Lethargic chin

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I tried crushing her pellets yesterday, but I couldn't get them small enough to fit through the syringe, so I tried spoon feeding her and she wouldn't take it. I just soaked the pellets in water and mushed them up like I do when I make her cookies, so I will try again. This time I will crush them before adding the water and see how it works out. She is doing better, because when I get her out of her cage she will run around at first, but she's tiring out faster than normal. She runs around for 20 minutes then naps on my shoulder for an hour. Before she got sick she would run for hours and still hate it when I put her back in her cage.
 
I thought about using the coffee grinder, but it doesn't look there's any way to take apart the base to clean it, and I don't want to feed her left over coffee grounds.
 
I tried the coffee grinder today, and it is still clumping too much to go through the syringe no matter how much water I add. I still have about one days worth of CC, but I want to get this to work in case I can't get more soon. I've tried preparing the pellets two different ways, adding different amounts of water, and I've used two different sized syringes, and it just won't come out. It keeps clumping at the end, and if it does come out it sprays everywhere.
 
Do you know anyone who works in a lab? Ask for a 2 or 5ml disposable plastic transfer pipette (they come sealed and sterile, and are super cheap, so won't be missed if one gets swiped).

Oh actually, come to think of it, any vet should have these in their surgery too... plus I think you can buy them for like a $0.5-1 at pharmacies (well at least you can in NZ).

Anyways, if you get one, open it, then cut off the tapering end with some scissors (they're fairly soft and easy to cut). You can make the hole bigger by cutting progressively closer towards the bulb end.

You can make the CC or pellet mix as thick as you want (within reason) and still get it into the bulb to feed your chin. It's true you'll have to refill the bulb after every 2nd or 3rd mouthful, but it works well enough to keep your critter fed.

Hope this helps
 
Newt said:
Ask for a 2 or 5ml disposable plastic transfer pipette
Click to expand...

I'm a Nursing Student, and I thought I had one in my supply kit, but I don't. Thank you for the advice. She is going to a new vet tomorrow morning, so I will just get more CC there.
 
We went to the new vet this morning, and within 5 seconds of walking in the room she found the problem. Yuna has an abscessed tooth. She is in surgery now. I'm a nervous wreck but if she makes it through the surgery she should recover well. The new vet specializes in exotics and has a lot of experience with chins. While we were talking she noted differences between chins and rabbits etc. so I am confident that she knows what she is doing and I'm happy we found the cause. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope all goes well with the surgery. Thank you all for your help and support. I will post an update when I get one.
 
The surgery went really well. They are keeping her for a few hours for observation, but they said she is already trying to eat!
 
One of those rare chins that have teeth issues without teeth symptoms! Is the vet removing the tooth? Which one is it?
 
Yay! I hope she make a quick recovery for you and this was a one time issue. I'm glad you found a competent vet too.
 
They did not remove the tooth they just scraped out the abscess and gave her antibiotics. The vet said she doesn't want to remove the tooth unless it's absolutely necessary, and from what she saw today she thinks it will heal up nicely. She checked for other signs of tooth problems while she was under and she said the rest of her teeth look healthy, so I hope this was a one time issue and she won't develop any other problems. She was nibbling on hay an hour after her surgery and she's taking her meds and the critical care really well. She's definitely a fighter! Knowing what was wrong now I'm surprised she was eating as well as she was the last two weeks. She gets her stitches out in ten days, and then we will do yearly follow ups. And this vet has experience with hedgehogs too, so I will probably bring my hedgie to her for her next visit. I'm so happy I found a good one. She even stayed an hour after they closed to answer all my questions.
 
That's good the tooth was not removed, it sounds like it was a periodontal abscess, more than likely caused by jammed hay, wood or food in the gums. That type of abscess does not cause the extreme pain of the apical ones since it can drain, that drainage causes food to taste like royal crud and makes them go off food rather than pain, poor baby should, if the healing goes well, be fine.
 
She is doing very well, she's getting her personality back and feedings are becoming more and more difficult. She still isn't touching her pellets but she's eating quite a bit of hay. Last night I had her out for play time and I got so excited when I saw her poop three good-sized poos in a row. They're not quite normal yet but but she's getting there.
 
I am so happy that she is doing better and really admire you finding a vet that could actually help you. I am lucky to have a great vet and one that specializes in chinchilla dental issues an hour or two away. Sadly not everyone is so lucky.
 
So glad to hear she is getting better.You are really blessed to have found not only a "exotic vet" but an exotic vet that actually knows about chinchillas.
 
Unfortunately the infection is not gone (today was her last day on SMZ, and they placed a chloramphenicol bead in the incision, plus she was on Baytril before her surgery). They prescribed Tramadol for pain and azithromycin for the infection today. I have read on here that azithromycin may not be entirely safe for chins. Is there another antibiotic that might work that I should ask for?

At this point the vet is saying this is the last chance for this infection to go away without more surgery and removal of the problem tooth, so I definitely want to try everything we can before it comes to that. She is maintaining her weight really well. She dropped 5 grams since her surgery, but that could just be because we didn't feed her before we weighed her this morning.
 
For oral abscesses I use baytril and flagyl together, baytril is aerobic bacteria, flagyl is anerobic bacteria and together it has produced the best results for the many times I have dealt with it on periodintal abscesses. If this is a apical abscess then the only way it can be taken care of is the tooth needs to be removed, the abscess drained, the beads installed in the socket and possible long term antibiotics. Tooth removal on chins is serious business, but in some cases its the only thing to try. Be very watchful for URI symptoms, its extremely common for oral infections to turn into URIs, even when on antibiotics.
 
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