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[Hoppinchins]

 Snowie has bronchitis. He is very malnutritioned. He is on meds and special food that my parents have to feed him 4 times a day. I did it twice with my dad yesterday and Snowie wasn't thrilled about it. He is allowed to eat anything chinchilla safe foods that we will eat. His throat is soo sore though that he doesn't eat on his on yet. He barley drank any water last night.

Any suggestions on how to get him to drink or eat? He is on oxbo cridical care food and on antibacteria meds.

I feel bad that It took me this long to knotice something was wrong with him. HE still seemed pretty much like him self and was wanting to come out for play time and eat his bedtime treat except for sunday night. I knew something was wrong yesterday morning when he had trouble getting out of his cage.

A week ago he had trouble getting down from there hide a way house, but then by the next morning he was acting him self so I didn't think anything of it.

I have another chinchilla also, so when the water and food is being drank and ate, and they are both acting like themselfs its hard to tell something is wrong.

I hope the meds kick in and he starts to eat.

My other chincilla is still himself and eatting and drinking.

Does anyone know how contagious bronchitis is? My husband and I are sanatizing all the chinchillas things tonight.

How chinchillas catch it?

Thanks,
Steph

[GrayRodent]

I am sorry to hear you are going through this. The medication and persistent hand feeding is the only thing that will help your chinchilla at this point. His body must fight off the infection and heal the damage the best it can. Bronchitis is usually caused by bacteria but can be caused by a virus. Bacterial bronchitis can be contagious but viral bronchitis can be super contagious. Also bronchitis can be caused from inhaling spray cleaners or smoke. In some cases it can be caused by inhaling mold. So if you have a problem with moisture or have had something burn on the stove (or wherever your chinchillas are housed) recently that could be a factor.

Chinchillas can catch a cold virus from people or other pets. They can be exposed to bacteria that might exist in their food, water, or brought in from somewhere else. It's not something that can be completely prevented but it is good practice to wash your hands before handling your pets to minimize the threat. Of course it is always a good idea to keep track of your pets weight at least once a week. In many cases a chinchilla that loses weight from a different problem will become prone to getting infections from bacteria that is normally found in its environment.

Bacterial bronchitis tends to be transmitted mostly by the ingestion of contaminated sputum on surfaces. Viral respiratory infections are transmitted by coughing and can easily become airborne. Although it's not impossible for bacteria to become airborne if they attach themselves to airborne particles so I'd be very careful about dusting and hold the dustbath until the symptoms clear up.

That's what I would advise based on my non-expert knowledge of the matter.

[Hoppinchins]

Grayrodent,

Thanks for the quick response.

I talked to my mom today and he has been pretty good taking his food so far. They have feed him 2 syriniges full both times, but he still isn't drinking water.

Our chinchillas are in our living room and we don't use cleaners by there cage, but we do dust. 2 months or so we used a cleaner on our front enterence to get carpet glue off of the hard wood floors. Its kinda close to there cage, but we did have windows open.

A few weeks ago we went on vaction and my parents watched them. There they have a spare cage in their basement. Its unfinished, but I don't belive there is a moisture problem.

At our house, there play pen is in the basement but we have a dehumidifier.

I just don't like knowing what caused it and that I have to be at work away from him.

[GrayRodent]

Don't worry too much about him not drinking when he is on critical care since that is mixed with water and should be enough since chinchillas are desert creatures and probably don't need as much as you are giving it. There's no way cleaning the glue from two months ago caused it. Unfortunately, like I've said, animals can catch things and you'll never know where it came from and there's no real way to prevent that 100% of the time. If there is a preexisting cause for the weight loss that will become evident if your chinchilla is still not eating on its own after the full course of antibiotics.

[Hoppinchins]

Thanks.

He still hasn't pooped, its been at least 2 days since he as pooped. I forgot to ask my parents about peeing. My dad is going to call the vet tomorrow morning, but that isn't till 9am. Someone had said mineral oil may help.

[GrayRodent]

Don't use mineral oil. That can be very dangerous. Just get him to the vet first thing tomorrow. He may be gastrointestinal stasis which is not uncommon in cases like yours. There are medical treatments for that.