allergies?

[dianah]

has anybody ever had a chin with pollen allergies/allergies that would give them upper respiratory problems?

i adopted mae in october last year and she had a variety or serious health problems due to neglect. the ones that can be sorted out have been sorted out, she still has chronic bone infection which thankfully doesn't bother her and obviously she's not grown her leg back.

she's always had a funny wheeze in her upper respiratory tract - particularly noticeable when she gets excited and starts breathing faster - but it didn't seem to be giving her any trouble. she'd had a few respiratory infections while we were treating her for other things (she really wasn't a well chinchilla) but it was always her chest rather (as well as her upper airways) and these cleared with antibiotics.

about three weeks ago she started sounding a bit congested and the vet couldn't hear anything in her chest so she thought her upper airways were inflamed and she was given metacam. it didn't clear and after a week or so snot appeared so i started giving her antibiotics as well. still nothing in her chest though AND while she seems annoyed at the fact that she cannot breathe very well, she is not behaving in any way like she's sick. she's bright, runs around, eats (although this is somewhat annoying given she can't breathe and swallow at the same time) - when she's sick, she just lies there, wants to be stroked and doesn't want any food/chews/anything.

so, i'm thinking she may have hay fever? given this has appeared now that it's warmer and we have had to have the window open. we live in the country so the air is clean and she's not in front of the window. i originally thought that perhaps there was an odd draft and that was responsible but i think this would affect her chest - it always has in the past.
it was colder yesterday and we left the window shut to see if that made any difference and she got better the same day. there's no snot and while she's not 100%, she's a lot lot better than she was just a day before.

i have ordered her an air purifier but that's not arrived yet.

has anybody got any experience with anything similar? if so, how can i make her feel better?

[jmdebb]

i have no clue about this, but i want to wish you luck!!

[dianah]

thanks jean. the window's been shut for the past two days and she is very nearly back to normal. so i am pretty sure it's an allergy. we'll see what the air purifier is gonna do when that turns up and if it's not much help (or not enough help), my husband will put a new window unit in with a permanent fixture for the air conditioning heat output (he very helpfully fits windows for living)

[rayhusten]

This seems to be serious you should take to some professional vet.

http://www.wdcusick.com/GoldenRetriever.html
http://www.petmanage.com/healthy-dog/golden-retriever-diet-chart.html

[chinclub]

How are things going with your chinchilla?  While I have never heard of a chinchilla with allergies it seems very possible.  We know other animals can suffer from those sorts of things so no reason to think chinchillas are any different.    Did the air purifier work?  I hope you will consider writing an article about your experiences for the ChinchillaMagazine.com.  I'm sure other chinchilla owners could learn from your situation.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Yes please do.
I had a chin whom maloccluded and I treated him for six years. He also developed breathing issues that the vet said were bronchial and not in the chest.I had to take out his shavings and use paper, keep him away from any odours& such, and when he would get real bad I'd hold him in the deep freeze ,door open  , just letting him breath the cold air. In the winter I'd stuff him in my jacket and take him outside. That really help.

[dianah]

yes! the air purifier works wonders! i have to have it set higher than the room size requirement - it's only a small room and so it should be running on low but she gets a snotty then. so it runs on medium + ioniser during the day when the window is open and low + ioniser during the night. she's been fine since (apart from few blips when i was working out what settings etc)

my vet has found an antihistamine for me and a chinchilla dosage but i haven't had to use that yet. i'm not too keen on giving her stuff given her tummy problems but obviously if she needs it, she'll have it. thankfully it's getting cooler now so less pollen and the window won't have to be open as much! but obviously there's next year!

ooh, a chinchilla magazine article! that sounds intriguing!