Weird noises and pawing at face.

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tlafleur

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Mar 18, 2009
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My girlfriend and I just finished getting our chins play room finished when we heard a weird squeak that we hadn't heard before. I went to the cage and everything looked normal. We let both my chins (Evan and Oreo) out and they played as they normally would. Evan (standard gray) went back into the cage and laid down strangely on one of the ledges. He sneezed and pawed at his face a little. We watched him for a little while and gave him a raisin (which he took slowly). He finished off the raisin and I gave him a twig which he chewed on for a minute. Then he put the stick down, pawed at his face, and squeaked. It was very loud and he was obviously in some sort of pain (his face contorted). We picked him up and looked in his mouth and nose. His nose looks dry but his mouth looks normal. He seems to be irritated by something and when the other chin plays on the wheel (making lots of noise) Evan looks even more irritated.

I'm definitely going to take him to the vet, I just don't know if I should take him tonight to the emergency vet or tomorrow morning. Any clues as to what might be going on?
 
Could he have hit his face on anything? Or could have have a piece of hay stuck in his mouth?
 
I don't think he hit his face on anything. We thought about the hay so we looked in his mouth, we couldn't see anything but that's not to say something's not there. Thanks for the response.
 
The room that the guys are kept in doesn't have any cords so that's probably not it. There was an outlet near their area but I think it was covered before we started moving stuff around. As a small update, he hasn't made anymore noise but I haven't seen him drink anything in a while either.
 
We weren't sure if he was drinking from the bottle so we just gave him some water from a syringe. He drank all of it and it seemed to give him a bit of energy because he went right for the lava rock and finished off another chunk of it. The squeak may just be him sneezing but we're going to keep an eye on him the rest of the night.

Also, there aren't any cords in the chins room. There is an outlet behind their cage, but I think it was blocked off.
 
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Thanks for the advice. We took him to the vet this morning and got some antibiotics (Baytrol). The little guy also got some subcutaneous fluids and seems to be feeling better. I'll update if anything changes.
 
tlafleur said:
Thanks for the advice. We took him to the vet this morning and got some antibiotics (Baytrol). The little guy also got some subcutaneous fluids and seems to be feeling better. I'll update if anything changes.
Click to expand...

What did the vet discover? Why the antibiotics?
 
If you're giving him baytril be very careful, chins tend to stop eating with that antibiotics. It is also extremely difficult for their system, so also give him acidophilus.

But I go with Jen, why the antibiotics? What was wrong?
 
The diagnosis was a respiratory infection. Evan had a slight fever and they did x-rays. The vet said the x-rays showed an interstitial pattern in the lungs. The dosage is 0.24 cc every 12 hours for 7 days. Let me know if this sounds strange.

How much acidophilus should I give him and how do I administer it?
 
If you're giving the Baytril orally then you need to also give the acidophillus to counteract with the Baytril. Baytril kills their appetite given orally. When Abigail was on Baytril this is how I did it, I mixed her Baytil with banana baby food and fed her via a syringe. Halfway in between her next dosage of baytril I fed her cherry yogurt also through a syringe--the yogurt contains acidophillus. I know you can also buy powdered acidophillus. I fed her this way so I knew she was eating it. It was very messy and I had to "burrito" her in a towel to get her to eat all her medication and two full syringes of the yogurt to keep her gut flora active and her stomach full of food. I also gave her half a tiny piece of raisin even though frowned upon, because I wanted her to eat her medicine and she knew she was getting a treat if she ate her medicine. Abigail had a very severe upper respiratory infection and she recovered 100 %. Hope your chinnie is well soon.
 
Give the acidophilus several hours after you give the Baytril, otherwise the Baytril will kill the good bacteria in the acidophilus. You can get it in pill form, or capsule. Try to get one with a bacteria count in the billions. If you get it in pill form, they can have 1/4 of a pill at a time. Capsule, one capsule at a time.

Baytril is notorious for making a chin stop eating. It is very important that you follow each dose with a "chaser" to take the horrible taste out of their mouth. A shreddie is a popular choice, but they have to have something, or they will stop eating.

Yogurt is not a recommended way to get acidophilus in their system--menagerie had told me why, but I cannot remember her answer. Perhaps she will chime in and add that information.
 
Well, we had an emergency last night and had to take Evan to the emergency vet in town. His breathing got worse and he started breathing through his mouth some. He sat in an oxygen tank for a few hours late last night and is now with a specialist. I'll post when anything changes.
 
I would think there would be too much sugar in the yogurt. I remember some on here giving pumpkin to their chin. Maybe mixing the probiotic with pumpkin would be better than mixing it with yogurt. I know somebody with more experience and knowledge will chime in here soon. I hope your chin gets well soon.
 
Plain premuim yogurt can be used with chinchilla. I have used it many times. ALso the biggest problem with baytril is the nasty taste it leaves in their mouth. It is recomended to give them a raisin right after baytril to rid the taste in their mouth
 
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