Hi,
I'm new here but I have six chinchillas. One of my girls is not acting right and I'm not positive what is wrong with her but she has the slightest limp and is not her active self. She can walk but isn't running and something just looks off about her movements. It seems like she is trying to put less pressure on one of her hind legs. She ate some hay before and was very happy to get a treat, but I don't know what to do. I HATE thinking she might be in some kind of pain. It's driving me crazy that something is bothering her. I don't know if I should take her out of the cage and put her in a cage with no levels and no shelves... I thought about it but it seems like she's extra clingy to her Mommy right now and I don't want her to get depressed if I separate them. I have her in a Ferret Nation Cage that's pretty roomy with a lot of shelves situated where there's no drastic hop from one shelf to another. I don't think she fell, she definitely couldn't have caught her leg on any wires or anything because there are none. Her leg looks normal to me. I took her in the bathroom and she explored a little but not as much as usual. And she lets me pet her without trying to hop around like a maniac, which is not typical. Her poop seems the same and I gave her a little water with cranberry juice to make sure she was drinking. She has no watery eyes. I think it's the leg but I can't be 100% sure.
I don't know if I should take her to the vet. The only exotic animal hospital around here is extremely expensive. My bunny was constipated and they charged me $500 to give her IV fluids and then they wanted $2,000 to keep her for a week. I couldn't afford it so they gave me a $30 bag of like hay that you mix with water. I gave her that every couple of hours with a syringe and she was fine. She has since had that happen one other time but since I still had the bag I made another batch of the stuff and she was fine again in no time. I can't even imagine what they would charge me to look at my chinchilla, let alone treat her... it's not that I'm unwilling to spend the money, I just don't have much of it. I've been struggling with a physical disability that has drained me in all ways, including finanically. If I have to take her, I will have to borrow someone's charge card, which I will definitely do but I just want to know if there are other options.
Anyway, I was hoping someone might be able to help... this is my little baby. She's 3 now but I hand fed her since birth since her sister's were hogging all the milk and I'm very attached to her. I am really freaking out. Please, any help or advice would be SO GREATLY APPRECIATED...... I thank you all in advance for reading this.
Jennifer