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[dianah]

some of you will be aware of the rescue girl with teeth problems i've been talking about lately. well, after she had her teeth pretty much fixed, got her pooing sorted and got her to start eating hay, all looked dandy.

on monday night, we were rushing her down to the emergency vet with gi stasis. she was given injections, was happily eating critical care, moving about and even started pooing good looking poos. she got another lot of injections yesterday, was full of beans last night, even started eating nuggets by herself. this morning though, she looked really uncomfortable - she didn't want critical care and her tummy felt quite large. i gave her a tummy rub and she squeezed out 10 good looking poos, then she proceeded to poo out 20 more in the space of the following three hours. then we went to the vet, she got another lot of shots, the vet said her tummy is really quiet still. we got home and i stayed with her, rubbing her tummy every so often.

she started to make this funny noise, which sounded like geiger counter and she opened her mouth a little when she did it. i took her to the vet again - she of course didn't do it there but they said they would not expect her to given it's an unfamiliar environment - they checked her chest which was ok and thought perhaps it was pain response and gave her a shot of a stronger painkiller. the girl must feel like a pincushion.

i've spent the day in the chin room and i'm starting to think it's a 'leave me alone mother i normally sleep during the day yet you keep disturbing me!!!' noise because she stops every so often and when i left the room and turned the light off, she wasn't doing it when i came back.

she's not keen on critical care still. she quite happily licks it off a spoon but she only eats limited amounts and obviously i need to get food in her if her tum is supposed to start up.

i went to feed her an hour ago and her tummy feels a lot smaller and softer.

i don't know what brought this on but i would suspect it could be eating a lot more than she used to - even though the change was really gradual over 2 months period, i guess if all you ate before was banana chips and a little chinchilla mix, then changed to pellets and hay and discovered you actually like that stuff...

has anybody had experience with anything similar? she's getting the shots, painkillers, she's also on lactulose (orally), i give her massages and warm compresses, she comes out of the cage and has a run around. she's active but she's not that keen on me at the moment. is there anything else i could be doing?

she seems well hydrated, she pees out good amounts several times a day.

[jmdebb]

not me personally.. but i wanted to say i'm glad she seems to be doing better.  what kind of treats are you giving her, some people use veg, but they cause gas. also i wanted to tell you that they have app/bana flavor cc maybe she'll like that better.

you can also use kids simithoicone [not sure how to spell it] and that will help aliviate the gas, and rubbing her belly is also good. 

if she won't eat cc no matter what, get some decent size sryinges and burrito her in a towel and force feed her, just be careful not to choke her, the put the syringe on the side of her mouth, not in the center.

best of luck

[dianah]

thank you she's not really been given many treats because of the change in diet so we didn't want to give too much new stuff. she gets oats although she'd been given tiny amounts of dried veg for her teeth (i got it off a chinchilla rescue website and they've had success with using these for dental problem chins - it's like, two thin slices a day and there's no water content)

well, after a very exhausting night i can reveal that she has been pooing on her own without much massage from me. it started out with very small but moist poos, she pooed all through the night and progressively the poos are getting larger, the latests ones are pretty much right.

also figured out that she's happy to lick critical care of a nugget - they're sort of half moon shaped so they hold a bit of paste in. it's a little time consuming but, she's had 15ml in one go last night, she's just had about 13ml. she actually loves the taste of critical care - she has the fine grind, she won't touch the normal stuff, i just think she's had it with syringes being put in her mouth all the time because quite often they are not what they claim to be (you think it's yummy critical care and you get baytril)

she's still doing her funny noises and i do think she possibly has upper respiratory infection - the vet yesterday said that she had a bit of sniffles possibly but her chest was clear. given that she's already on baytril, they thought that should cover it. however, i am concerned that with the stasis, baytril may not have been absorbed because it didn't get into her gut. she has a little abscess on her chin (skin lesion, nothing to do with teeth) and that was nearly healed before the stasis, now it's getting quite a lot worse. of course this could be because she's not feeling well overall but perhaps her antibiotics are not getting into her system. i'll discuss this with the vet today, she's going in about five hours.

we got a christmas card from our vet surgery yesterday that everyone had signed. we've been with them for the past five years, we never got a card before. i think we're like the top 10 client.  the bad thing is the money spent, the good thing is that i can get an appointment on a very short notice and don't even have to say my name when i call. hopefully we'll only be going for vaccinations (for dogs) and spur filing (if necessary) for mae in 2010!

[dianah]

i called for an earlier appointment as i was worried about the sounds she was making. they were much happier with her tummy and she got just one of the tummy injections (she was getting two before). they said she'll get another one tomorrow and if she's still ok, they'll leave out the injections.

the funny noises should be covered by baytril - she got a shot of it today as well, as well as metacam. they think she possibly breathed in some of her oral medication but it appears to only be affecting the head bits rather than her lungs and if that's the case, it should go away. if there is a bit in her lungs (they couldn't hear anything), there is a possibility she could develop pneumonia but fingers crossed this won't happen. she's not making as many noises so hopefully it's getting better.

[ABC Chinchillas]

Is she getting a probiotic?
Have you tried some lifeline? (chocolatechinchillas.com)
How about fluids when they need to get things moving they need lots and lots of fluids

[dianah]

she's getting probiotics, i've got lifeline - she was given it before the bloat. she's drinking and she's getting a lot of fluid in the critical care. she is well hydrated, she goes for a wee regularly and produces decent amounts.

anyway, we seem to have fixed her tummy. she's a pooper trooper!!!

however, the breathing thing is worrying. she had an appointment on friday afternoon but the whole island is snowed under, we got stuck in traffic and couldn't make it. thankfully the vets have a surgery that's near to where i live (though i go to the one in the capital because the one near me is only open for an hour a day and there's just one vet there) and gave me an appointment before the 15 minutes before surgery opens.
so we went there, she got just one injection for the tummy, got a shot of baytril and metacam and the vet increased her oral dose of baytril. the vet said if there's no improvement by monday, they'll give me a prescription for this paediatric antibiotic and we'll try that.

the good thing is, the wheezing has stopped, but she's still making the clicking noise. there was no discharge from her nose today (there was a little bit on two occasions yesterday). she's bright, she moves around, she's eating critical care off a nugget - i only give her how much she wants, i don't force feed her, she's nibbling on her nuggets and hay. she's actually put on about 35g since her tummy started getting better (she had lost some weight when her tummy stopped working) which is quite impressive given the amounts she's pooing out now!
i went to check on her at about 3am and by 6am there were 52 good size poos on her heat pad (and she obviously poos elsewhere in the cage but it's very easy to remove all the poo from the heat pad so you get a good idea what fresh poo looks like)

fingers crossed for my little mae!

[jmdebb]

it sounds promising.

[dianah]

little monkey went to the vets for a check up today. they're very happy with her tummy (i actually took her off lactulose this morning as her poo was getting a little soft) but there wasn't any improvement to her respiratory problem. so, she's been put on septrin instead of baytril, in case she has an infection caused by a strain resistant to baytril. the pharmacy had to order it in for me, they should have it tomorrow ('if the world doesn't come to an end and if our trailer can get to the boat', to quote the pharmacist given the snow situation) - she'll be on it for at least ten days.

the vet said that if there's no improvement then we'll probably have to accept that perhaps this is inflammation as a result of infection that's now gone, especially given that she's really bright and she's eating etc. it doesn't seem to bother her at all. i'd still like it to go away.

she's always had a bit of a wheeze - ever since i took her from the rescue - the vet checked it out but it sounded like upper respiratory and it just appeared like something she had. this thing sounds different but perhaps it's related.

anyway, i'm hoping septrin will help. last night she actually ate a lot of her nuggets and hay!