Enterococcus pneumonia??

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starrynight0621

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358
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Does anyone know anything about this type of pneumonia?

It is what my chinchilla Orville died from. All I know is that it is resistant to many types of antibiotics and can only be treated with four. We were prescribed chloramphenicol for Orville's cagemate.

Google is failing me right now.
 
It's not actually a type of pneumonia, it's an infection of Enterococcus faecalis.
Enterococci are the third leading cause of hospital associated infections and have gained increased importance due to their
fast adaptation to the clinical environment by acquisition of antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity traits.
Click to expand...
That info should help you in your search. I got this from: Tractenberg, R. E., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2011). Intra- and Interspecies Genomic Transfer of the Enterococcus faecalis Pathogenicity Island. Plos ONE, 6(4), 1-15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016973
It was a lovely article about the genomic expression and mutation this bacterium causes and it's virulent factors and PAI.
 
becky12883 said:
It's not actually a type of pneumonia, it's an infection of Enterococcus faecalis.
That info should help you in your search. I got this from: Tractenberg, R. E., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2011). Intra- and Interspecies Genomic Transfer of the Enterococcus faecalis Pathogenicity Island. Plos ONE, 6(4), 1-15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016973
It was a lovely article about the genomic expression and mutation this bacterium causes and it's virulent factors and PAI.
Click to expand...

Thank you! That is interesting. I don't think I can translate the article, but it is good to know it is an infection. They thought he had pneumonia because his lungs were filled with fluid.
 
ticklechin said:
Do you sprinkle any probiotics or anything on the pellets? Any supplements?
Click to expand...

We tried them a couple of months ago, but the chins didn't like them. I didn't know how important they were. I thought they were an optional thing, kind of like vitamin supplements that we can take.
 
I guess more than anything I want to know HOW my baby got this disease so I don't do it again in the future.

Like, is it related to unsanitary living conditions? I cleaned his cage religiously daily. I just want to know what I did wrong :(
 
I think there are E. faecalis in probiotics. They can be present in normal gut flora, but sometimes something triggers a mutation and they head to areas they aren't supposed to be and wreak havoc (i.e. the lungs in Orville's case). These types of infections in people are commonly found after root canals and in UTI's. The only study I found dealing with antibiotic resistance was in Serbian, so I'm not sure which antibiotics are best. Wikipedia says ampicillin, linezolid, and daptomycin.
 
Thank you so much for your help and for looking! I wonder if it was the probiotics then, even though we tried them a long time ago. What we tried was Lifeline. I am going to throw it away.
 
It could be from the Lifeline, or a lot of other causes. Stress, a virus, a fungus, any sort of immune response to anything really, might have even been in the water. You may never know what caused it. This bacteria seems to be going along the lines of MRSA, a common bacteria that for some reason mutates and becomes resistant. A lot of it has to do with the over use of antibiotics, but you don't want me to get started on that ;)
I'm sorry for your loss of Orville and I hope that his cagemate stays healthy.
 
We were using a PUR water filter. But maybe it was a virus or something. I guess we will never know... I just know my fiance and I did the best we could to take care of them and make sure he was happy and healthy. And he was spoiled rotten.

His cagemate Wally is okay so far. I haven't seen any signs of illness... no lethargy, anorexia, heavy breathing, etc. We got him new toys and he was interested in those. Wally has always been resilient; Orville showed signs of giardia twice, and Wally never showed any signs. Nevertheless, we are getting the special medicine tomorrow for him just to be safe.
 
Its a gut bateria that somehow got inhaled, if the chins gut got out of whack and there was a overproduction of bacteria in the poo, its how I would guess it got transmitted, that or a probiotic in the feed or supplement. Its why I asked about a powdered probiotic.
 
That would make sense, because his lungs got so infected. It seems like just bad luck. He didn't live in his poop, I cleaned it every day.
 
This is a odd case, I would not worry about it repeating in other homes. One question to the OP, does the feed you use have that strain of bacteria in it? I have found cases of feed dust causing this condition in farm animals-its a common ingrediant and when inhaled causes respiratory problems.
 
It does not appear to have it

Chinchilla Pellets
Forage products, processed grain by-products, plant protein products, roughage products, molasses products, sodium bentonite, animal protein products, calcium carbonate, monocalcium phosphate, dicalcium phosphate, vegetable fat, salt, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, propionic acid (a preservative), natural terpenes, acetic acid, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, monoesters and diesters of 1, 2 propanediol, hydrated ammonium phosphate, amorphous silica, propyl benzoate, propyl acetate, butylated hydroxyanisole, allsweet/fenugreek, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, ethylenediamine dihydriodide, yucca schidigera extract, niacin, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D supplement, sodium selenite, vitamin B12 supplement, calcium pantothenate, ascorbic acid, vegetable fat, biotin, vitamin A acetate, folic acid, riboflavin, menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite (source of vitamin K activity), pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate.
 
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