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[Deeliteful]

OK ... I havent been on much in a few years ... but life does get hectic sometimes and for the last few years my chins have not really had any trouble until recently. My husband and I bought a house and it needed work . We were going to be living in the reno and I didnt think that would be healthy for my chins so my sister said she would take them for a few months while we worked on the house.

My sister and I do not live in the same town . In fact its 3 hours away but she had always been responsible with my animals in the past . So we took her the chins and my birds and a couple of dogs and went to work on the house. I would call and check on my animals and she said all was good.

It took us 2 months to get the house fixed enough for us to move the animals in . We drive to pick them up and it was a nightmare. One of my parakeets was lying dead on the cage floor there was no food or water in the cage and the little female was looking scared. My chins just on a glance looked ok ... in need of a dust bath but other wise well. I am still not real happy about the care she gave them . She dropped the ball on all this .

I get everyone home and set up and over the next few days I observe my chins. My female is doing great but my little guy was looking really bad. There wasnt any sores on him he wasnt drooling but he was really thin . The more I watched I saw her bullying him for the food . I am guessing the sister didnt feed them regular. So I pulled him from the cage and put him in his own . He was eating really slowly.

So we took him to the only vet in the area ( two hours away) that sees chins but they are not experts. I taught the vet tech the proper way to hold a chin and all that . He spent the night and they started him on critical care and took an xray of his head and looked at his teeth . We go to get him the next day and The vet says she couldnt see anything wrong with his teeth . She could send the xray to a vet with more experience for a second opinion . We did that and took him home .

He eats the criticle care up . He tries to eat the kibble and grass. He is so thin and I also noticed what looks like ring worm on his arm . How do I treat for that and does anyone have any ideas on how to get him to gain a little weight? . The expert hasnt gotten back to me yet . Sorry I was so long winded but I just felt like I needed to vent.

[GrayRodent]

It's amazing your chinchillas got through that as well as they did.

When chinchillas stop eating they often have GI stasis, which may be what you are dealing with, where the bowels slow and shut down, and it is often fatal if not treated within a day or two. As long as he is eating and pooping on his own you are going to be okay otherwise you will need to feed critical care each day until that happens. You can add critical care to his diet as it's high in calories. I'd give him 10cc and put it on a piece of paper next to his food bowl (5cc twice a day).

It certainly is possible the other chinchilla prevented him from getting food. Make sure they have unlimited access to food and if the other animal is still guarding the food bowl get another food bowl and put them on opposite sides of the cage. He will return to his normal weight in a few weeks if he's otherwise healthy. Considering there were no obvious problems found on the x-ray I think you'll find that will be the case.

It is possible there could be ringworm but it's also possible that because the cage was not cleaned often enough that it could be irritation caused by being in contact with urine as well as failure to dust bath which prevents them from staying clean. It also could have been caused by fighting with the other chinchilla. Since I can't see it I can only speculate. If there is loss of fur around the edges and no fur growing in the middle then assume its ringworm and start treating the dust bath with desenex. Basically mix a couple of tablespoons of desenex powder with the chinchilla dust and dust every day (normal dust bathing times is about 10 minutes). This won't kill the ringworm but it will allow the animal's immune system to get rid of it.
You'll want to treat both chins the same because it is highly contagious and you'll want to scrub the cage at least once every other day to prevent re-contamination. It is also contagious to you so beware.
If you see new fur growing in the middle it is unlikely ringworm. Just wait a few days and watch for changes and if it doesn't clear up have your vet do a culture and try to get a better diagnosis so it can be treated. If it bleeds or drains fluid talk to your vet immediately.

[Deeliteful]

Thank you GR I appreciate it. I will try and get a better look at the spot on his arm later today . I am going to get some of that powder for the dust bath and right before I give them a dust bath I think I am going to clean the cages . He looks so rough right now.

On the 10cc of criticle care . do you have any idea how many tsp it will take to make that much?

[GrayRodent]

1.2 teaspoons should be mixed with 12.5 cc of liquid when syringe feeding. I think a single teaspoon and mixed with 10cc should be good as a supplement. If you are syringe feeding this (as a supplement) you may just want to give the full 10cc once a day, else follow your veterinarian's directions. Again this is for a chinchilla that is eating normally on its own. If its appetite is abnormal talk to your vet and see what he recommends.

[Chins4Life089]

This will not answer your question but if I came to get my animals and one was died and my chinchillas were fighting for food i would be at a new type  of angry and probably not talk to my sister for a while and probably never forgive her and i am sorry for the lose of your bird i know how hard it is to lose and animal that you love

[Jasonred79]

Question to Deeliteful... when you say your chin eats the CC right up, do you mean you can just spoon feed it, or do you have to force feed? From what I hear there's a huge difference between voluntary feeding and force feeding.

Question to GrayRodent:  If a chin is voluntarily eating CC, but having trouble with other foods... is there any reason not to give it access to unlimitted CC?

2nd Question to GR:  Is 10ml CC the recomended minimum, as in, if you can force feed like 5cc x 5 sessions per day is that a good idea?

[GrayRodent]

I think it would be harmful to give unlimited amounts of critical care because it is much higher in calories than normal chinchilla food. They may overeat it because it is like a treat to them.

Of course with syringe feeding you have to be careful about how much fluids an animal gets in a day. The other thing to consider with syringe feeding is that if you have an animal that can eat on its own it might not eat on its own if you give it enough food by hand. Also I think most commonly people feed three times a day, about 10-12cc at a time.

If I remember correctly (the dosage should be looked up and calculated for the weight of each animal and in each case, preferably by the advice of a veterinarian who knows best based on the case) a full dose is around 40cc per day. The manufacturer recommends breaking up that dose into five smaller ones evenly spaced over 24 hours. This is because their digestive system needs a steady flow of nutrients going through it in order to maintain its normal physiology. A healthy animal will eat many times through the day because it knows when to eat.