Please help!! :'(

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xcmarieo9

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I have a 7 month old female chinchilla. Just recently, [as in a day ago] she has stopped eating and drinking. When she's asleep and she's breathing, it sounds as if she is "wheezing" in such a way that it seems shallow. I noticed that she has such a large hump on her back that has NEVER been there since I got her. She is barely moving and she just wants to lay on her side all the time. When I do move her, she makes some sort of whimpering sound that sounds like she is in pain. Is it a possibility that she broke her back? Can this be a possibility that she isn't eating or drinking? PLEASE HELP!:cry3:
 
She needs a vet immediately. It is quite possibly already too late, but it is worth a shot. It could be a respiratory infection or many other things. If she is lethargic, it is an emergency.
 
If a chin is malnourished it can develop a hunch back, I don't know if that fits the "huge hump" you're talking about or not.

But she does need a vet right away, not tomorrow, or the next day. If untreated immediately she probably won't make it through the weekend.

While at the vet you also need to get some critical care to hand/force feed her since she is not eating or drinking. It could be anything from blockage to URI to something totally different.

Please keep us updated.
 
Hello everyone.... Pepper did pass away this afternoon at the vet. clinic. Cancer was present in her body and she was unable to continue the fight. She did pass away peacefully in my arms. Thank you for those that offered the help. :cry3:
 
It seems a bunch of people keeping postings new threads with graphic discriptions of their chins in pain and then not updating the outcome. I sure hope your not one of them and that you took your chin to the vet asap.....please let us know what the vet said....if what you are saying is true then the chin needs to be seen by a vet...
 
I am sorry for your loss - but deadly cancer in a 7 month old chin? How did the vet determine this? That sounds like a load of crap to me. Chins do get cancer, but it's hardly ever heard of, and certainly not in a 7 month old.

If she just got sick yesterday and went to the vet today, no cultures or biopsies could have been sent. How did the vet decide this was cancer?
 
Honestly your vet must be an idiot...I have never found cancer in a chinchilla.....let alone a young one
 
First, I'd like to say I am awfully sorry.. that is a horrible experience to go through :( Secondly, I am also skeptical.. I don't have much experience with chins but I do know that cancer doesn't just develop overnight.. I've never heard of a tumor that appeared so fast.. And a vet should never just decide it's cancer without doing a test.
 
While I'm glad that this doesn't seem to be a troll, I am very upset for your loss. I do think your vet is dumb though...
 
Your vet probably said cancer because people don't often cure cancer in pets, they see it as a "there's nothing we could do, poor thing"... instead the vet should have said I don't know and referred you to someone who did.

That's really too bad. If you lost her while at the vet, even if the vet would have be competent it was probably too late.
 
In response to all of this, the Vet did not know what he was talking about. A second vet had done some tests following her death, and the cause of death was pneumonia. It started with an upper respiratory infection and later turned into pneumonia, making her extremely lethargic and having her loss of appetite. My friend, in turn, called me last night and openly told me that it was her fault because she did not take proper care of my baby, Pepper, while I was away for two days. It was awful to hear that from her :( but once again, thank you everyone!
 
I'm glad you got a second opinion. I doubt that the two day absence caused the URI though, unless she had her in very, very bad conditions for those two days. In which case you'd have seen it when you got home. Has anyone around been sick? It's very possible it started that way, many things that people get, chins can get too.

I'm sorry you lost your chinnie, don't blame your friend though, just learn from it and try to find a better care taker. Trusting people can be hard. Your friend may not have taken the best care of Pepper, but she is a good and honorable friend to fess up instead of just slinking back and not saying anything. I can't think of anything that could happen in two days to cause a URI unless they were blowing smoke and stuff in her face, etc.
 
I'm not angry at her, but I am upset. I'm just grateful that she confessed and did not lie about anything. I did ask about if anyone was sick, and she said her younger brother who played with Pepper a lot while they were watching her for me was sick. Could that have been a possibility?
 
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