My chin has been acting extremely weird...

  • Thread starter Kayleigh Killjoy
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Kayleigh Killjoy

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My Chinchilla, Chi, is usually a relatively active chin. She's always constantly jumping around and never stays still for us when we hold her, she usually climbs all over us and loves sitting on our shoulders. But just today, we had a nice little playtime. But today it was pretty warm in our room and we don't have our AC plugged in [no central air] because it's actually winter time, almost beginning of spring and unusually warm for winter in MD. So after a bit of playing we stuck her in her cage to cool off. We have even a little granite stone we freeze for her and stuck that in there. We gave her a dust bath and she was fine. But all of a sudden she became motionless, I was able to pick her up, no problem, she was all floppy and just wouldn't move, still breathing. After letting her lie on the granite for a bit, she has become a bit more active. But now she's quite off balance. We have had her since August 08. I don't know how old she is, but she was smaller than she is now when we got her, so I assume she wasn't any more than a year. She normally eats/drinks regularly. I figured it might be an overheating problem, but we've had the window open/fan on high to begin with, and we've let her relax on the stone for a while. We even offered treats [raisins/special chinchilla treats] and a dust bath. She's much more active now, but still not totally herself. Any ideas as to what's wrong?: help2:
 
I think you pretty much answered your own question. It sounds as though she overheated. If it's warm and you can't turn the air on, I wouldn't have play time. Putting a chin cooler in her cage isn't really going to help if you've let her have a long run time. It's just to keep them cool when they are inactive. By letting her run with it being warm, you may have really over heated her and the cooler wasn't enough to bring her temperature down quickly.

Can you put a fan in a window? Is it really warm that bringing in outside air would just make it warmer? Do you have a cooler room where you can move her to until the weather changes back to it's typical winter temperatures?

Keep a close eye on her today. Don't offer junk/sugar treats (raisins or pet store kind of treats). Make sure she's taking in water and food, and that she's peeing and pooping normally. If she isn't doing better in a short amount of time, then she needs to see a vet. It may be something as simple as needing rehydrated, which a vet can do much faster and easier than you can.

Good luck with her. :)
 
Watch those ears. Those are the best sign for when they are getting too hot. If needed, take her out side in her carrier and let her cool off or else if it is an emergency, put her in the refrigerator for a minute or two. But I agree, if it's really hot, it's better to have a bored chin than an overheated one.
 
Well the weird part is it wasn't even that long I had her out. I only had her hopping around a little bit around the bed. It was just really about I'd say no more than 10 minutes of actual activity with her. And then we put her back because we were afraid of overheating. Unfortunately, we did everything we could. She seemed better before we went to bed, like almost nearly herself again, just a little off balance still. But, sadly, we woke up this morning and she was gone :[. There's no way we could have gotten her to a vet at the time that she was acting weird, and I don't even know if there's a vet around here that will handle chinchillas. But even if we waited til one opened, then it would have been around 8am this morning, and she probably would have already been gone already. And I do not believe there is a 24hr Vet around here either. We tried everything we could, and thought she was better, but I guess not. It wasn't even THAT warm, I mean, yeah, it was warm, but she's done fine even during the summer. Thank you for all of your help though, it means a lot that you guys tried.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your chin :(

Unfortunately even if she seemed to be okay during the summer, this goes to show the importance of keeping chins cool.
 
Sorry for your loss - sometimes it happens as we've no way to tell when they're sick, until it's too late!
Lost my big brown velvet in a simular way - fine during the day, gone the next morning! Heartbreak is part of these little guys, inexplicably!
 
I'm so sorry for your loss.

Unfortunately, you've learned the hard way that you need vet options before an emergency arises. Take the time to find a regular vet who will see chins and get recommendations for an emergency facility.
 
Thank you all for all of the sympathy. I think we've found that there actually is a 24 hour emergency vet close by here, so that's good to know for the future. And there are chin vets nearby, about 45 minutes away from me in Baltimore, so we can use them if needed. We've just decided to buy another chin, and well, hope something like this never happens again. But of course we'll never forget our Chi.
 
Sorry for your loss and the hard learned lesson...but enjoy welcoming home a new fuzzy wuzzy :)
 
Kayleigh Killjoy said:
Thank you all for all of the sympathy. I think we've found that there actually is a 24 hour emergency vet close by here, so that's good to know for the future. And there are chin vets nearby, about 45 minutes away from me in Baltimore, so we can use them if needed. We've just decided to buy another chin, and well, hope something like this never happens again. But of course we'll never forget our Chi.
Click to expand...

Just remember that humidity + temperature is the killer. If you don't have AC the humidity might also be really hurting your chin. Good luck with your new buddy, be sure to post pics!!!
 
I'd be sure to get that A/C issue under control first. We've had members on here to lose their chins at 75 degrees, I personally try to keep the chin room at 60-65 but I know that can be a pain for bedrooms. Digital thermometers are relatively cheap and something awesome to have on hand, very nifty.

Sorry to hear about your loss, and good luck with the new one.
 
Sorry for your loss, from what you have said I am not completely certain it was overheating, (but coming from england we never get it really hot inside in winter so not sure what its like where u are) , the signs sound exactly the same as our gizmo who passed away from GI stasis today, no symptomns until last night when he was a bit tired, but still running around, and then this morning completely listless, took him to the vets, but he was too weak and passed away about 11:30am

It is so hard loosing them (hug)
 
Fellow Baltimorian here. I take all my chins to Falls Rd Animal Hospital. They are 24hrs, and usually have an after hours exotic specialist there for emergencies. But during the day, my chins always see Dr. Herko, he is the best IMO. I think there is one other exotics vet there though, just can't think of his name. Anyway, look into them, they're great!

I'm sorry for your loss :( I know how much of a surprise that must have come to you, losing them so fast and unexpectantly. I wish you the best, and good luck with your new baby.
 
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There is also a 24hr ER in Annapolis, though no one there is a specialist in exotics - I took Kiwi there when she needed her arm amputated.
 
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