In so much pain

I am so depressed right now. My first chinchilla passed away today.

My husband and I went on a short vacation last weekend, so we left our chinchillas at my parents' house in smaller cages than they were used to so that they could be taken care of for a few days. When we got back, they seemed to be fine and we brought them back to our house. The next day, Tuesday, I woke up to find my first chinchilla, Chinny, biting the fur off from her belly. I became very worried and called my husband before I went to work. When he got home, he made an appointment with a local hospital that has exotic animal specialists. She was taken in right away because she had an infection on her chest going up to her arm.

They did surgery on her the next day to remove the infection and stitch her back up, and let us take her home that night. She seemed to be doing fine at first, but then the next day we noticed that she wasn't eating, drinking, or pooping, and seemed to be breathing heavy. We took her to the hospital that night, but there wasn't an exotic animal vet in. The one that looked at her said she seemed to be fine and gave her her medications and also hydrated her. We took her home again.

We began syringe feeding her water, and hand-feeding her her food, but she eventually got worse. Last night she seemed weak, but we knew the exotic animal vets weren't in at night, so we waited until this morning. This morning, she was so still that she seemed dead at some points. We rushed her to the hospital right away. I held her carry case in my lap, and opened it so I could pat her. She looked in so much pain, and it breaks my heart so much to think of her like that. She just crawled up toward me as I patted her behind the ears.

As soon as we brought her in, she was taken to be given oxygen. They said she got reinfected and the infection spread to the rest of her body. They tried to IV her antibiotics and syringe feed her food, and rehydrate her, but she didn't respond to any of the treatments. She had to be given oxygen to keep living, and her heart kept stopping. In the end they told us she was suffering too much and the best choice would be to euthanize her. Before they got the chance, she took her last breath.

I am so heart broken. I wish I could go back in time and not taken her home from the hospital until she had healed completely. I wasn't good enough at taking care of her to keep her alive. I am so depressed and I can't stop crying. She was such a wonderful, beautiful chinchilla. She's the one in my avatar. And she had a chinchilla that she had bonded with, Bella, that she lived with. I feel so sad for Bella. She never even got to say goodbye to her.

She was young too. I don't know how old exactly because she was bought off of craigslist by a friend and given to me as a birthday present. But I think she was only 3 or so years old. I am so sad... she should have been able to have lived longer than that. It's so unfair. I know she's now in chinchilla heaven being her active self playing with all the other nice chinchillas there. It just hurts so much to think about how weak she was and how much she suffered before she died.

	Author	Topic: In so much pain (Read 952 times)
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