Weight loss and heart murmur

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You can offer him some loose alfalfa mixed with his regular hay for weight gain slowly. Chins with heart issues do need to be on the lean side, so you want too much gain.
 
I see was wondering the same thing, Cotton lost about 30g since the pneumonia ordeal.. Thinking of how to get his weight back up. After reading this, l'll take it slow.
 
Shadow is getting skinnier. He's breathing different and is acting weird tonight. I'm worried he won't make it through the night :( He's still eating, but not very active. I'm going to try to get him into the vet tomorrow.
 
The exotic animal specialist isn't in today, but I'm going to bring him in and they're going to do an exam. I'm worried. :/
 
Hope Shadow is doing better. I have two chins on lasix and enalapril for heart murmur/failure. My 14.5 year old chin has been on it for the past 1.5 years, and my 2.5 year old has been on it since the holidays. Both are doing well now.

We had difficulty getting the enalapril dose right for both of them. Both showed drastic improvement at first, and then became rather lethargic with odd breathing. Their enalapril doses were gradually reduced, which resulted in improvement. My 14.5 year old (~875g) currently takes 0.5 mg daily, and my 2.5 year old (~600g) takes 0.5 mg every other day. My fingers are crossed for you that a simple dosage adjustment is all that is needed.

Regarding the "mass" in the xray, my 14.5 year old also had an abnormal finding. In her case, a barium swallow confirmed that it was just a harmless hernia.

Thinking good thoughts for you!
 
Hope Shadow is doing better. I have two chins on lasix and enalapril for heart murmur/failure. My 14.5 year old chin has been on it for the past 1.5 years, and my 2.5 year old has been on it since the holidays. Both are doing well now.

We had difficulty getting the enalapril dose right for both of them. Both showed drastic improvement at first, and then became rather lethargic with odd breathing. Their enalapril doses were gradually reduced, which resulted in improvement. My 14.5 year old (~875g) currently takes 0.5 mg daily, and my 2.5 year old (~600g) takes 0.5 mg every other day. My fingers are crossed for you that a simple dosage adjustment is all that is needed.

Regarding the "mass" in the xray, my 14.5 year old also had an abnormal finding. In her case, a barium swallow confirmed that it was just a harmless hernia.

Thinking good thoughts for you!
 
So he is acting much better. He had a rough 24-ish hours. We upped his diuretic medication. It was .2 once a day, but now it's back up to the original dose of .2. We're also doing .9 of the ACE inhibitor. The issue is we want to get more weight on him. He got all the way down to 399g, but is now at about 435. He's drinking a lot of water if I syringe feed him.
 
Thank you, Tanya, for caring :) Update above.


Almostperfect10 said:
Hope Shadow is doing better. I have two chins on lasix and enalapril for heart murmur/failure. My 14.5 year old chin has been on it for the past 1.5 years, and my 2.5 year old has been on it since the holidays. Both are doing well now.

We had difficulty getting the enalapril dose right for both of them. Both showed drastic improvement at first, and then became rather lethargic with odd breathing. Their enalapril doses were gradually reduced, which resulted in improvement. My 14.5 year old (~875g) currently takes 0.5 mg daily, and my 2.5 year old (~600g) takes 0.5 mg every other day. My fingers are crossed for you that a simple dosage adjustment is all that is needed.

Regarding the "mass" in the xray, my 14.5 year old also had an abnormal finding. In her case, a barium swallow confirmed that it was just a harmless hernia.

Thinking good thoughts for you!
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Oh, wow! I had no idea they could live that long with heart failure. Is the .5mg dose with 3mg/ml? He's still doing the odd breathing thing. I'm now wondering if the dose is right.

Thank you!
 
I'm happy to hear Shadow is feeling better – I hope he continues to improve :)
 
I'm glad Shadow is starting to feel better!!

Our vet actually gives us 5mg enalapril tablets (since that is the most affordable option and what he stocks in his clinic), which we then cut into 8 eight pieces, figuring that with a little loss from each cut we get approximately 0.5mg per dose.

My 14.5 year old was originally put on 1mg daily. After the initial improvement, she started acting lethargic with odd breathing. My mom is a nurse and recognized these to be symptoms of hypotension and suggested that her enalapril might be working too well.

Although I could not find any information regarding chinchillas specifically, I found two sources (sorry I can't find them at the moment) that stated that for management of CHF in rabbits, the maintenance dosage should be 0.25-0.5 mg/kg daily or every other day. Based on this, my chin was getting more than twice as much as the recommended dose!!

Armed with this information, we went to the vet, who agreed that we should try reducing her dose. That seemed to do the trick! We saw improvement in just a few days.

(My younger smaller chin was originally put on 0.5mg daily, but that proved to be too much for her. Since it is nearly impossible to cut the 5mg pill into sixteen pieces, we opted to give her 0.5mg every other day. Again, we saw improvement in just a few days after lowering her dose.)

Regarding Shadow's dosage...am I reading correctly that he is being given 0.9mL of 3mg/mL solution? If so, that means he is receiving 2.7mg daily. Based on rabbit calculations, that is more than 12x the maximum dose that a chin of his weight should receive. I would definitely ask the vet about reducing his dosage.

Edited to add: in dogs, loss of appetite can be a side effect of enalapril. Both of my chins initially lost some weight but eventually gained some of it back and have since held steady.
 
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One more thing to add...my vet sometimes gives cyproheptadine as an appetite stimulant. It seemed to be effective for my older chin, but I thought it made her a bit drowsy. This might help Shadow gain back some weight. Just a thought.
 
The vet gave me giant syringes during his last stay and he will drink A TON of water if I give it to him through that. I think he likes that it's really cold (from the cold Brita filter in the fridge). He drinks from his bottle, but not nearly as much as he should. I think this is helping him feel better, so he's not dehydrated. He's still very skinny, but acting happier.
 
Almostperfect10 said:
I'm glad Shadow is starting to feel better!!

Our vet actually gives us 5mg enalapril tablets (since that is the most affordable option and what he stocks in his clinic), which we then cut into 8 eight pieces, figuring that with a little loss from each cut we get approximately 0.5mg per dose.

My 14.5 year old was originally put on 1mg daily. After the initial improvement, she started acting lethargic with odd breathing. My mom is a nurse and recognized these to be symptoms of hypotension and suggested that her enalapril might be working too well.

Although I could not find any information regarding chinchillas specifically, I found two sources (sorry I can't find them at the moment) that stated that for management of CHF in rabbits, the maintenance dosage should be 0.25-0.5 mg/kg daily or every other day. Based on this, my chin was getting more than twice as much as the recommended dose!!

Armed with this information, we went to the vet, who agreed that we should try reducing her dose. That seemed to do the trick! We saw improvement in just a few days.

(My younger smaller chin was originally put on 0.5mg daily, but that proved to be too much for her. Since it is nearly impossible to cut the 5mg pill into sixteen pieces, we opted to give her 0.5mg every other day. Again, we saw improvement in just a few days after lowering her dose.)

Regarding Shadow's dosage...am I reading correctly that he is being given 0.9mL of 3mg/mL solution? If so, that means he is receiving 2.7mg daily. Based on rabbit calculations, that is more than 12x the maximum dose that a chin of his weight should receive. I would definitely ask the vet about reducing his dosage.

Edited to add: in dogs, loss of appetite can be a side effect of enalapril. Both of my chins initially lost some weight but eventually gained some of it back and have since held steady.
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Thanks for the info! I will talk to the vet tomorrow. I have to pick up a refill on his diuretic and the exotic vet should be there.

Do you, by chance, know how much you pay for Furosemide? I get this tiny bottle that lasts maybe 2 1/2 weeks and it's $30.

Almostperfect10 said:
One more thing to add...my vet sometimes gives cyproheptadine as an appetite stimulant. It seemed to be effective for my older chin, but I thought it made her a bit drowsy. This might help Shadow gain back some weight. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

And thanks for this tip. With the exception of that one weekend, his appetite is still going strong. He actually gets so excited when he sees me because he knows I have food and delicious medicine. He eats like a horse. He has orchard, timothy, and alfalfa hay, plus rosehips, wheat squares, oatmeal, raisins, and other treats. We're trying to fatten him up, but it's hard.
 
Wow that lasix is pricey! My vet dispenses it in tablet form (I cut into fourths and dissolve in water), and it is only about $12 for a couple months' supply.
 
Almostperfect10 said:
Wow that lasix is pricey! My vet dispenses it in tablet form (I cut into fourths and dissolve in water), and it is only about $12 for a couple months' supply.
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I realized my error. I put the correct dosage on the first page, but then the wrong one after that. It's .09ml for the ACE inhibitor. Thanks for looking out for my chinnie :D

I might have to look into pill form then. Thanks!
 
We will be allowing the vet to do an autopsy to learn more about his condition and chinchillas in general (they don't see a lot of them). I was taking him to Iowa State University small animal, so they have a lot of interns who could learn from Shadow's death. After, he will be cremated and returned to us.


For those who want to know (who might run across this thread later): The meds didn't seem to help him all that much since his diagnosis. I don't know if it was the wrong dose, if the meds didn't work for his body, or if he had another condition in addition to CHF. This was his second "episode." His body started to shut down, he stopped eating, he stopped hopping around, and his whiskers stopped sniffing. We decided to euthanize him, but know for sure he wouldn't have survived the night anyway.
 
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