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Health / chinchilla not chewing - food or toys - but vet can't find problem - help!
« on: January 23, 2016, 05:54:49 PM »
I am hoping that someone out there will have had a similar experience to mine, (preferably one that ended happily) and can tell me how they remedied the problem.
We have a 6 year old chinchilla named Gus. He's had a very happy and healthy life. A few weeks ago I noticed that he wasn't eating as many alfalfa pellets as usual and that his poos were smaller and less abundant. I took him to the vet, who did a thorough check-up and concluded that perhaps he needed to be on a drug for "motility" (gets the bowels going but doesn't loosen them) and an antacid to help with tummy trouble. We gave this to Gus for the recommended 3 days and he did begin to eat and poo more.
But shortly after, his feeding dwindled again. The other odd thing was his lack of interest in chew toys. He is always seeking out bigger wood chips in his shavings and loves when we leave him edible products to gnaw, but for the past couple weeks he has not been chewing them. He was also grinding his teeth more than usual.
Naturally, this made us think he had a problem with his teeth.
This week I took him to the vet again. She did a thorough check-up before deciding if it was ok to sedate him for the exam. In doing so she discovered that he has a heart murmur. Because this can greatly increase a chinny's risk under anesthetic, we had an ultrasound done to figure out the nature of the murmur. It turns out he has a mild degree of cardiac disease, specifically "mitral valve insufficiency". It's caused a thickening of one of his valves, but not of the heart itself. He has a good heart rate despite this and is pumping blood well, his body is coping and we're in the very early stages of this problem. For now no medication is required and the specialist did not think that his lack of interest in pellets and chew toys was due to this.
They then did the mouth exam, which turned up nothing!! Even the xrays were fine. Turns out he has nearly perfect teeth. So now we (including the vets) are somewhat stumped as to what is troubling him. He is back on the motility drug and antacid, along with a painkiller that I was told is similar to Tylenol for humans. I am giving him Critical Care to supplement his eating, as he's still eating fewer pellets and less hay than usual. He is drinking, peeing, is alert and happy to come out of his cage, makes happy sounds, jumps around, looooves his dust baths..... The hope is that whatever is bothering him will go away while he is taking these medications that are helping him continue to eat. But, I'm a worry-wort (and also 5 months pregnant), so of course am thinking ahead and wondering what we do next if this doesn't work. He's to be on the meds for another 10 days, so we still have a lot of time to tell the tale...
I was hoping that by posting this story someone may have encountered a similar problem. If so, I'd love to hear your experience - was it a weird pathogen causing the illness? Did it just go away on it's own? Were you told it might be a temporary problem with something undetectable in the mouth/gut?? IF we need to go back to the vet, I'd love to have a few ideas in the back of my mind to throw out as suggestions of what it could be based on my observations of him and on what I've heard of happening to other chinchillas. Every sign we've observed points to a problem with his mouth.... Yet nothing wrong can be seen.
Thank you very much! Gus thanks you, too.
PS I am feeding him critical care, which he has been eating well. He has the will to eat, just can't seem to do the harder foods...
We have a 6 year old chinchilla named Gus. He's had a very happy and healthy life. A few weeks ago I noticed that he wasn't eating as many alfalfa pellets as usual and that his poos were smaller and less abundant. I took him to the vet, who did a thorough check-up and concluded that perhaps he needed to be on a drug for "motility" (gets the bowels going but doesn't loosen them) and an antacid to help with tummy trouble. We gave this to Gus for the recommended 3 days and he did begin to eat and poo more.
But shortly after, his feeding dwindled again. The other odd thing was his lack of interest in chew toys. He is always seeking out bigger wood chips in his shavings and loves when we leave him edible products to gnaw, but for the past couple weeks he has not been chewing them. He was also grinding his teeth more than usual.
Naturally, this made us think he had a problem with his teeth.
This week I took him to the vet again. She did a thorough check-up before deciding if it was ok to sedate him for the exam. In doing so she discovered that he has a heart murmur. Because this can greatly increase a chinny's risk under anesthetic, we had an ultrasound done to figure out the nature of the murmur. It turns out he has a mild degree of cardiac disease, specifically "mitral valve insufficiency". It's caused a thickening of one of his valves, but not of the heart itself. He has a good heart rate despite this and is pumping blood well, his body is coping and we're in the very early stages of this problem. For now no medication is required and the specialist did not think that his lack of interest in pellets and chew toys was due to this.
They then did the mouth exam, which turned up nothing!! Even the xrays were fine. Turns out he has nearly perfect teeth. So now we (including the vets) are somewhat stumped as to what is troubling him. He is back on the motility drug and antacid, along with a painkiller that I was told is similar to Tylenol for humans. I am giving him Critical Care to supplement his eating, as he's still eating fewer pellets and less hay than usual. He is drinking, peeing, is alert and happy to come out of his cage, makes happy sounds, jumps around, looooves his dust baths..... The hope is that whatever is bothering him will go away while he is taking these medications that are helping him continue to eat. But, I'm a worry-wort (and also 5 months pregnant), so of course am thinking ahead and wondering what we do next if this doesn't work. He's to be on the meds for another 10 days, so we still have a lot of time to tell the tale...
I was hoping that by posting this story someone may have encountered a similar problem. If so, I'd love to hear your experience - was it a weird pathogen causing the illness? Did it just go away on it's own? Were you told it might be a temporary problem with something undetectable in the mouth/gut?? IF we need to go back to the vet, I'd love to have a few ideas in the back of my mind to throw out as suggestions of what it could be based on my observations of him and on what I've heard of happening to other chinchillas. Every sign we've observed points to a problem with his mouth.... Yet nothing wrong can be seen.
Thank you very much! Gus thanks you, too.
PS I am feeding him critical care, which he has been eating well. He has the will to eat, just can't seem to do the harder foods...