Help! Two sick chinchillas.

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bareri

Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2012
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10
Chinchilla # 1
One of my chinchillas stopped eating 1/25/2012 and I took her to the vet right away to get treated. We found out she was already into stasis and was hospitalized for most of last week, where she received Raglan and SubQ shots. She is home now and is finally pooping again. I have been feeding her critical care every few hours and letting her walk around after her feedings to promote more pooping. The vet refused to send me home with more Raglan. If she is pooping now, does she need to be on Raglan? I noticed she sneezed twice yesterday after her dust bath, so I am not giving her dust bath to monitor if she is actually sneezing or if it's caused by the dust bath. Should I be concerned if she sneezes once or twice a day? I am very worried about her.... she is finally more perky and I don't want her to get sick on top of stasis.

Chinchilla #2
I noticed my other chinchilla (they were not caged together) was beginning to eat and poop less on 1/30/2012 (the poops were very dried up and very small). The vet put him on Baytril and asked me to hand feed him. At first I did not have critical care, so I fed him grounded up pellets and hay with water until the critical care arrived. He was bloated and would be lethargic after his feedings. So I began giving him simethicon and acidophilus. He began pooping more on 1/31/2012. I began feeding him critical care on 1/31/2012 night and I noticed he was pooping more the next day. He began eating more hay on his own so I thought he was getting better. It should be noted that his poop looked abnormal (some were too big, the overall color was lighter brown)

Came the night of 2/2/2012, he started having really bad diarrhea. I called the vet the next day and had his poop tested for parasites. The test came back negative. The vet insisted that I continue giving him the baytril for the 10-day treatment and told me to just continue feeding him critical care and water. I have continued giving him the simethicon and acidophilus. When his diarrhea started, I started giving him some pedialyte mixed with water to make sure he does not get dehydrated. his diarrhea is still really bad. He is much more lethargic than usual. However, at least he is more energetic than when he was constipated.

I will call the vet tomorrow again to see if he has any ideas of what to do. Does anyone have any ideas of what might be going on with him? Or any suggestions on what I can do? I am hesitant to give him the diarrhea treatments I see on forums since he was constipated before. Please help!!
 
#1 Reglan helps with the stomach but I don't think they need to be on it for too long.. when my friend had a sick chin I think it was only for a week. As for sneezing, I would just watch her. Maybe she just sniffed up some dust?


Why did the vet give him Baytril? Baytril can cause chinchillas to stop eating and my chin got really sick from it. If your chin doesn't have a reason to be on the Baytril (UTI, infection, etc..) he probably shouldn't be on it. For the diarrhea you could give him plain shredded wheat and/or burnt toast, like completely black on both sides. The latter I believe works faster and the sooner the better. It shouldn't make him constipated. Maybe you should stop the Simethicone if he's not bloated and pooping regularly... I wonder if that could be adding to the diarrhea? You also could get a probiotic from the vet like Ben-a-Bac, which is what Ari was on during and after his Baytril to help his stomach recover from the antibiotics.

Are you seeing a vet who specializes in exotics/chinchillas?
 
andreya said:
#1 Reglan helps with the stomach but I don't think they need to be on it for too long.. when my friend had a sick chin I think it was only for a week. As for sneezing, I would just watch her. Maybe she just sniffed up some dust?


Why did the vet give him Baytril? Baytril can cause chinchillas to stop eating and my chin got really sick from it. If your chin doesn't have a reason to be on the Baytril (UTI, infection, etc..) he probably shouldn't be on it. For the diarrhea you could give him plain shredded wheat and/or burnt toast, like completely black on both sides. The latter I believe works faster and the sooner the better. It shouldn't make him constipated. Maybe you should stop the Simethicone if he's not bloated and pooping regularly... I wonder if that could be adding to the diarrhea? You also could get a probiotic from the vet like Ben-a-Bac, which is what Ari was on during and after his Baytril to help his stomach recover from the antibiotics.

Are you seeing a vet who specializes in exotics/chinchillas?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response!

Chinchilla #1 was on injected Raglan for 5 days, so I hope it was long enough? I found about 30 poops in her cage so far today! :)

The vet gave chinchilla #2 baytril because he thought it something contagious since both of my chinchillas got sick back to back. He also mentioned that it would help with the bacteria that could be in his guts (re: diarrhea). He did not test his poop for bacteria tho... only parasites... :hmm: I have been wondering if baytril is what's causing my chinchilla to have diarrhea as well.

His stomach still feels slightly bloated. Not as bad as before, but definitely harder than normal. I have a bottle of activated charcoal that I got from the health store. Would that be safe to give to him? I just worry because he was constipated before and I wonder if there's something going on other than diarrhea? I have also read on this forum that diarrhea could be related to stasis?
 
The vet is listed as someone who specializes in exotics. When I called, the clinic also says the vet knows how to treat chinchillas. However, he was close to giving up on my chinchilla #1 the 2nd time I went in. I mentioned that it could be stasis, and that's when he took another set of x-rays and agreed to go on treatment for her stasis.... so I believe he's not experienced with chinchillas... He has been really trying to help though and is willing to listen and look into suggestions I throw at him.

The closest vet I saw suggested by other members on this forum is about a 1.5 hour drive away. I considered bringing my chinchilla #2 there, but I am afraid to go far since I need to feed my chinchilla #1 every few hours... I also have to monitor my 3rd chinchilla to make sure he doesn't get sick as well.
 
Chin #1 - if she's pooing, the gut's moving, and I would say you're probably ok without having the Reglan at home. The sneezing? Probably from the dust bath. Ever sneeze when there's a lot of dust in the air? They can do. I'd monitor her and see if she continues sneezing, dust bath or not, but if she's not, it's not something I'd worry about. We have some chins that sneeze when/after they dust, but they're fine otherwise.

Chin #2 - I second the question - why give Baytril? We've run into experienced vets that will throw Baytril at anything chin-related because they don't know what it is, so they "guess" it's an infection. As mentioned, Baytril isn't the greatest tasting and can cause chins to go off their feed, so without a concrete reason, I wouldn't be giving it. But that's me personally.

I second the burnt black toast. Activated charcoal works great as well (I suppose that's not very common to have, but we have it, so surely someone else does). As for the diarrhea, when we have soft poos, we pull the food and give them only hay. We give them some benebac or acidophilus (whatever's on hand) to hopefully help their system. But, if the diarrhea's for more than a day, we're headed to the vet. Flat out diarrhea is not good for chins.

You said:
I am hesitant to give him the diarrhea treatments I see on forums since he was constipated before
Click to expand...
You mean like the shredded wheat/burnt toast/activated charcoal? Or are you talking about something else entirely?
 
My chinchilla #1 had lots of good looking poop last night before I went to sleep. I just woke up to give her another feeding and found her in pain. She started whining and I held on to her until she finally passed away. I am devastated but I need to stay strong to help my 2nd chinchilla pull through.

Re: Chinchilla #2, I am referring to burnt toast/activated charcoal.
 
You did not mention what brand of pellets they have been eating. Are they getting hay? Also, do they get any treats. the original problems could be diet related since both chins had the similar problems to begin with. Shredded wheat or activated charcoal/burnt toast will not cause more problems or constipate the chinchilla. The diarrhea needs to be treated asap.
 
I am very sorry for your loss. The best bet for your 2nd chinchilla now is for you to find another vet, someone who has more experience with treating chinchillas. Although I know bloat/stasis is hard to treat, your 1st chinchilla seems to be on the right track to recovery from what you described, however her death means there may be more than meets the eye.

Your 2nd chinchilla will need x-rays to determine what's going on in the tummy, not woolly guesses as to what it is. Baytril is really not a good idea at this point, especially when a chinchilla is experiencing stomach problems. I would not recommend you giving anything besides CC to your chinchilla until you have had x-rays done and the cause of the diarrhea determined. Throwing drugs at them without knowing why wears them down and does not help at all.

To give an example, one of my girls stopped eating one day, went into stasis, and it was not until an x-ray revealed that she was so stuffed with food (I hand-fed when she stopped eating) that any fibre (that includes pellets/hay/Critical Care) would have killed her. She was also on motility drugs from first initial vet which caused her to prolapse and it was not until we did x-rays that we realised what it was. We had to clean out her system (using fortified papaya juice) and at the end of it all, I realised she was probably wheat-intolerant.

I'm not saying that your chin is the same as mine, all I'm saying is that what you think it is could be very different from what it actually is... Until you find out exactly what's wrong, you can't do anything to get her better.

May I ask when you say diarrhea, it is just soft poos or flat out watery diarrhea?
 
Thank you for all your responses.

I let my chinchilla #2 finish his antibiotic 'treatment' as told by his vet, and after he stopped the baytril, he started eating his hay and his energy level and poop is back to normal. I am not sure what happened. I did give him burnt toast so perhaps that helped.

However, my chinchilla # 3 started having diarrhea yesterday. I need to have his fecal sample tested and have him seen. I don't know what's wrong. We have been disinfecting ourselves and their cages and they have been in separate rooms for over a week.

When I mean diarrhea, it's not just slightly soft poop, but it's really soft poop with the poop shape. The poop also smells slightly too.

When I had chinchilla #2's fecal sample tested, I did not physically bring him into the vet. Would that be the cause of not catching something in his poop? Does the fecal sample need to be taken right before the tests are run?
 
Cuddlebug said:
You did not mention what brand of pellets they have been eating. Are they getting hay? Also, do they get any treats. the original problems could be diet related since both chins had the similar problems to begin with. Shredded wheat or activated charcoal/burnt toast will not cause more problems or constipate the chinchilla. The diarrhea needs to be treated asap.
Click to expand...

They have been on mazuri ever since I got them (6-7.5 years ago).

They have been getting fresh hay. I have been changing the hay out twice a day in hopes that they take in more hay. I stopped all treats now. Before, they were getting treats about 3-4 times a week.
 
Maybe have another fecal done to see if it's giardia? Are they losing weight? I'm going through it with my two right now. The first fecal came back negative, but the second came back positive...so it can be tricky sometimes and you might need a few fecals to get a sure answer.
 
VolunteerChin22 said:
And any other types of pets that come in contact with them? What are you using to clean your cages?
Click to expand...

We have two large dogs in the house, but they rarely go upstairs to where the chinchillas are at.

I have been using rubbing alcohol and diluted vinegar to clean their cages.
 
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