I'm heartbroken and so confused, what happened?

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Joined
Aug 19, 2014
Messages
18
Location
Sweden
Hello,

This is a little bit long, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart if you bear with me and read this. I'm heartbroken.

Background
My 15 year old chinchilla Egon has had issues with his teeth for over 11 years now. I was always told to put him down (even from people over here) but managed to find an exotics vet who wanted to give him a chance. After I found her, Egon's health has been much better for the last few years. The vet filed his teeth down every 2 months under sedation. Between the visits Egon's been really happy, bouncing and chirping.

But this time when he came back from the vet, he didn't want to eat. For 10 hours, we tried to appetite him into eating. He ate a limited amount and had his metacam, but continued to back off when I approached him with food. At this point he still ran around talking, and dust bathing.

The emergency vet
After another hour I took him to an emergency vet. They were not specialized with exocits and were very clear about this.

Vet said his stomach felt empty, and they weighted him at 430 grams. Egon's usual weight is 550-590. They said he didn't have much fluid in him, that they wanted to try and replenish fluids, give something for his stomach and some morphine.

They gave him:
  • Primperan 5mg/ml
  • Buprenodale 0,3mg/ml
  • Sodium Chloride 9mg/ml
  • Some unspecified injection (???)

Then they force fed him with critical care. He looked very tired at this point.

Back home
When we got home, he was moving even less. I put him in his transport cage so he wouldn't hurt himself on the ledges in his normal cage. After a few more hours, I took him out so he could move around on the floor, fearing his stomach would stop working. He looked almost limp, tilted his head and shook a little bit at first. I massaged his belly and put him back into the transport cage.

I tried to get some sleep, but woke up after 30 minutes because I could hear him whimper every 1-2 seconds. I've never heard him do that before. I called a family member to come and help me feed him again. We did, and when he was back in the cage he was no longer whimpering. I also called the vets and they said he could possibly be affected by the morphine (What morphine, the buprenodale?).

I looked after him every 30 minutes, thinking he was recovering. I noticed he was breathing a little bit slower than usual, and it looked like he had hiccups every 2-3 seconds.

When I returned 30 minutes later.. he was lying down on the side.. his coat pushing through the cage bars. I knew this was bad, rushed over to him and grabbed him. He didn't breath, and his eyes were open.. limbs were extremely stiff. But he was still warm. :cry4:

I don't understand.. what happened??? I'm guilting myself for making him go trough these last few hours!! I didn't want him to be in pain but looking back I think he was!

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I'm so sorry for your loss :cry3:

My guess is his kideys failed to work if he had that many teeth corrections during his life, really hard to say if the vet didn't do the blood tests. His weight loss was showing something is not right with him.

Chins are very good hiding disease so don't blame yourself.
 
Whenever a chin goes under there is a chance of a bad reaction, I have had them under literally 100s of times with only two bad reactions that resulted in death shortly after, it happens and its no ones fault, I am so sorry you had to have this happen to you.
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate that. So the treatment I described wasn't anything out of the ordinary? Would you give morphine to a chin that has trouble eating? I thought morphine usually made chins constipated.

Oh I blame myself for every minute of that terrible weekend. I should have massaged his belly more, or picked him up under my shirt for warmth like I usually did when he was ill.. I probably force fed him too much as well (30-40 ml critical care in 10 hours)..

But after all that driving and so little sleep I wasn't thinking correctly.. I thought I did him a favour by letting him be alone and not stress him. :(
 
I have used buprenex many times on many chins which is also a opioid, you have to watch out for the slow down of the digestive tract while in use, if a issue arises you then use gut stimulants, even then though there is a chance the gut will stop working permanently, but in the case of severe pain the chin can also go into shock and die, so I chose to use it because if death was going to happen, rather it be not painful. As far as your feed goes, 30-40ml in 10 hours can be on the low side, I have had them eat 120ml a day willingly. Honestly, I am the queen of beating my self up over treatments and have no problem telling others they suck at chin care but what you went through has nothing to do with your care, its just bad luck.
 
Thank you Dawn. I remember when you told me your story about all the things you went through with your malo chins. Can I ask you, did any of them (the one with the mask, or the one which got his roots pulled) survive for much longer? Did it help? I know they ultimately died but did it get any better, at least temporarily?

You've been a huge source of information and inspiration. Thanks for sticking around.
 
All the malo chins passed, some suddenly, some euthanized. The oldest one was 17, his case was "mild" but he was one that passed right after a dental.

A very wise women on the forum told me I was too good at keeping malo chins alive and "healthy" but just because I could, should I?
 
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