Handfeeding adult chinchilla after a spay...

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
T

TashaR

Active member
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
42
I have a 9 year old chinchilla who had an emergency spay last night. She is nursing a 1 day old kit. She doesn't appear to be eating too much on her own, so I want to supplement with Critical Care. How much should she be eating at a time, and how much should she be eating total?

I just tried to feed her for the first time, and she ate about 3 - 4 mL from the dropper pretty readily, then tried to escape the syringe. Since it was her first feeding, I let her have a break and thought I would check with you guys. I don't want to force her to eat too much at a time.

The directions on the package say 3 tablespoons mixed (so I'm guessing that means three tablespoons of the formula + the water) across four to six feedings, but I wanted to get some social validity from other people with handfeeding experience.

Also, how long is too long without poops from her, and at what point should I contact the vet?

She hasn't poo'd much since this morning 10 am, but she also hasn't eaten. She has urinated. She's nursing her kit, who is extremely clingy, and I haven't seen her drink much. However, she just came home from the ER clinic today, and had to come to work with me, so she might be stressed.

She's just survived so much already, I don't want to be responsible for her death at this point. Anything I can do to help her is what I want to do.
 
You want to make sure she stays hydrated. The last thing you want is for her to become impacted after surgery. It's possible she's still groggy from surgery. Most of my females that have been spayed bounced back within a few days. The first day was the worst. If you don't see any poop at all for 24 hours get her back into the vet. Have you tried adding some Dyne to her water? I'd feed her as much as she will take. If she's completely resistant then force feed 6xs a day and aim for 7-10mL per feeding. A tiny drop of blackstrap molasses in the critical care can make it more appealing for some chins. That's what has worked for me anyway.

Good luck with your girl.
 
Some people add a sml amt of pumpkin too it also. Nothing worked for my boy though i just had to force it. I just did smaller amts more frequently. I mixed it just enough to get it through the syringe but not to watery. The more water the less nutritional value they are getting. I took a small syringe 1ml and cut the tip off and that worked out wonderful. The droppers dont work. If she is not drinking or pooing she needs to go back to the vet. They need to give her some sub-q fluids. Keep forcing the food though so she doesnt go into gi stasis.
 
Last edited:
Just to maintain weight it's a minimum of 45 mL per day, and I find that isn't enough with a larger chin. If she starts losing weight, you'll need to up that until she stops losing, then find an amount that helps her to gain. I had a 600 gm chin on 110 mL of CC a day to try and get her to regain some of the weight she had lost.

The pumpkin works great. They seem to really like the taste of it. You can also add the molasses, or, some people add Dyne. It tastes just like vanilla. It has a lot of sugar in it, so you wouldn't want to add a bunch of it, but if she stops eating you're going to have more to worry about than what's in Dyne. It's basically just to pack on calories.
 
Well, I called the vet to see about fluids -- she hasn't had any poos since yesterday afternoon. I'm concerned about that, first. She takes a little food from a dropper and eats if I hand her something, so I'm worried about blockage.

*sigh* Oh Terrah. Way to cause trouble.

I'll pick up some pumkin and I ordered some lifeline and Dyne.
 
Well the vet wanted to do more x rays to check...something...but I declined and just asked for the fluids. I don't know what they would see on an x ray at this point anyway...and x rays were done prior to her spay. So they are going to give her the fluids for now and I will continue to keep an eye on her. But man, little Mia is a hit everywhere we go. Everyone wants to hold her.
 
He was probably going to look for the beginning of an impaction. Good luck. Hope she starts eating for you!
 
Okay, maybe I'm missing something...the vet was going to use an X-ray to look for impaction? How would that show up on an X-ray?
 
You can see the fecal matter in an xray and definitely see if there is a larger glob built up inside...that would show an impaction.

When Meega had her c-section I handfed Life Line for the first few days and I would give her a few mls of water after I would feed her. After maybe four days I started grinding up timothy hay and mixing that with the life line. She liked it pretty well.

They heal up very slowly sometimes after a c-section. It took me seven weeks to get her to eat on her own. It was strange, one day she wouldn't eat at all and then the next she was eating completely on her own. It's been eight months now and she's doing great. :)
 
Well shoot now I wish I'd gotten the x ray. Maybe we will have to go back tomorrow if there is no improvement. I ordered lifeline and I have critical care on hand for now. Going to get her some pumpkin to mix with it. Are papayas helpful with these issues? I know she will eat those.
 
After my girl had a spay, she didn't poop for the first full day. She also didn't eat. She had a kit stuck in her birthing canal, she was full of infection, and she had her guts ripped open and pieces parts removed. I wasn't really expecting miracles the first day. By the evening of the second day, she had nibbled on hay and pellets and was pooping. They were really small and hard, but they were poop. I kept her on paper towels so I could keep a really close eye on her urination as well. If a chin isn't hydrated, they aren't going to eat. Have you seen her drink? You got her hydrated and you should be able to administer fluids as well Tasha, at home. Keep her hydrated.

I don't necessarily buy into the thought that if they don't eat in 24 hours it's an instant blockage and death sentence. Yes, it can happen, but I've seen chins go 24 hours without food and they were fine after. If everything else is normal, if she's moving around, active, bright eyed, etc., I personally would not be in a total state of panic and start shovelling all kinds of crap into her just yet. The critical care is good, the life line is great. Give her lots of really good smelling hay, really fresh. Do you know what her weight was when she left the office? Monitor it. If she likes the critical care, mix it up with some of her pellets (like chunky peanut butter) and put it in there for her to snack on.

If she hasn't done any kind of bowel movement tonight or by tomorrow morning, and especially if she isn't urinating, definitely get her in for an x-ray and find out if there is a blockage. You don't have to drive her to Timbuktu for that though. Your local vet can do it, yes?
 
Yeah, I have a vet here that can do x rays. I don't know if they are open on Saturday though so we might be back to the ER vet. She is doing very well other than the eating...taking good care of Mia (55 grams today!) and jumping around. I will keep feeding the critical care til I get the lifeline. I just don't want to lose her now, after everything we've had to deal with.
 
I agree, don't worry too much about a blockage or anything.

There's a lot going on inside this girl right now. She feels strange. I think that right now you probably have to worry most about keeping her hydrated. You're handfeeding her, so there's some going in and that will (hopefully) keep things moving.

And, having the little baby around probably helps keep her spirits up! She has a little fuzzy cute thing to play with and clean...and stay alive for... I just hope for your sake that she eats and gets back to normal soon. That horrible anxiety worrying about a chin is the worst. (Hopefully no one goes through as much as I do, I am a crazy person when something is wrong with anyone...)
 
TashaR said:
Yeah, I have a vet here that can do x rays. I don't know if they are open on Saturday though so we might be back to the ER vet. She is doing very well other than the eating...taking good care of Mia (55 grams today!) and jumping around. I will keep feeding the critical care til I get the lifeline. I just don't want to lose her now, after everything we've had to deal with.
Click to expand...
Don't feed only the LifeLine. There isn't enough fiber or nutrition in it to sustain life. You can use it as an addition to CC.
 
We have poop! Lol never thought I'd be so happy to get pooped and pee'd on! She really ate the critical care better with the pumpkin added in so that was a huge help.
 
There ya go. Like I said - she's just had a buttload of trauma to her body and it might take an extra day. Hopefully she'll keep on going now. No pun intended. :)
 
Congrats. Animal people are the only ones that understand the poop dance. :dance3:

Not only do they do it for their own animals, but they do it for others as well. :dance3: :dance3: :dance3:
 
LOL.

Well, it was only a few little ones, but it's a start and means there's no blockage. And honestly, she hasn't had much to eat in the past day or so, it makes sense she's not a poop machine yet.

I'm still planning to feed her the critical care and add the Lifeline when it comes, though. Better safe than sorry, even if her face does look awful and caked with food now. When she's better, how do I go about cleaning her up? LOL
 
That's how my girl started out too Tasha, and let me tell you, there was a ring of happy dancing going on around the coffee table in the living room. I was look THERE'S POOP! LOOK GUYS - THERE'S POOP!

My children think I'm a tard anyway. <rolls eyes>

You may find she's good with eating the critical care out of a bowl on her own, which will be a lot less mess. Like I said, mix in some pellets and make it semi-chunky so she doesn't become a CC addict, which is a total PIA to wean her off of. I do find there is a lot less mess with the CC if you make it thicker with less water, then maybe syringe in some water every couple bites to help wash it down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top