help! sick chinchilla?

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mousey

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Dec 31, 2010
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My chinchilla is 11 years old and a week ago we noticed something off about him. His chin and paws were all wet. At first we thought it was because of his waterbottle (which could still be part of the problem. We found what could be a small leak today so we getting him a new one) but than my fiance noticed that a week after he was not eating his treat when he presented it to him. He took it in his mouth but couldn't put his hands around it and dropped it. We found his chest and hands wet again and thought it was because he was not feeling comfortable. We took him out and gentle wiped him with a towel and while we were keeping him dry we cleaned up his to make sure if there were wet spots he was sitting in was taken care of. He seemed fine and his usual self when we let him run around a bit before settling him down for his dust bath. When he was back in the cage and dry, he fell asleep. After he woke up we noticed him using his hands to eat his pallets but to my fiance he still almost looked lethargic. He also noticed that the chin has a runny nose and my future father in law and I noticed an odor coming from his nose area that was also not there before. Its new years holiday weekend and we are having a hard time finding a vet here who will take him in :( and see scared just how serious this might be. Also he has never had something like this before. Please help
 
You need to find an emergency vet, even if that means driving a bit. Lethargy in a chin equals death. There's no other way to say that gently. If a chin gets lethargic, they are deathly ill. Chins hide illness until it's almost too late for their humans to help them, so if he's to the point of lethargy, he's very ill.

Also, pawing at the mouth, wet paws, wet chin and chest generally point to malocclusion, which is a tooth issue. The ONLY way for your vet to know for sure what's going on is to anesthetize your chin and then take a full set of mouth x-rays looking for spurs on the teeth, crooked teeth, and elongated roots which can grow either down into the jaw bone or up into the nasal cavity and even through to the eye socket. Malocclusion is incurable. It is sometimes manageable if it is a surface issue, but that is a whole 'nother discussion.

The foul odor could be due to an infection in his mouth, rather than his nose. It's very possible he has an abscessed tooth or an infection due to something getting stuck in the gums.

Any way you look at it, you need to get him to a vet ASAP. Lethargy will not wait until Monday. Can you give us your location and we'll try and help you find one? There are emergency vets everywhere, even on holidays, you just need to find the right one.
 
It'S also a possibility that he's got some sort of growth in his mouth. Due to his advanced years, it could be a growth or tumor at the back of his mouth. I have a chin that is suffering from the same symptoms; drooling, difficulty eating, bad smell. She is eating Critical Care and pumpkin right now and holding her own. I'm just taking her health on a day to day basis, making her comfortable as the tumor cannot be operated on and does not seem to be causing her too much discomfort. But a trip to the doctors as soon as possible is the right thing to so.
 
chin2heart said:
It'S also a possibility that he's got some sort of growth in his mouth. Due to his advanced years, it could be a growth or tumor at the back of his mouth. I have a chin that is suffering from the same symptoms; drooling, difficulty eating, bad smell. She is eating Critical Care and pumpkin right now and holding her own. I'm just taking her health on a day to day basis, making her comfortable as the tumor cannot be operated on and does not seem to be causing her too much discomfort. But a trip to the doctors as soon as possible is the right thing to so.
Click to expand...

This is going to sound ruder than it is ment to and I am apologizing now but are you sure it is a growth and not an incompotent vet? growths in chinchillas is not common..... It is verly like if there is a "growth" it is an abscess from a bone spur or something. I would be getting a second opinion.

to the OP you will need a vet immediatly Lathargy is right before death.
 
I agree, I have extensive experience with all things oral on chinchillas and have never heard, come across in my research or got wind of a rumor that a chinchilla had a tumor in the mouth. More than likely its a abscess and you have a very inexperienced vet who does not know what they are looking at.
 
This post sounds strangely similar to an email I received LAST WEEK.
The suggestions are the same. Your chin needs to see a vet....if it's not already too late.
 
I had to put a chinchilla down a few months ago because she developed a huge tumor in her mouth. Chris said there was no doubt that it was cancerous. Tumors of the mouth do happen. It was extremely fast growing, like a tumor you would find on a rat, but it was inside, toward the back of the mouth near the joint, and the fleshy part of the cheek masked it until it was too late. She ate right up until a day before the end. I noticed when I did chores late on Sunday that she would not touch her food and that she was unable to drink. When I pulled her out, she had a very bad odor to her mouth, had swelling, had a crusting inside her mouth. I fed her Critical Care, administered subcu fluids, took her to the vet first thing Monday morning thinking we were dealing with an abscess of some sort and it was a tumor.

Had I known what it was, I would have taken pictures for future reference for everybody. Once she was at the vet it was too late, and frankly at that point, I was too upset to care about pictures.
 
That is very interesting, I know cancer is extremely rare in chins but it never occured to me it could happen in the mouth.
 
I was a bit stunned myself Dawn. It stands to reason though. Poor breeding, poor diet, etc., etc., and it's going to happen in chins just like it does in other animals. Once upon a time cancer was almost unheard of in rats, now it seems to be either myco or cancer that kills them more than anything else and you can almost count on one or the other before the end.
 
Sorry I did not reply sooner I had no access to the net and we spent hours trying to find an exotic animal hospital. One we found was one hour and 45 minutes away and when we arrived absolutely terrible. We are in northampton mass and we are trying to find anything close by maybe even in CT if someone is on right now and can find me a number please let me know. I will be checking as we are still in the process of calling everywhere. Lots of dog and cats hospital
 
mousey said:
Sorry I did not reply sooner I had no access to the net and we spent hours trying to find an exotic animal hospital. One we found was one hour and 45 minutes away and when we arrived absolutely terrible. We are in northampton mass and we are trying to find anything close by maybe even in CT if someone is on right now and can find me a number please let me know. I will be checking as we are still in the process of calling everywhere. Lots of dog and cats hospital
Click to expand...

http://www.vcahospitals.com/south-hadley/our-team.html

There is a member on here that lives in Hadley and she goes to this clinic. I've made appt's for my chin there as well since I'm in Amherst but I'm moving to another state so I had to switch hospitals.

Please keep us updated!
 
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