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[StellaPl]

My 2 year old chinchilla had 5 babies 4 days ago. 3 of them were missing one front leg. There were bones instead of legs.
Looked like deformation. In the cage with the babies were 4 other female chinchillas(males are in another cage). The first time i decided to separate males from females i didn't do a good job and the chinchilla i mentioned before got pregnant by her sibling which has cut in half tale. 2 of the babies died yesterday. They were in very bad shape, sticky eyes, hardly moving, didn't eat at all. Their mother ignored them.. I don't know what to do beacause vets here aren't specialist at exotics. Unfortunatelly i see one more sick baby..
Wish i could help them but i have no idea why this pregnancy wen't so wrong.

Sorry for my bad english.

Thank you in advance.

[GrayRodent]

What is wrong with your one sick baby? What is it doing that makes you think something is wrong?
Is it still nursing?
Does it have three legs or visible defects?
Sometimes chinchillas carry genetic defects and you don't know until they have babies with deformities.

[StellaPl]

It is still nursing but it's eyes are closed. The other two babies have open eyes.
It  doesn't seem to have any defects and has all four legs altough its mother sometimes seems not to care much.

[GrayRodent]

I'm sorry that you are having such a hard time. You must open its eyes or there will be complications. If I were in this situation I would use warm water and a cotton swab and very very gently rub the eyelid and try to get it opened. There is also a good chance of internal defects. I strongly reccomend a vet visit.

[StellaPl]

Thank you for your quick response. You are very helpful. I have been trying to open its eye very carefully and gently with cotton swab and warm water. Looks a little better although i have to do it every 2-3 hours. I'll visit the vet as soon as possible.

[GrayRodent]

I'm glad to hear that. If it lives its eyes will eventually stay open and it may turn out to be healthy. This kind of thing is not unheard of. If the eyes become fixed shut it causes permanent damage and infection. I wonder if it is possible that the mother is not treating it as well because of it eyes and I'm hoping this can fix that.

If you take it to a vet ask if they work with chinchillas specifically. At the least they should work with rodents or exotics since regular cat and dog vets probably cannot help you or cause more harm than good in trying. As long as it is still nursing you are probably okay.

[StellaPl]

Bad news.. My baby chinchillas front legs are paralyzed and it can barely stand up.
That happened to the other 2 babies who died.. I wonder if i did something wrong..
Its mother is nursing the other babies but this is all alone because it can't move.

I went to the pet shop which has a vet and told me that vets here in Greece don't know much about chinchillas, only cats and dogs.
When i went to buy a female chinchilla 2 years ago at another vet, she couldn't tell what the chinchilla sex was!!
I have more bad experience from vets because i never had a cat or dog.. Only chinchillas, guinea pigs and a bunny..

This is so upsetting..

[StellaPl]

It just died..

[StellaPl]

Something very strange just happened.. As I looked into the cage there are 4 baby chinchillas instead of two.. There supposed to be left two.. I cleaned the cage yesterday so there is no way i didn't see them.. Perhaps she gave birth again?? I don't know what to assume.. I'm very confused..

[GrayRodent]

That is very strange indeed but I do know that chinchilla births can happen in this manner although it is extremely rare. I am deeply sorry for your loss and suspected there was probably something else wrong with that one. With small animals things can and do go wrong.

I don't think you did anything wrong at all. In cases like these I doubt even a good vet could have done anything for the kits but may have been able to recognize the mother was still pregnant and have provided some nutritional supplements for her.

I suspected there could be a genetic issue because three presented with the same defect. However because there are two more now I think the defects could have been caused because too many kits developed in the womb and the mother could not support all of them. Four is a high number of kits for a normal pregnancy.

At the moment I am concerned about the mother's health considering labor four days apart. How is she doing?

[StellaPl]

I saw a little blood at the bottom of the cage but the mother seem to be fine.. She's resting and nursing the kits.. All the females are close to each other, warming the babies.

[GrayRodent]

Sounds good. You might consider sprinkling calcium powder in her pellets if you are not doing that already and make sure she is eating and drinking normally. There's not much else you can do but wait and hope all will turn out well.

[jbcstratton]

If there are other females, how do you know that another one wasn't pregnant also and the 2 new babies aren't someone elses babies?

[StellaPl]

I'm not 100% sure but the chinchilla that had the babies is the one that was in the same cage with males.
I just held the mother in my hands and her belly is very swollen and pink, also her eyes look strange.. They aren't black.. Seems like glaucoma. They have white color when she looks at light.

[GrayRodent]

How old is this chinchilla and how long have you noticed this in her eyes? It could be cataracts.