At risk of being deemed pedantic:
Kick = blunt force trauma
Stepping on = crush injury

If you read my post I was comparing being kicked (single point of contact) to being stepped on (crushing injury which often results in multiple fractures etc).

 

[furrylovables]

Still haven't heard from my friend. I emailed him this morning around 6:30 am with questions and still no answers. I guess we will never know. If he emails me back, I will certainly post his answers to the questions I asked him. Thanks for all the replies!

 

[Sinfonian]

Stacey started this thread on my behalf--I'm the owner of the chin who died (Chancellor/Chance).

I've had the same thoughts that many of you have had. Chance wasn't kicked or stepped on, and I can't imagine he was held too tightly (we hold them by supporting them from the bottom, allowing the chins to sit on our hands and against our chests). I keep coming back to the fall theory, but I just can't figure out how he could have fallen, injured his chest, and not suffered injuries to his limbs. (The vet found no bruising elsewhere during the necropsy.) His cage is large enough to house a few jumping ledges, but is far shorter than some of the "luxury" chin cages I've seen out there. I don't think he could have suffered a deadly fall in his cage. If it was a fall, it must have happened during his out-of-cage time. Since his death, I've only found one previously un-chin-proofed place high enough to potentially be dangerous (my youngest, most mischievous chin Lily was kind enough to show me), and I don't think Chance could have made it up to that spot (he wasn't as avid a climber as Lily). Still, this one high spot is the only place I can think of, so I hope that blocking it will be sufficient to keep my other chins safe.

If any of you have other theories, please keep posting. This is the second chin that I've lost and, although the circumstances were unrelated, I'm starting to become a bit paranoid about my chins' well-being.

Thank you for your kind words of sympathy and support. Chance was a wonderful companion and will be greatly missed.

 

[EveningChin]

I'm not so sure about the stepped on theory as there would be bruising on both sides of the chest not just the sternum. I've seen my girls miscalculate a jump and ram their chests on ledges before. Could be that he just hit a corner and the lbs per square inch pressure was hard enough to cause internal bleeding into the lungs. I've never seen it in chinchillas but playing foorball in high school I was speared under my pads by another player cause two rib to crack and the membrain under my sternum to detatch and I bled a little into my lungs. Sounds like what was described, but I am not a chinchilla... I think....

I am so sorry for your loss. Its so upsetting to lose a beloved pet so abruptly and not know why.

 

[Tanya]

I'm so sorry for your loss.
I just remember that in the past I was putting hanging toys with apple sticks in my chins cage. And one of my chins was running like crazy and accidentally hit the hanging toy quite badly. He cried, fur was flying and some fur was left on the apple wood. Luckily, he was ok. I immediately removed the sticks and use only coins now.
It's hard to predict everything. Chins can just fall and hit the edge on the wooden house for example, and get chest trauma, just a guess.

 

[Chinniechantel]

If you did a necropsy and don't have any answers I am sorry to say you never will. It is terrible losing a chin and never gets easier. I am very sorry for your loss. It is so hard to think of all the what-if's, but can't stop either.

Chin chillers could easily have done this- it is good to be aware. I see them in pictures on high shelves all the time. We all know how determined chins can be when they want to move something, and how crazy they are when jumping around, it just really could be anything. I have a chin who climbs the walls- like behind a tall dresser with a mirror about 2" from the wall- he will climb up the top in between the wall and the dresser scaring me half to death. I now block off anything like that with cardboard and playpens, but he is my only bugger who does that. Some chins are just dare devils!