Pain with pooping?

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cuddskers

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2010
Messages
51
Hey everyone,

So my chinchilla recently was treated for gingivitis, and she was constipated for a while on meds (the antibiotic can do that to her), but we continuously kept her hydrated and fed her critical care. After successful treatment of gingivitis, she started pooping again, and she was pooping WAY more than usual, and they were larger. I know this was normal for the first short while because her system was clearing out, but it has been a couple weeks and she is still pooping a lot and they are still large- no diarrhea though.

In the past two days she has started barking (as if she is in pain, or snipping at someone) and I noticed that it is when she is pooping- that is her trigger. She will also chatter her teeth (not happy chatter, this one seems like pain) when pooping. Has anyone else had this experience? I was thinking about bringing her back to the vet to get her checked out, but I was wondering if anyone else had something similar, she is really worrying me.
 
I wasn't even aware chins could get gingivitis, this is the first time I've heard of that in a chin. I'm not saying your chin didn't have it, just I've never heard of it so I can't really offer too much help there. Do you or the vet have any idea what caused it? Was something stuck in the teeth or something? Or was it caused by something in the diet you were/are feeding? I'm genuinely curious.

Well anyway I would take her back to the vet or at least call if she is having pain when pooping. It could be she is getting backed up for some reason and pooping large poops once enough has accumulated to push it all out at once. If she is straining too hard she can end up pushing her lower intestine out, which is obviously an emergency. Chins should poop about once or twice a minute, so if not she isn't pooping regularly enough. It's possibly just something simple, like you need to give some probiotics to help replenish the gut bacteria that got killed off during the antibiotic treatment, if you haven't been giving any. If there isn't enough good bacteria in her gut she isn't/can't digesting her food very well, meaning more is pooped out.
 
The gingivitis was possibly caused by a piece of hay or something getting stuck by her molars. She’s on the Oxbow Essentials pellet diet, and she does really well on that. I know it’s a great food too. She recovered well from the gingivitis. When she went in from her follow-up her gums were no longer inflamed and everyrhing was back to normal!

We plan on calling the vet tomorrow for the pooping. I definitely dont want her to prolapse, and she doesnt seem to be straining, just in pain. I was also wondering about the gut flora and was going to ask about a probiotic after being on an antibiotic for so long. I will post and let you all know what is going on when we hear from the vet!!
 
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