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« on: May 28, 2013, 07:50:53 AM »
Hello All,
I have a nine, going on ten year old chinchilla, Milo, and I am starting to get worried! Everything I read online seems to be about young chinchillas or baby chinchillas- not older guys like Milo. Likewise, everything I have been reading online seems very fatalistic.
Milo has always been very healthy, but four days ago I started to notice that he has been having soft, large, connected, stools. And by large I mean MASSIVE, like just slightly under an inch long (I may have measured, and maybe it’s good that they are soft at that point!?), they also seem to plop and stick to whatever they touch. Typically, Milo’s stools lean towards softer, or at least, it is not uncommon for him to have two hard pellet poos and then one soft one. I always figured that was because of the Charlie Chinchilla food I give him (it’s the only thing he will eat.)
On day one of what I am dubbing “poo-gate,” (because I have quite literally been watching my chinchilla poop for the past 4 days), his stools were very wet, and I noticed that there was a bit of residue around his anus (sorry for the details), the next day I gave him some Gatorade (which I am not positive he drank), and after then they returned to “semi-normal;” as in normal size but still relatively soft. By day two and three, I thought things were calming down, on day three he had normal hard poops that were clumping together, but I attributed that to the fact that his rectum is irritated and so it looked like he could fit two normal poops though the same stretched out space he was pushing a giant poo.
Its day four now and things seem to have gone either backwards or nowhere. Today, his poops are back to being very long, oblong, and softer than normal (but not as soft as day one), or those massive multi poos. I also noticed that his belly feels soft and firm (like its irritated), whereas it normally is plushy and fatty feeling, his anus is also redder than usual and looks a little chaffed. I have probably spend the past 3 hours watching him poop, and it seems to be all long oblong poo’s now that he isn’t running around the office anymore. I also cleaned his cage again tonight, and left him only a bale of timothy hay.
Aside from this he seems to be in perfect health, I have even noticed that lately he has been able to jump higher and has been extremely happy. All of this seemed to start about 2 days after I cleaned his cage, (which he always hates), and after we turned on the air conditioning in the house. I should also mention that I don’t give him treats (unless you count gnawing on my books when he is out), and that his diet is all charlie chinchilla.
I am really at my wits end. He and I have been together for ten years now, and he has been with me though a lot of milestones. I want to try a home remedy before I take him to the vet, money is a little tight for me right now (which I hate to say), and if I do end up taking him to the vet I want to know as much as possible and be informed before our visit.
Thank you for reading this, I know it’s a bit long but I wanted to be detailed. I really appreciate your help and expertise.
