Not eating much

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coffeebeans

Active member
Joined
Oct 9, 2016
Messages
28
Tuesday I took my chinchilla to the vet because he was chewing on his tail and had a bald bloody spot on it. The vet said that she thought it could have been heat that caused him to get stressed and chew on his tail (unfortunately for a few days the AC stopped working and it got hot in the room, and on the third day the tail chewing began) and just to be safe she gave us an antibiotic "sulfa/trimel" 0.2ml twice a day, and a pain medication "meloxicam" 0.15ml twice a day. (syringe feeding meds). She also said he could have gotten a parasite, or fleas/mites/etc and also prescribed some feline flea medicine for once a month for 4 months.

His poop has been a little small for the past 2 days, especially today. and last night he didn't eat much of his hay, pellets, or drink much water. He ate some, but not much. So I was handing him some hay today, and he only seemed to be interested in the brown thin pieces of hay, not the green thick pieces. He was eating the brown hay that I handed him, so I have a little hope. But there is not much of the brown hay in the hay I have.

I am concerned, because although he ate/drank a little bit last night, he always completely goes through all the hay in the container I put it in. But last night as I said, he only went through/picked through a little bit of it. And as I also said, his poops are smaller and less frequent than they are supposed to be. Also some of them are a little bit soft (not diarrhea).

He has been extremely stressed out, because my husband has been having to pick him up in order to give him his medicine. We feel horrible and heartbroken but we have to pick him up, he won't eat the medicine in his cage. He makes angry sounds at my husband, he has sprayed my husband with pee (today). His last dose is Tuesday morning. His wound on his tail keeps scabbing over, but for some reason he keeps ripping the scab off. He also has been ripping off his tail fur (without it bleeding) and eating it. I think that is due to stress that my husband has to pick him up and he is terrified of being picked up.

Should I start trying to feed him critical care? Or is it too soon for that? Only last night he didn't go through all his hay, but his poops have been small for a couple of days now, and today they have been less frequent. He has been eating some of his pellets, but last night he ate barely any of them. And he did not drink much water last night.

Sorry for being redundant I am just all over the place and worried about him. Also, he eats farm Timothy hay 1st cut (meant to buy second cut but got 1st cut) and he eats Oxbow pellets, and for treats a dried rose bud. I am thinking his appetite is either gone due to stress (of being picked up), the medicine (it smells very fruity and sweet so maybe he wants only sweet foods, or as a side effect), or I don't know what else.

If we need to start feeding critical care, how much should I give? Can I home make it? If so, could you please list the ingredients/what to do in detail?


Thank you
 
Have you tried to revisit your vet and tell her the current situation? Something seems to be odd.
 
Have you tried to revisit your vet and tell her the current situation? Something seems to be odd.

We revisited last night, and got him a bandage for his tail which he has gotten undone a tiny bit but is still holding up, also they put him on gabapentin and we got him some critical care. So as of right now he is on the meloxicam, gabapentin, and sulfa/trimel. He ate a little bit of his hay again last night, but not much. He is not liking the critical care so we are going to the store in a few hours to pick up pure canned pumpkin but are unsure of how much pumpkin is safe to use.

I think they are not sure what is wrong with his tail. They are thinking it could have been fractured but I don't know, he moves his tail in different directions just fine. We got a skin scraping which came back negative and also a fungus test, the results for the fungus will be back on Tuesday. I am not sure if it is some sort of self mutilation or what. Once before, months ago, he was ripping the tip (the skinniest part) of his tail fur out and eating it (not biting/bleeding just ripping out and eating) so we are wondering if it's the fur biting thing that they can do if it's in their genes, or if it's something else. But this time it's at the base of his tail and he is biting/bleeding a little. And scabbing then he will rip the scab off and not let it heal we are unsure why.
 
Just an update, he would not eat the critical care at all even with the pumpkin. However, he did eat well last night and drank well. I am unsure as to what is making him decide how much to eat, but maybe it is due to the stress of being picked up twice a day for a week.
 
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