Skinny chinchilla, I can feel her bones. What's wrong?

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Chinnychinchin

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
8
Location
San Francisco
She eats a lot like she always does. While she sometimes seems not so energetic, she still jumps out for play time and is curious when I put my fingers in. She lives with 3 others and they get along fine. I know she wasn't this skinny when I got her a few months ago, so I'm really worried. I have no idea what it could be though, and thus don't know what to fix.
 
Do you keep track of her actual weight? If she's lost a lot of weight then you should take her to a chin-knowledgable vet to have her looked at. Weight loss is a sign that something could be wrong.
 
Could be teeth, could be parasites, could be the other chins are crowding her from food, a vet visit could answer the first two questions, observation on your part could answer the last.
 
a scale is the best weight to track weight. Sometimes just feeling our chins isn't accurate enough to know if something is truly wrong. But if you think your chin is losing weight, share your concerns with a knowledgeable vet. And get a scale for future weigh ins.
 
Could also be weight loss due to having more run time. Chinchillas usually slim out when they're given more exercise. Feeling bones is not always a horrible sign, but you should at least get a gram scale to weigh her.
 
The best way to start is to purchase a gram scale from the store and get her and the other chin's weights as well. That way you have a comparison to go by. Not all chins are big chins. I have a girl here who weighs around 544 and I can feel her bones and ribs when I hold her, but she is a small chin and has actually gained weight as she used to be in the 400's. Weigh your girl weekly to see if she is losing weight, if she is and it's more than just a gram or 2 these is cause for concern.

As Tab said when chins get more excercise like more playtime or they are constantly on a wheel they will lose weight. Believe it or not a wheel is not good for some chins as they will run on it constantly which his not good for them.

What type of feed is she on? Is she eating, pooping and drinking everyday? Are you noticing any loose or soft poos in the cage?
 
Yes

her poos are not solid, but not full on diarrhea either. It also looks like she has little white flakes of dandruff in her fur. She is always the first to go eat and drinks a lot too. She rarely runs on the wheel and she barely takes baths. We put her in the bath and she just sits there or does a very slow turn in it. She has just been sitting there in the cage. Not much running around. It's so weird because when we bought her and her sister from the pet store they were fine. Small,but fine. Her sister is still fine. We will definitely get a scale. This is her right now. She is 6 months old. She is just sitting here.
 

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update

We think the problem is diarrhea so we have put her in her own cage by herself with fresh hay,water and pellets,but she is showing no interest. When I went to put her down she just fell over onto her side and I tried to put her upright, but she just fell to her side again. She is breathing,but not moving much and sitting upright now.
 
She passed away

She just passed away about 40 minutes ago. My gf and i just finished burying her in our backyard. We feel so bad. We thought the weight loss was do to diarrhea. She was eating, drinking, and breathing fine up until today. She didn't start being unresponsive until today. I had put her in a carrier to go to the vet and went to get her some hay and when I came back she was gone. The only thing my mother could say was "Calm down. I told you to get rid of them" which caused a huge fight on top of my gf and I crying our eyes out. Today was the worst day ever. If I had known how sick she was I would have sold my tv and ps3 and took her to the vet ASAP. She was completely fine last week!
No other chin is showing any signs of being sick at all. When she passed she had a yellow liquid coming from her mouth. Is that normal when they die? Or was that urine maybe? Does anyone know what she was sick with based off that?? We really want to know. We are very upset and will miss our little Corky very much.
R.I.P. Corky
December 31, 2010-June 7, 2011
 
Chinnychinchin and Marshmallow I know you don't want to hear this right now, but as you have 2 other chins at home that your little girlie was housed with, the best thing you can do is have a necropsy done on your poor girlie that passed. She could have had something that could get passed along to the other chins.

A necropsy would also let you know they reason this happened and the vet would be able to help and guide you to prevent it from happening with your other chins.

I'm sorry for your loss
 
I just read your post..

But we buried her before we read this. The only thing I can think of is that she didn't want to take a dust bath about 2 weeks ago. I didn't think much of it because sometimes my chins just don't wanna sit in the bath when I put them in, so they jump out, play, and take one when they feel like it. So it's been something developing I think.. it's just that she was as hyper and playful as always. There were no signs at all aside from refusing a bath, but even with that it truly wasn't a sign because I watched her go in for a sec on her own a week ago. Then all of a sudden she became terribly ill.. this makes me even more worried about my other chins since they seem perfectly healthy.
 
She was very, very skinny--clearly not well for awhile. You should be concerned about your other chins, she may have had a disease that can pass to them. It hasn't been that long of a time if it were me I would go and get her and keep her in the frig until tomorrow when you can take her to the vet for the necropsy--but the decision is yours.

If you choose not too, you need to make sure you buy a gram scale and weigh your other chins every week to see if they are losing weight or not.
 
we are getting a scale

I know for a fact if I put her in the fridge my mother would throw her in the garbage and yell at my gf and I. I mean when one of our chins got in a fight and was bleeding she saw it and came in and told my gf that she was getting chubby. Completely disregarding the chin. And when Corky died today she told us "Calm down. I told you to sell them anyways." We are getting a scale today and will start weighing them immediately.
 
I don't know, the chin is probably badly decomposed by now. I'd take the other chins into the vet and have them looked over very well. Also, I'd scrub everything down and clean everything and put in all new wood and other more porous cage accessories that could harbor anything.

There are many causes for weight loss. That includes parasites and disease. Take in the other chins so that you can have a thorough exam, a fecal test and possibly other tests to see if they are alright. The fecal test would determine if there are any parasites. Besides that cleanliness and good nutrition should be paramount at this point.
 
There is no way to know what she died of without the necropsy which is an animal autopsy. As Susan suggested if you bring the other chins in and have a fecal test done it could tell you if they have any parasites that could lead to their demise
 
There isn't a way to know what caused the issues, but I don't know about it being a possibility. After a chin dies there's only a small window of time that a necropsy is going to be doable unless the chin is placed in a refrigerated space. They could go dig her up. I don't know if the condition of the chin is going to be ideal for a good necropsy since it's been so long and out in the yard...
 
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