almost seizure like episode.

[chrisbradley6]

My 2 year old Basil had an episode last night that has happened maybe 3 or 4 times before. She was getting her bedtime scritches and treat when it happened.

I picked up some whole rosehips at a pet show (from a reputable seller) yesterday afternoon and decided to give one to each chin as their bedtime treat. My chins haven't had them in awhile, but have had them in the past. A few bites in, Basil started her "episode". She dropped her treat and her whole body stiffened. She laid on the floor of the cage and her back curled slightly backward and back legs stiffened up straight. There was no violent shaking or twitching, just stiffening. She was moving her stiff straight hind legs to move forward, but her front legs and face dragged on the floor. This lasted about 1 minute. Before I had time to even grab my phone to video record her episode, She unstiffened and popped up and was completely and totally FINE. Bouncing around her cage again.

This has only happened after a "treat". My chinnies are always given approved treats (mostly plain cheerios, plain shredded wheat, or a couple oats, sometimes half of a vitakraft nibble ring). The other couple episodes we've seen were once after a wheatie, and once after some oats. So i know it wasnt the rosehip.

I would call this a seizure, however, I do have another chinnie "Tripp" who DOES have seizures (diagnosed and on daily medication for them) BUT Basil's episode looks nothing like my other little guy's seizures (Tripp flops around and twitches, and takes several minutes to recover after it's over). So i am hesitant to call this an actual seizure. It's even hard to explain really what it looks like. So i'm hoping someone else here has seen this odd stiffening behavior. My husband thinks that she just gets too excited and somehow it's a reaction to her over-excitement.

Even if I were to take her to the vet, based on my previous chinchilla-seizure experience, i know they will not put her on medication due to the rarity of the episodes. But still, i want to avoid them as much as possible. Do I take out "treats" entirely? I hate to do that, as she's in the same room as 4 other chinnies who would still get them, and as a good fur-momma I don't want her to think I'm playing favorites! lol Seeing how it hasnt happened with the same treats consistently, I don't know if that's really necessary anyway. Ugh. Any advice would be helpful!

Before anyone asks: They eat Tradition food and always have. They live in Critter nation cages, with fleece items, pine ledges/shelves (no plastic). She loves hay but prefers the orchard grass to timothy hay (i try to switch it up). I've had chinnies for almost ten years now! and I consider myself a knowledgeable, experienced chinnie owner who follows very much of the advice typically given on this forum.

 

[Spodumena]

I’m brand new to chinchillas myself, so I have *very* limited experience, but we had a similar episode with one of our chins about a month and a half after getting them. Did Basil have difficulties moving around, i.e. her back legs stiffened and she tried to move her body, but couldn’t exactly?

I got in touch with a breeder in the area and she seemed to think it was likely a vitamin B (Thiamin) deficiency, and a seizure can occur when a chin goes to feed. In our situation our chin went down to have a snack and the second he started nibbling he had this strange episode. Possibly similar to your rose-hip situation?

She recommended 1-2 drops of a children’s liquid vitamin on a small piece of weetabix (which also has vitamin B) once a day for a few weeks (3-4). We’ve followed this advice and our chin hasn’t had a reoccurrence of his episode. In fact, he seems a lot more energetic these days and I've been keeping a *very* close eye on him because I'm worried it'll happen again.

She also said it could be a calcium deficiency, but said in that case it’s more likely that the head tilts back towards the tail — and these tend to be more serious. You mentioned her back was arched slightly, but was Basil's head tilted towards her tail? I was recommended a bit of cuttlefish-bone and/or supplementing their normal timothy hay with some alfalfa to get their calcium up.

If you want to read up more, I’ve found her website really, really helpful: http://edgehillchinchillas.co.uk/healthissues.html. Have a look at the section on seizures on that page.

I hope Basil feels better soon! I'm sure a more seasoned chin-friend will have good advice!

 

[chrisbradley6]

yes!!! she was definitely having trouble moving around. She would seem to jerk here and there like she was trying to get control of her body. i am going to try to have my phone more handy so if it happens again I can get a video.

Thank you so much for your help. I am going to research this more for sure. I appreciate your response and the link to the site.

 

[Godofgods]

Sounds very similar to the issues that my Chico used to have. The one night in particular his whole body went completely stiff, eyes open tho, and a slight backwards arc to him. I got him to the vet that night but is was a 40~min delay or such. He started coming around just as we reached the road the vet was on. And started looking some what normal by the time we got in. It was likely a seizure of sorts. But they also found a heart murmur on his right side.

Another time he lost complete control of the back half of his body. He was dragging himself around with the front half for a few moments.

It happened overall a few times, but through careful observation i was able to determine what triggered it in him. - He was living in a cage with his son. Next to them was a cage that had his 'mate' and the sons mother, along with her two daughters. (a separate and long story.) Chico would get so worked up when he could see they girls but not get to them. Worked up to the point where these medical issues would be triggered.

I ended up putting some fleece barriers between the cages so he could no longer see her at all. As well as a fleece cage lining that surrounded the male cage that i could use when i let the girls out to run, to make sure that chico could not look out and see them.

Once he could no longer see the girls he wasnt getting so worked up. And since he wasnt getting worked up, he wasnt having the medical issues. I had him for maybe 5-6 years after preventing him from seeing the girls and he never had another seizure or heart issue.

So while i cant say what is wrong with your chin, i would suggest paying attention when it happens. Not only to the event itself, but take note of everything that was going on before it happened. You may be able to find a commonality among them all like i was able to.

 

[chrisbradley6]

Sounds very similar to the issues that my Chico used to have. The one night in particular his whole body went completely stiff, eyes open tho, and a slight backwards arc to him. I got him to the vet that night but is was a 40~min delay or such. He started coming around just as we reached the road the vet was on. And started looking some what normal by the time we got in. It was likely a seizure of sorts. But they also found a heart murmur on his right side.

Another time he lost complete control of the back half of his body. He was dragging himself around with the front half for a few moments.

It happened overall a few times, but through careful observation i was able to determine what triggered it in him. - He was living in a cage with his son. Next to them was a cage that had his 'mate' and the sons mother, along with her two daughters. (a separate and long story.) Chico would get so worked up when he could see they girls but not get to them. Worked up to the point where these medical issues would be triggered.

I ended up putting some fleece barriers between the cages so he could no longer see her at all. As well as a fleece cage lining that surrounded the male cage that i could use when i let the girls out to run, to make sure that chico could not look out and see them.

Once he could no longer see the girls he wasnt getting so worked up. And since he wasnt getting worked up, he wasnt having the medical issues. I had him for maybe 5-6 years after preventing him from seeing the girls and he never had another seizure or heart issue.

So while i cant say what is wrong with your chin, i would suggest paying attention when it happens. Not only to the event itself, but take note of everything that was going on before it happened. You may be able to find a commonality among them all like i was able to.

Basil is a female and while there ARE males in the room (shes in the bottom half of a Critter Nation cage, he's in the top half), they don't see each other. So i don't think that same situation is happening. I read your situation I think in another post in my research and it did make me think about other factors. Basil's cage is next to a Ferret Nation with another girl (LilyPi) in the bottom half, who she plays with during playtime sometimes, and I'm wondering if when Basil's buddy gets her "treat" before Basil does, if shes getting worked up and jealous, and that's what helps contribute? it's a thought. I think i will put Basil first in lineup of treat-giving and see if that helps. Every little thing helps, right??

but basically, i think ive determined from my research on here that it sounds most like a vitamin b deficiency. it really sounds similiar to what others have described and i'm pretty convinced. I will take her to the vet, BUT... i want to be prepared. what should i EXPECT from the doctor? I saw one person on here was suggested to give leafy greens (which i know is a no-no!!). sometimes the best "exotic" vet still doesn't know the best things for chins. and I don't want to be bullied into something thats not good for my Basil. what have others used for vit b deficiency? ive heard goji berries, injections.... anything else? I want to be prepared for my visit. Is it common for the vet to want to take blood to check vitamin levels? ive heard thats very stressful for the chin. ugh. i just want to do whats best for my Basil and not have her have to go thru this anymore!

 

[Godofgods]

im honestly not sure. Iv never heard of a vitamin B deficiency in a chin before.

 

[Spodumena]

I have limited experience, but when I contacted two experienced breeders about the seizure neither of them seemed to think that taking the chin to the vet was necessary as the vet would only have what we had seen to go on. I didn’t want to stress out the chins any more than necessary so we tried what the breeder recommended and it seems to have worked. So I'm afraid I can't help as to what to expect from the vet.

I can understand why you’d want to go to the vet for peace of mind though.

If you want to give the vitamin thing a try (or ask their opinion on it…?): I was recommended a *small* 1-cm piece of weetabix (https://www.amazon.com/Weetabix-Who...=UTF8&qid=1479669201&sr=1-1&keywords=weetabix) with a couple of drops of a children’s liquid multivitamin. I am not sure what a good US one is, but I am sure there must be a few!

The chin was *super* good about eating it — even though the vitamin drops never smell particularly great to us. And he really perked up after the first ten days or so.