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[zukitchi]

On friday morning I noticed my 13/14 year old Linda was sneezing a lot and sounded congested nasally. There was also a little crust on her nose. When I got home from work that evening there was no improvement. Since it was the evening, going into the weekend, nothing was open except the emergency vets. So I took her there, they injected her with fluids and prescribed Baytril, 1 cc every 12 hours. The respiratory issue seems to be much improved, but her droppings look awful. They are covered in slime, yet seem dehydrated otherwise. They are greener than usual, and very tiny. Sometimes they stick together like sausage links. Sometimes a glob of white slime comes out with the poops. She is a bit more lethargic than usual, but still leaps from platform to platform just fine. I see her nibble on Timothy hay still, but I think she is eating less than usual. However, if I put a raisin in front of her she will still eagerly try to grab at it. I have given her a little Bene-Bac yesterday, but I'm not sure how much would be most appropriate. I also fed her a little water to make sure she got at least some in. Her cagemate, who is the same age, is just fine. What should I do?

[dianah]

the dropping problem is most likely due to baytril - it's an antibiotic and so it kills their gut flora as well as the stuff it's intended for. could you get some probiotics from your vet? you could try giving her some probiotic natural yogurt in the meantime - make sure there's no added sugar.

i would not give her raisins or any treats while she's on baytril - as her gut flora is not what it should be, sugar in raisins could cause gas build up.

good luck! xxx

[dianah]

oh, one more thing. the best results i've had was using lifeline alongside antibiotics http://chocolatechinchillas.com/id6.html

it has probiotics in it but there are other things as well - to encourage appetite and such (baytril can sometimes put them off food). i just had my boys neutered, they're on 0.2ml of baytril twice a day as well as 0.35ml of septrin and their poo is absolutely normal - i'm surprised and so is the vet but it's good! they've been on antibiotics for the past three weeks as well.. i have always seen some effect on droppings when giving baytril so this is quite good.

if you email dawnna, i'm sure she'll do express shipment, she did for me after someone on here recommended lifeline for my rescue girl. the boys are eating without any problems so i just sprinkle it on their nuggets and they eat it but you can give it via syringe as well (i've done that with the rescue girl)

[heiwa]

Did your vet also dispense Oxbow Critical Care to your chin??
If your chin is poor in appetite, it should be syringe feed, for a anorexia chin, at least 50ml per day, and also can help the dehydrate.
Please get the advice from your vet ASAP, as gut stasis can be more fatal than respiration tract problem in the mean time.

[dianah]

critical care is great but i would be reluctant to syringe feed if she's eating her proper food (hay and nuggets) and if she's still producing a reasonable amount of droppings. could you see how her tummy feels? compare it to the other chin but it should be soft and she shouldn't mind you touching it.

[dianah]

however, if you do have some critical care at home, you could give her some, it's got probiotics in it and it's nutritious. but like i said, i would be reluctant to feed her solely on replacement food if she's eating and pooping.

[zukitchi]

Well as it turns out, I already had a sealed package of Critical Care on hand, so I gave her a little of that to supplement. I think she still eats a little bit on her own, just not as much as she normally does when she is healthy. I gave her some more Bene-Bac, as I couldn't find any sugar-free pro-biotic yogurt that wasn't in a gigantic container - I will look more places tomorrow. I let her free-run in that bathroom for about an hour or so this evening to see if I could monitor her waste output, since it's difficult with her living with a cagemate. She peed once and it looked normal. Unfortunately, she did not leave any droppings on the ground, although I did see her reach down and pull droppings out of her bum at eat them about 3 times. I was not able to get a good look at their quality, though. But she explored the room normally and even did a few little wall hops during her time. So I am not sure what to think of this. When she goes back in her cage she mostly rests.

[zukitchi]

This morning when I gave her the medicine, she did make about four eliminations, but none of them looked like poops. They were either white, gelatinous blobs, or drier white "bubbles" or strings of bubbles. I took pictures, but I probably won't be able to post until this evening. Does anyone know what this is?

Oh, and I am having a hard time being able to tell if her tummy feels bloated or not. She has always been my largest chin, so it is hard to compare her to my other two boys.

[dianah]

i have seen bubbly things on mae's poo when she was on antibiotics but never on their own. i would keep giving her the critical care - you don't need yogurt if you're giving critical care, it's got probiotics in it.

i would give your vet a ring. my vet usually advises me whether i need to bring them in or whether it's nothing serious.

it could still be the antibiotics but they may want to prescribe additional medication. IF she does have bloat, the earlier treatment starts the better the outcome looks.

[zukitchi]

Thanks for the advice. I actually ended up taking her to a vet yesterday evening. I had to call a ton of places before I found one that actually: 1) sees chinchillas, and 2) could see her that day. Luckily, the vet actually had past experience working with chinchillas. He said the ER vet prescribed too high of a dose of the antibiotics for Linda, and it killed off all of the beneficial bacteria in her gut. He said he’s seen antibiotics kill chinchillas before. He had me take her off of it right away, and gave me a special probiotic paste/gel to give her instead. Luckily, her respiratory problem seems resolved, but he said if it returns I can give him a call and he will instruct me on how to dilute it to a more suitable dose. He also did a fecal smear to rule out any GI infection, but the results came back negative. That evening, she started pooping a lot again (although they are still look small, green, irregular), but that is much improved from the zero droppings I saw in the previous day and a half. And her appetite seems to be completely back to normal. So hopefully she continues to improve.

[dianah]

oh my god that is awful! what dose was she on and how much does she weigh? so glad you took her!

[zukitchi]

She weighs 1.307 lbs (0.593 kg). She was prescribed Baytril #5 inj. (I believe this was the 5% solution), 1 ml by mouth every twelve hours.

But now I am getting worried again. That first night back from the new vet who gave her the probiotics she seemed great – she was active, she was eating lots of timothy hay and even her pellets, and she even took her probiotic willingly. And Wednesday evening her poops were nearly perfect – they were a great size, great color, no more mucus, they just weren’t as firm as they should be. But by yesterday she seems like she’s been more lethargic, she’s eating less, she will no longer willingly take her probiotic (I have to “burrito” her and put it on her lip until she licks it off) , her poops have gotten smaller and drier (borderline on the low end of normal).

I notice she rubs her face on rough surfaces a lot, like her pumice. But I cannot tell if it’s just because she’s trying to rub off the excess probiotic from her whiskers/fur, or if it’s something more that’s bothering her. She’s not sneezing again, nor has the crusty nose/congestion come back, so I don’t think it’s that. And at the E-Vet last Friday they put that scope in her mouth to check for malocclusion/spurring of the teeth, and she looked good (she was also checked out for this by another vet in Nov/Dec 2009 and looked good then too). But it does seem like the skin under her whiskers has been a darker shade of pink than usual this past week.

Now I will mention that pretty much since I got her (’97), she’s had this thing where her eyes “milk,” that is, a small amount of this pure white liquid accumulates in the corners of her eyes. It’s a much purer white than pus from an infection would be. Her cagemate/brother had a true eye infection on two separate occasions, and  they did not look like this. When I originally got her, the first few times she got this I took her to the vet and they treated her with an antibiotic ointment for the eyes. But it just kept happening, regardless of whether I dusted her or not. She never acted bothered by it. It’s never been on an every-day basis either – sometimes I’d go months without seeing it. And more often then not, it would only appear in one eye at a given time, not both. I eventually just figured it was something “normal” for her. But since this recent  illness, it seems like she’s had this a lot more consistently, and in both eyes. I also wonder if this could be why she’s been rubbing her face.

[dianah]

wow. that is a lot. my boys are slightly lighter than her and they were on a high dose - 0.2ml twice a day! blimey.. no wonder her insides were wiped out.. she was probably meant to have 0.1ml every two hours.

i've never had them rub their faces but chinchi had very dry ears before he met fluffy (she would groom his ears and they were great then) so the vet gave me this gel to put on them and as soon as i put it on, he would rub his head on the shelf trying to get it off but not really getting his ears near the shelf, i thought he was having some sort of a fit and was panicking, then i worked out he was just trying to get the stuff off his ears! gave me a fright though!
does she paw her mouth at all?

is she still eating and moving around, pooing? i would probably give her another day if she's doing all that and if she's still not herself, i'd call the vet. but obviously if you're worried, don't wait.

i don't know about eyes i'm afraid, i've never experienced this... sorry!

[zukitchi]

There is no pawing at the mouth that I’ve noticed. My first chin, Dusty, went through the tooth problems at 13 years old – he had the “slobbers,” pawing at the mouth, not eating, etc., but unfortunately he passed away from a complication during surgery to correct his teeth (bad reaction to the anesthesia).

She mostly rubs around the side of her face and the side of her nose (where the whiskers come out), but she doesn’t use her paws to rub it, just objects/toys, and shelves of the cage.

She still poops plenty in amount, but like I said, it’s lesser “quality” than it was a day ago. She seems to still eat some, but her intake has decreased in amount since a day ago when her appetite had seemed to go back to normal. Like when she was normal I’d fill up her hayrack and she’d pull it all out within a half an hour. Now it will take the better part of a day. She moves around when she needs to, like when she wants to change sleeping spots, or if her cagemate is in the way, or if she wants to nibble on something. And since she’s now terrified of me now for making her take all of this yucky medicine, she zips away when she sees me coming unless it’s obvious that I am just filling the hay rack or pellet dish.  And now that her tummy is feeling better, she can kick & squirm like mad when I have to make her take her probiotic. But she’s not running in her wheel, or bouncing off the walls or engaging in pointless chewing/destruction just for fun, it seems. She just rests on her Leap-N-Ledge.

[dianah]

i'm sorry to hear about dusty my first chin died after reaction to anaesthesia as well, i miss him every day.

haha i totally know the sight of them zipping away as soon as i go near the cage - baytril is not yummy at all!

maybe she's just knackered. it's been a hard few days.