Overheating Warning

[The1nOnlyMatty]

I wanted to take a second to make a "bad daddy" post to hopefully educate some other newbies.

Tonight was cage cleaning night. We took the boys out to play while I cleaned the cage. Normally this a fairly easy quick process. However, tonight was my night I also move the cage to clean behind it, and so cleaning took the better part of thirty minutes. My oldest two boys are seven moths old, my next is just barely six months, and my youngest is five months. Most educated members here will recommend to you not to allow extended playtimes, if any at all before six months. I nice cage with lots of room to play and leap will suffice as enough exercise.

Now my boys have been out playing since before I found this site unfortunately, but usually at very limited intervals, fifteen minutes tops. Tonight after our thirty minute play time, Jester (my 6 month old) started acting a little funky. He seemed very disoriented. He went to take a leap to a ledge, missed, and fell to the bottom of the cage. Luckily we keep a nice lofty almost six inches of KD pine on the bottom of the cage to break his fall. After he fell I went to check on him and he just kind of laid there and looked at me. I immediately knew that he had overheated which caused the disorientation, and needed to be cooled down. Luckily we keep a nice big bowl frozen as a part of our Chinnie emergency kit. I took that out and got him in it. He sat there in it for about five minutes and then hopped up and seemed back to normal. Just to be safe we moved him to his small ledge free carrier with a chiller pad in it for another good twenty minutes. He is back to "normal" now moving and playing around fine. The first thing he did was go drink some water and the eat some pellets. He'll be going to the vet tomorrow morning for a check up just to be safe and make sure the fall didn't injure anything, and that there is not lasting damage from the heat exhaustion.

The reason I am choosing to post this is to let those with younger guys know, when people tell you play time isn't truly needed at young ages, and it should be limited or non existent...they mean it. We got lucky this time, and hopefully will remain lucky after a vet visit tomorrow, but know they can overheat very easy, and they can hurt themselves much further than just and upset tummy or being extremely tired from it.

Sorry for the long post, but this was very scary moment tonight, and wanted to make a post in hopes others will see it and not have to deal with this situation themselves.

 

[AZChins]

I don't know if you could say for sure that he overheated. He's a young chinchilla, it sounds like he may have just had a sudden drop in blood sugar and that could have caused an issue with him. I've seen that happen here with younger chins and have had customers that end up with it happening to their baby chins. Ask the vet about hypoglycemia in young chins. Low blood sugar can make a chin appear to be wobbly and almost drunk acting, it makes it very difficult for chins to jump up to ledges and they lose their balance easily.

 

[The1nOnlyMatty]

Thank you for the heads up. It's definitely something I will ask about. I'm assuming the sudden drop is something that could also be caused by too much "strenuous" exercise?

 

[AZChins]

Chinchillas play very hard and young chins especially can have a very sudden drop in blood glucose levels. That's why I always make sure that the younger chins aren't out for more than 10 minutes at a time and why a wheel is a really bad idea for babies (not just because they are dangerous in other ways).

 

[ticklechin]

I agree 100% with Susan, sounds like he had a blood sugar episode.

 

[The1nOnlyMatty]

Took him to the vet this morning to be safe, even though everything seemed to back to normal. Vet said nothing seemed to be wrong. Everything checked out that we aren't looking at something like a diabetic chin. The vet did agree it was most likely a severe blood sugar drop brought about by the extended playtime. He simply suggested limiting play time to ten minutes or less until he is at least a year. He asked what kind of cage we had them in. When I showed them he basically suggested they are getting more than enough exercise with the size of our cage. So taking them out later in the evening after they've been active in the cage for a few hours is probably not the best idea. Thanks guys for your advice, an you were both dead on!

 

[AZChins]

I am so glad to hear that it was nothing serious. This is one reason I give people when they ask if an adult would be easier to handle than a baby.

Hopefully you will never see him have that happen again. Most of the time it's a one time occurrence.

 

[Vyxxin]

Good "true story" post that helps show newbies what CAN happen. A lot of new owners think they can break the rules. They don't realize that the "rules" aren't for our benefits, they're for the chins health. Glad you posted and really glad your chin is okay.

 

[NiftyKat]

What do you do for them if they do have a drop in blood sugar? I just had this same thing happen tonight and my 6 month old is still acting weird even after keeping him in the fridge for a bit (it didn't get too cold, I left the door open). He is doing the drunk acting thing after playing.

 

[ticklechin]

If the chin is in a active seizure from low blood sugar a rubbing of karo syrup on the lips will help bring them out.

 

[AZChins]

Karo syrup, honey, in a pinch you could make a syrup out of granulated white sugar. Basically something that is absorbed quickly and bumps the blood sugar up to bring the chin out of the episode. Just give as much is needed, you don't need to give the chin more than a few drops, usually.

After that, adjust the time the chin is out. Some younger chins only need 5 to 10 minutes to completely wear themselves out. Baby chins will run until they run out of energy when they are out to play. I always recommend five minute playtimes with babies and then spend the rest of the time holding the chin.

That's another thing, people will see a five or six month old chin that appears to almost be an adult. Sometimes chins become most active in the 4 to 7 month old range and have the most problems then. You have to be careful with the younger, more crazy chinnies. Adults can have the same issues, it isn't as common for adults as it is for babies.