Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Health => Topic started by: JohnnyChin on July 20, 2013, 08:55:20 PM
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Help! Can you do me a favor and let me know what you would do in this situation?
-Johnny is 18 years old, developed a lump near his genitals (see pictures)
http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q608/fofofoto/2_zpsda03d30c.jpg
http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q608/fofofoto/1_zps61934706.jpg
- The lump is 1” x 1.2” inch
- On Tue there was nothing. On Wed, we’re not sure if there’s anything as he did not take a bath. On Thur when he took his bath again, we noticed it reached this size and hasn’t changed in size since.
- It is firm to the touch. He has had abscess under his chin in the past but that was a lot softer. He does not mind when I touch it.
- He is acting himself – lively and playful and still eats, drinks, sleeps, pees and poops just fine. However he does pick that area perhaps a little more than usual.
The vet is not sure if this is an abscess or a tumor. He guesses it’s a tumor. The only to find out for sure is put him under anesthesia - which has its own risks since Johnny is 18.
1) If it’s an abscess, it can be drained and treated with antibiotics.
2) If it’s cancer, we can’t do much about it.
3) If we do nothing and it continues to grow to a size such that he can’t pee – we would have to put him down.
If it were you, would you risk anesthesia to find out what’s going on?
Have you heard of something fast growing like this - do you think it’s an abscess or a tumor?
What would you do in this terrible situation?
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In this situation the chinchilla is 18 years old. They typically don't live much beyond that. If it were me I'd take care of him until he started to show symptoms of depression or anorexia and probably have him euthanized thereafter. Surgery is always risky and for an animal that old the risk is very high that it won't recover afterwards especially with that area being effected. That is my opinion.
Added:
I want to let you know that I really do feel bad for you in this situation. I had to put a chin myself down this year and it's not easy. I did think about your case later on and do think an abscess is a likely cause but if it is you still have to consider what caused it. It is still possible a tumor has obstructed a vein or gland causing inflammation to the area (or even an abscess) which would explain the rapid growth of the lump. The affected area is indeed very vascular. It is your judgement call. Typically chinchillas do not take surgery well in that area and it may require a lot of post operative care and hand feeding even if it's just an abscess. If you are going to do surgery you should act quickly because a weak chinchilla may not recover from anesthesia.
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Thanks GrayRodent. I just took Johnny back home from the vet. He seems to be well so far - he greeted me and ate a cranberry which I handed him when I saw him at the vet. It was an abscess due to infection from fur ring on his penis. The vet was able to perform minimally invasive surgery to extract the pus out and says there should not be much post surgery risks. Of course abscess can reappear. But hoping that he'll do well.
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Wow that is great! I never thought a hair ring would present like that. I am so glad it was something treatable. You still need to be very careful that your chinchilla does not stop eating normally. Some chinchillas do not handle antibiotics very well and you'll be able to tell in a couple of days. In those cases hand feeding is necessary. It's not too common but deadly if you don't catch it. I recommend you measure out your chin's pellets each day and clean the cage each morning so you can keep track of his input and output for at least a week. Cleaning the cage this way will also minimize the risk of infections. I am very glad for you.
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Oh no! Sad to say that a couple of hours later Johnny looks really really beat and is somewhat trembling. We've been feeding him critical care twice in the last 6 hours. I've given him a towel for him to keep warm. He finally pee'ed which is a good sign but no poop yet Any advice in terms of what else I should do?
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I think should call your vet. It could be a reaction to the anasthetic.
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How is he doing?