We have an article on that at
www.ChinchillaMagazine.com Unfortunately you have to be a Chinchilla Club member to access the magazine articles so I will post parts of it here:
PYOMETRITISAND PYOMETRA
Author Lani Ritchey
CALIFORNIA CHINS
Pyometra is a pus-filled uterus that occurs during or just after pregnancy in mammalian females.
Pyometritis is a pus-filled uterus that occurs after ovulation in nonpregnant mammalian females.
They are both bad news. Except for the distinctions between pregnant, postparturition or nonpregnant, the two are considered the same disease and treated essentially the same way. They are a hormonally induced disorder.
The current theory is that the uterine lining wears out over years of progesterone influence and the presence of estrogen further weakens the uterus, making it susceptible to bacterial infection.
The common symptoms in mammals include:
fever
vaginal discharge (only if the cervix is open)
abnormal results of kidney or liver extreme thirst
elevated white blood counts
enlarged uterus (via x-ray or ultrasound)
vomiting
dehydration
bloodshot eyes
Practical treatments vary with the species. If future breeding is not important to the owner/breeder, then spaying the female is the best choice.
If you have time and money, there are several choices. Not all of them are 100% effective. There is the antibiotic treatment- it is often inadequate and doesn't prevent uterine scarring which can cause sterility. Another treatment is very controversial. A prostaglandin that blocks the production of progesterone which in theory allows the uterus to return to a healthy, quiescent state, the cervix slowing relaxes and the pus discharges or is evacuated.Obviously for chinchilla people, you get to deal with even more unknowns than human, cat,dog, or horse people do. The disease is well-documented in the more common (well-researched) livestock and companion animals. There are pathology reports confirming the condition in chinchilla females.The main questions are-how many females are you losing to it and what are the financial losses being occurred from losing females of reproductive age?If you are losing too many females to these problems, then you have an underlying problem triggering it. Look to nutritional, sanitation, breeding practices and other management practices. For the pet chinchilla owner, there is only one practical solution and that is spaying the female immediately.
