Chinchilla suddenly died :(

Hi everyone,

I'm so sad to be posting this, but I've just gone in to clean my chinchilla cage out and found one of my babies, Hiccup, dead. I just can't figure out what happened to her. We've had her for 7 years, though we don't know for certain how old she is. She wasn't bleeding so I don't think she's suffered any trauma, and she seemed to be eating and drinking and running around perfectly fine this morning. She was just lying on the floor when I went in, not moving at all. It's only been a couple of hours but she's just gone so unexpectedly. Is it common for them to just die like this without any warning?

To make matters worse, we're going to have to put down our youngest, Baby, very soon. She's had dental problems for years, and has recently started getting chest infections and eye infections, and was diagnosed with an abscess behind her eye last week. The vet says that her teeth are in too bad of a state to do anything more with, and with how much weight she has lost recently due to infections and difficulty eating she probably would not survive the anaesthetic to remove the abscess and do any more dental work.

So that means that after seven very happy years, we're going to lose two of our three chins in less than a week. Even sadder, Baby was Hiccup's baby (long story short, Hiccup was pregnant when we got her and Baby unexpectedly arrived a few days later). Now I'm really concerned about our final chin. Will she be okay alone after losing two of her cage mates? They've all three been best friends for seven years, and I'm just concerned that she won't cope.

Any advice on how to support our final chin would be much appreciated.

id suggesting getting an autopsy done on the one. You might be able to find a cause that way. Just in case its something that could be affecting the remaining ones.

I'm so sorry to hear that. It's always hard when it's sudden, but at least she didn't suffer. Most likely it was something like a heart-attack or burst tumor because of her older age. While choking or accidentally ingesting poison could be a cause, I doubt that is it. There probably was nothing you could do.

Again, I'm sorry about Hiccup and about Baby. Know that they had a happy life and were loved.

As for you're last Chin, because of of her age, I wouldn't suggest getting another one. Change for older animals can be tough, such as a change in environment or cagemates. However, make sure to spend lots of time with her. You could even try eventually moving her cage to an area where you spend most of you're time so she is nearer to you.

I hope this helps.