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[SuperTaranta]

So Bubbles decided to fidget a little too much for me and she jumped out of my hands and landed perfectly on the floor. It doesnt seem like she hurt herself, I would say the fall was about 4 feet long. Im worried though, iv been inspecting her. Her poop is fine, shes eating, and drinking, and seems active. I'm just worried she might be hurt. On thing that I noticed is she like tilts her head and looks at me sometimes. I know that tilting of the head in chins is not good. But im not sure if this was their before the fall. I also am noticing teeth noises more, but this could be because iv been so worried.... She has been a weird eater since day 1. what she does is she eats half of a pellet and then throws the rest inside of the bowl. once shes done with eating half of every single one, she will eat half of the half, so in the end, her bowl has a bunch of like crushed pellets.. By the morning though she eats everything. Idk if im just paranoid or what. Could anyone help me out... Iv honestly been debating about taking her to a vet tomorrow or the day after if there are openings...

Edit: Ugh and like her ears are up, she seems completely fine, shes active, she comes to me. Im just so confused and lost about what to do. Shes 4 months old in two days! The last thing i want to do is lose her

[Jasonred79]

If she landed on all fours, just inspect her paws one by one, if none of her legs are injured, then she probably did do a perfect landing, as you said. Unless she fell badly and landed on her head or upside down or something, 4 feet seems a comfortable height for chins to jump down from. ... Well not so sure for a 4 month old kid though.

[SuperTaranta]

Yea, she landed on all 4's and they are fine, she isnt limping, shes popcorning and stuff. So she seems fine, except when it comes to her mouth movements... Im not too positive about them. Like i just saw her paw at her mouth, which I know isnt a good thing technically. But this is the first time I saw this for the last 4 days... How loud does your chin eat? Do you hear every single little bite they make?

[GrayRodent]

If your chinchilla is eating her food at a normal rate and her droppings are all good I seriously doubt anything is wrong. However this is your pet and always I advise that if you think something is wrong you are going to be the best one to determine that.

I seriously doubt there were any significant leg or foot injuries. Chinchillas that do tend to have obvious symptoms. The worst case may be a broken front tooth which is rare but not unheard of. This should be easy to assess just holder her, pull her lips back, and have a look. Make sure all four teeth are straight and flat where they meet. Press lightly on the teeth. If one is obviously loose there could be a problem. Do not try to force the teeth apart with an object. They can be easily damaged that way.

If you suspect hidden damage to her teeth that is going to be a judgement call because the vet must examine her teeth under anesthesia which carries a risk as well. You may also opt to have an x-ray to check for bone or skull fractures if the vet advises that.

My chinchilla isn't silent when he eats. He also has a habit of throwing half-eaten pellets from his bowl but I have no doubt he is healthy. His weight is very constant. If your chinchilla is loosing weight steadily that is a warning sign. All chinchilla owners ought to weigh their pets at least once a week and log their weight to help determine things like that. Pawing at the mouth doesn't always mean problems. Mine will do that sometimes and groom his chest during grooming.  If she is consistently doing that (and or grinding and clicking her teeth) after she eats that is a big red flag.

Head tilting is sometimes a symptom of brain or skull damage that effects an animal's sense of head position (vestibular system). I've seen a a couple of animals with this problem, a dog, and a cat. Trust me she will hold her head will be at a constant angle as she moves around if it's genuine head-tilt.

[SuperTaranta]

Ok well that clears out a lot of the things i thought , I weighed her two days ago, and she was 417, yesterday (idk why) she was 411, which worried me but then at 2 in the morning she was 408. I decided to sleep on it, and I weighed her this morning she is 418. So It seems she is gaining weight. Maybe the weighing was user error, idk I will keep on checking. Watching her this morning when I fed her, I noticed she is crunching the food up in her mouth and its falling out. Im not sure if its 100% as she just decided to eat a bit as always and go to sleep. Its out morning retinue

Edit: I would also like to notice, when shes like half asleep or waking up, and just sitting in her house, she moves her mouth left and right, not necessary grinding her teeth(maybe not sure how this would look or if it would have a sound), but soundless just swishing left to right.

Edit2: I just witnessed her eatting a pellet and opening her mouth really wide, and basically a large goop of saliva came out, ill be heading to the vet soon. Will keep this posted.

[GrayRodent]

Definitely time for a vet visit. That is not normal. Hopefully it's just something minor that will heal on its own. Weight fluctuations of 10g in a day are not too uncommon. I weigh my chinchilla every day. The good news is it did not loose much weight, if any, and should be fit to be anesthetized and examined.
Chances are you will be hand feeding through the course of treatment so please talk to your vet about that and get specific instructions.

[SuperTaranta]

Ok, so the vet visit was pretty good, she checked bubbles up, she checked her teeth (without xray), and said everything seems good. Due to being last minute the vet couldnt do an xray today, but did give me a anti inflammatory pain reliever to try. She stated to administer it today, and see if bubble's stops pawing at her mouth and having weird eating issues. If the pain reliever helps then I will be getting an xray on monday. She also stated that due to it being a female, and almost 4 months, her hormones might be kicking in, so some of the abnormalities that might be occuring, could be normal because bubbles smell is changing ect. So due to never owning a chin before, im experiencing everything first hand. I am relieved though that everything checked up for now. Im going to administer the pain reliever tonight after bubbles gets some rest (the vet visit was very stressful for the poor thing). I did just watch her eat, and she was eating pellets without pawing at her mouth (so thats a good sign, it could of just been a weird issue idk). Now its just time to play the waiting and watching game.

Also I would really like to thank you Gray, And Jason for your help, It definitely help me relax a little bit.

[GrayRodent]

Not a problem. Drooling in chinchillas is quite abnormal. It's doesn't necessarily mean it's life-threatening but something is wrong somewhere even if it's minor. It is simply not a normal behavior.
Monitor your chinchilla's food and water intake and fecal output each day closely. Sweep the cage each day so you get a good overnight assessment of what her output is. If it drops dramatically that means she has stopped eating and needs immediate treatment. It wouldn't hurt to start measuring water as well and do that for a few days just in case. When a chinchilla is in a lot pain it can stop eating and that can turn into a huge problem it occurs for more than a day without syringe feeding.

Best case scenario is that it will just clear up on its own in a few days with no other symptoms. Worst case is she'll stop eating and you'll need a rapid diagnosis of the problem. I hope all goes well for you.

[SuperTaranta]

Hehe yea, I will start monitoring the water, I monitor her poop all the time, I clean her cage every day since day one .