Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[erel.barilan]

Hi everyone,

My chinchilla gave birth to a single kit three weeks ago. Everything was going great, the kit was healthy and so was mommy. A few days ago, I was petting mommy and realized that she was very very thin, all of a sudden. I pay very close attention to them, so it was very strange to see her so thin suddenly. She is usually a chubby chinchilla so it is very worrying to be able to feel all of her bones!

I've been researching what could be wrong, and the only thing that makes sense is fatty liver disease. What are the chances? I live in Israel and the best food they have here for chinchillas is versele-laga. I give her wood sticks and chalk tablets to chew on, give her a dry, sugar free cranberry every day so it doesn't make sense for her to have liver problems. In addition, her whiskers are broken, but its been like that for a while.

Please help, I can only take her to the vet in a few days, and I wanted to know what I can do to make her comfortable.

I'm thinking the worst right now. Thanks in advanced.

[GrayRodent]

Is she still eating, pooping and drinking normally? Is she acting depressed? Are there any signs of her drooling or not eating? Is she still nursing? Is the kit a healthy weight? Have you been keeping track of her weight before the pregnancy? What is her weight now?
If it's fatty liver disease a vet could diagnose it but there isn't much that can be done about it as far as I know.
There could be many more common things that can cause sudden weight loss, which is usually caused by things that make a chinchilla eat less than normal. If she is starved for food for any reason this is an emergency. Typically the only thing you can do is syringe feed until you can see the vet and get a diagnosis.
More importantly you should verify there is a problem by comparing your chinchilla's past healthy weight with its current weight if possible. This will also give you a feel for how bad the problem is. Although chinchillas aren't supposed to be bony their bones can be easily felt even when they are at a good weight.  An experienced vet or breeder can tell by feeling your chinchilla if it is underweight if you are unsure.

[kageri]

Have you been weighing the kit?  How fast is it gaining?  What does her belly look like?  Not all foods can support lactating females.  Even more likely a problem where there are fewer foods and they are mixes instead of plain pellets.  Odds are she's just putting too much in to milk production on a food that can't support it.  Especially common in first time mothers.  A slow growing kit or irritation showing as redness or fur chewing along the belly would prove that.  They will also usually complain and show annoyance at their kit when it goes to drink from certain nipples that have gotten sore.

Unless you can get the hands on opinion of an experienced vet that says otherwise I suggest you add plain oatmeal or rolled oats (no quick oats, flavoring, or sugars), alfalfa (aka lucerne) hay if you aren't already feeding some, and sunflower meats if you have them there.  Put a pinch of oats and sunflower meats in a dish every day.  We have dehulled just sunflower meats sold for bird food here and sold in small packs as human food.  Has more kcals, protein, and fats than any other vegetarian source without the carbs of grains.  The shell is of questionable safety though.  If you can't get sunflower meats and the oatmeal is not enough after a week or 2 (a scale is again useful) roll it in a vegetable oil.  Preferably a named oil and not just generic "vegetable oil".  I use a horse coat supplement that is soy, sunflower, and flax oil to roll pellets or oatmeal for the chins or rabbits who need to gain condition.  Some do not think soy is healthy though.  Good quality olive, peanut, or canola oil will also work.  The soy just has more protein and the flax and sunflower have good omega fatty acids which help milk production and coat quality.

[Jasonred79]

I've had issues with versele laga... and I'm not the only one either. Which type are you using? hopefully not Versele laga "nature"

One big issue with their stuff is that it's prone to "picky eating"... if chins pick and choose from the choices of food in there, you can get nutritional imbalance. and stuff.