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[Snickerdoodlesmom]

I'm sorry, GrayRodent. I'm hoping little K'ulu will get well soon!

[GrayRodent]

My exotic veterinarian did a general exam and found Kulu to be in good health otherwise. She also did a fecal exam on Kulu today and determined the presence of coccidia, a parasitic microbe that does not usually present on this kind of exam. This is likely the cause of the problem.

We concluded that the disruption in his diet caused by sour hay as well as his change in pelleted diet, even from 8 week ago, could have been stressors that resulted in the parasite, which was already present, to take hold and cause these symptoms. Giardia was not found in the fecal exam although it still cannot be ruled out. Other types of microbiological parasites may be present as well but it is impossible to say.

Course of treatment is five days of Panacur, a de-worming agent concurrently with ten days of Albon. The panacur is said to coat the intestines and protect them from damage as well as kill parasites. Together these medications should treat giardia or other parasites that may not have been identified. I plan on giving the meds in the evening when he is active and his bowels are most active as well.

I plan on supplementing with plain unsweetened yogurt, syringe fed if necessary, two hours after the meds, to minimize complications caused by damage to the bowel's normal cultures. I am not sure how well it actually works but I want to give him the best treatment possible.

In the afternoons I will try to give critical care (not syringe fed) to help keep his bowels moving during the day when he is least active. I was warned that the symptoms could get worse before they get better and that as long as he was eating and not showing signs of dehydration he should get better and that it could take up to six days.
I am hoping these precautions will prevent him having a bad reaction to the meds that some chinchillas do get.

Also. At the clinic he also acted very tame and climbed on the doctor's shoulder. She had a hard time getting him off and the tech had no problems weighing him. He is a very nice pet and I don't want anything to happen to him.

[Snickerdoodlesmom]

GrayRodent, may I suggest having the bird tested as well? I read that this can be transmitted from animal to animal; perhaps one caught it from the other?

[GrayRodent]

The bird has no symptoms but like chinchillas and rabbits parrots should always be considered to be potential giardia carriers. The vet said (and I paraphrase here) finding giardia is very difficult and it's better to medicate for it than try to detect it that way unless it is a very advanced infection.
Coccidia was directly observed and is well known to cause this problem. It is still somewhat inconclusive because these organisms can exist in the bowels in small numbers without causing symptoms but they are known pathogens like giardia.
Whatever it is, if it is microbial, the medications should kill the infection in a few days. In my opinion it is the best option.

[GrayRodent]

This morning his fecal output was little sloppier than yesterday which was to be expected. It is a side effect of the meds. His water intake is also down a little, even more than what the liquid in the meds would make up for which is a little unexpected but not too serious. This afternoon I loaded some critical care mix into a syringe and fed it to Kulu through the bars. He actually likes it, which is not at all what I expected. In fact it is so easy to do that I will do that more often.

The syringe holds 10cc. Based on my calculations a chinchilla of his size should get about 50ml of critical care in a day if he completely stops eating. One feeding should be about a fifth of that so he would get one full syringe every 4.8 hours day and night to survive.

Kulu is eating most or all of his normal diet and maintaining his weight so he doesn't need that much. He doesn't eat much in the afternoons during his sleepy time so I'm giving him about 10ml after lunch about 3ml every few hours to keep his system loaded and flowing. I'll increase the amount if he starts to go off his food at night.

I've decided to forego using yogurt as a probiotic. I think the critical care will do well to offset the effects the meds. Since I work at home I can make sure he gets it every few hours during the day and at night he is most active and the activity keeps things moving through.

[GrayRodent]

There is a significant improvement in his stool this morning which tells me it was some kind of infection that is responding to the meds. It is a mixture of soft and hard but I did not have to scrape any off the cage shelves and scrub his wheel with detergent again. (hooray!)
The side effects of the medications and stress from delivering them may be effecting him though. He is drinking less than half of his normal water now. I calculated this with the syringe fed fluids accounted for. If this happens again tomorrow he may need to be syringe fed water which is a tricky thing to do safely. His weight is also slightly higher than usual. With weight one day does not make a trend but it is odd considering his low water consumption. His activity level is higher during the day I think from the stress and he is a bit more antsy than usual when I handle him.
Otherwise he seems to be in good health.
As advised by the veterinarian I will be replacing his chew toys and disinfecting the cage on Monday, about half-way through the course of antibiotics to prevent reinfection. Since I have many wooden shelves I have decided to replace those as well as the flooring. It's not going to be cheap but vet bills aren't cheap either.

[GrayRodent]

Apparently I spoke too soon. It seems to be a pattern with this one. One morning his stools look like are improving and the next it's bad again. I was hoping it was over but it is apparently not. It also appears the improvement this time may have been caused because he drank less than half of his water the day before yesterday and may have been dehydrated. I made sure he got the full 10cc of critical care yesterday to help compensate for that.

The good news is he is now drinking a normal amount considering he was given 10cc of critical care and .4cc of fluids with his antibiotics. It all added up to exactly 35cc of water which he consumes with great regularity when he is healthy. The bad news is his droppings are sloppy again and I had to scrape the shelves and clean the wheel again. (grr! this is getting so old!) I pray it's better by Monday because I don't want to replace the shelves to have them messed up like the old ones.

Another interesting thing to note is that his regular food consumption seems to be unchanged. He is now weighing about four grams heavier than usual and I think that is a direct result.

Otherwise he is being his healthy and active self and hyperactive at times.

[GrayRodent]

This morning is pretty much the same story. Still scraping and scrubbing to clean up the cage in the morning. Tonight is his last dose of dewormer. I am hoping to see improvement when he is off of that since diarrhea is a common reported side effect. He still has five additional days to be on Albon.
Yesterday I offered him critical care but he wouldn't take it. He seemed way less active during the day than in the past. Considering he was very hyper for the last three days I have a feeling he was getting his rest so I didn't bother him for the most part. His food consumption still normal and there is no sign of any problems there. His wheel rotation count, which is a good indicator of his nighttime activity level, was higher than usual by almost double. This tells me that he is not depressed. Today I'll be at church most of the day so I probably won't offer critical care but I'll try again tomorrow. Even now, after his dust bath, he is acting very healthy and grooming himself next to me on the shelf.

[GrayRodent]

This morning it's about the same as yesterday. I intend to replace all the wood in the cage either today or tomorrow and clean everything with bleach now. His food, water consumption is good. His wheel rotation count is a little higher than normal still but his activity level during the day is better and he's acting like he is feeling well. At the moment he is soundly asleep after a morning of high activity.
I hate to change the shelves today because his droppings are still very sloppy and staining the shelves.

[GrayRodent]

Still not much change since yesterday. I'm not sure but there may be a slight improvement. The droppings are not as mushy, generally firmer, but stickier. Food consumption seems to be slightly lower but I'm not sure. His weight, water consumption, and activity levels are all good. His wheel count seems to be about 20-30% higher than in the past since he's been on the meds.
I am still scraping the shelves and the wheel. Today I plan on changing the shelves and disinfecting everything if I can but I am very busy with my job and may not be able to get it done until tomorrow.

[GrayRodent]

I was unable to post yesterday. I was incredibly busy with work and then I had to redo my chinchilla cage, clean the accessories, and fabricate new shelves and flooring. Sadly it's still not all the way done! My brother helped a great deal with the table saw. The good news is there was great improvement in his stools. I think part of the problem was the dewormer and it took a day of being off of it to improve. He is still on Albon but this is the first time in 11 days that I've seen his stool look normal for two days in a row.
His water consumption is slightly low but his food consumption is good. He had to spend five hours in his travel cage yesterday while I fixed his big cage so I expected there to be some signs of stress. Last night he was very active and chewing the corners on the new shelves. I didn't sleep very well.
I do not have a wheel count because the counter is not re-installed yet.

[mb30]

That is great news that things are improving. Its also a very informative thread. Thanks for taking the time to do this. It may help chin owners in the future.

[GrayRodent]

Yeah I hope this will help by increasing awareness of the need to compensate for the effects of antibiotics in sensitive animals.

[GrayRodent]

This morning I've made some interesting observations. I think my chinchilla is healthy now and is over his fight with the infection.

This evening Kulu gets his final dose in the prescribed course of antibiotics and I will make sure he gets it to minimize the risk of re-infection. Just because the symptoms go away with antibiotics does not always mean the infection is over.
Kulu seems to be clingy this morning. He really didn't want me to leave him alone. He also acts stressed to me and is behaving somewhat different than his normal morning routine. Syringe feeding meds every night does cause a little stress but because we are so careful to have everything set up before hand it only takes a few seconds. I think the bulk of this stress came from having to redo the cage and leave him in his carrier cage for about six hours when I did it and my own routine that he is used to has been thrown off because of all the activity of cleaning everything. The fact the interior of the cage has new smells and doesn't smell as much like him may also be a contributor. But even with all that I don't think there is anything wrong with him behaviorally. He's just a little jumpier than usual and wants me to hold him at the same time.
His water consumption is measured to be 30% higher than usual yet within normal fluctuations I've seen from time to time. Water bottle was checked for leaks but it's dry. Activity level seems to be normal and food consumption and weight are normal as well.

[mb30]

Very awesome news