At what point do you consider a chinchilla "sick"? Or "sick enough" to be put down?

[JodiO]

Please don't allow yourself to be full of the " should haves". It will only drive you insane. Instead remember the good home you gave Jinx, all the love given & how she is now pain free.

 

[greychins]

That's very true. She was loved and spoiled and cared for well. We had her filed several times, my dad pointed out that she would have lived a much shorter life had we not done the original filing when she was very young - which is true. Some people (not so much people on here, but some people) wouldn't have even done one filing with the thinking, that's too expensive for a pocket pet. But we loved her and spoiled her the best we knew how, while she was here, so I'd like to think that if she could have chosen, she would have picked to stay here with us.

 

[MOM-ABBYS-CHINS3]

I am sorry i would put him down i have had a chin to die on me with babies i know the pain it took weeks every time i looked at those babies i cried but our duty as humans is to not let anything suffer. Please dont make your decission on my oppinion but just take it all in and you make the final decission may the lord comfort u and your family thru this difficult time

 

[ticklechin]

http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30724

 

[ChilliPepper]

Back on topic, I have always had the feeling that if a condition can be controlled with minimal intervention from us, then it is worth the time and money. For example, we lost our cat in December. When we took him in at the end of October, we were given several options. The initial visit the vet was able to palpate an enlarged and hardened kidney, but wanted to wait for the results of the bloodwork and urinalysis to offer a diagnosis. At that point, his opinion was that he was suffering from kidney cancer, not just chronic renal failure. We were given some options as far as testing to definitively confirm the diagnosis, along with a few treatment options. We agreed to an xray, but declined an invasive biopsy. We felt that at 15.5, he had lived a great life and if it was in fact cancer, he deserved to be treated well for what ever time he had left. Again, with administering fluids at home, we did it twice, but felt that it was too distressing to him to repeat. We realized that he was at the end of his life, and it was not worth the expense or the discomfort of being poked and prodded to maintain his life for our sakes. When it was time, we had a fairly peaceful end here at home. On the other hand, with my malo chin, we file as needed, periodically xray and do bloodwork to make sure his kidneys and liver are still ok and keep an eye on him. The difference is that as long as we keep an eye on it, Chilli can still live a normal chinnie life, running around, taking dustbaths, nibbling at my hair, begging for oats. I have always based decisions on quality of life/ expected outcome. Like with Dickens, why subject him to surgery when there was nothing we could do to make it better anyway. A retest of bloodwork two weeks later gave us the same result and was easier on him.