Breathing heavily?

[tcraighenry]

We noticed our little one started breathing heavily last night. Or visibly at least. We got her in to an emergency vet (what can I say? Take no chances this time!) who had a lot of experience with chins and he said he couldn't find anything wrong with her.

She's eating, she's drinking, she was as active as always about the vet. Who didn't seem to traumatize her at all. She seems to love the attention. I just fed her some hay and gave her a stick to chew on. She was definitely pooping :O

And according to the brochure we got about chins, she seems healthy otherwise. She's fat, bright eyes and inquisitive.

According to the thermometer it hasn't been over 68 or fallen below 64.

But there was one thing we noticed last night when we got her home. She gagged on something and started wretching. She was eating at the time and nothing came up. When she stopped she just went back to eating her hay.

The one thing, when we took her out of her carrier there were all these weird seed like things in the bottom. We couldn't figure out what they were. I'm hoping it was in the hay and also that she didn't get into them.

We're keeping an eye on her. But have no idea what could be wrong.

 

[AZChins]

Breathing heavily usually is a sign that the chin is in pain. Normally when they are doing that and there are no clear signs of what is causing the pain it ends up being a digestive issue like bloat or blockage. Something else could be causing her a lot of pain - it could be something in her mouth or throat causing the gagging?

Years ago I had an older chin fall and we believed that he bruised himself or pulled muscles or something. A lady came over to see the chins and opened the cage door and he fell out... He would breathe heavily even when he was on pain medication, it took a few months for him to stop doing that even though he had no broken bones or anything else wrong.

Could your girl have fallen?

 

[Laurie]

Chins don't retch or vomit--is it possible she just started barking and kacking as when you watch them do this their body does make movement and could be confused with dry heaving.

What type of hay are you feeding? Usually there aren't seeds in hay.

 

[tcraighenry]

Breathing heavily usually is a sign that the chin is in pain. Normally when they are doing that and there are no clear signs of what is causing the pain it ends up being a digestive issue like bloat or blockage. Something else could be causing her a lot of pain - it could be something in her mouth or throat causing the gagging?

Years ago I had an older chin fall and we believed that he bruised himself or pulled muscles or something. A lady came over to see the chins and opened the cage door and he fell out... He would breathe heavily even when he was on pain medication, it took a few months for him to stop doing that even though he had no broken bones or anything else wrong.

Could your girl have fallen?

That's possible! She had a spurt of energy the other day and came flying out of her cage at me when I had the door open. She didn't really hit the floor, she landed on me but it's possible she bruised herself.

She's normal otherwise. And the vet felt for bloat and listened to her breathing. Everything a ok. I fed her a little this morning and she ate and chewed, drank some water last night.

She seems to be ok eating. She was munching away at her hay last night. I did notice she seems to have gone off her pellets a little.

 

[tcraighenry]

Chins don't retch or vomit--is it possible she just started barking and kacking as when you watch them do this their body does make movement and could be confused with dry heaving.

What type of hay are you feeding? Usually there aren't seeds in hay.

Oxbow Timothy. When we cleaned out her carrier no more appeared. It was very odd.

It might be possible, she could have been annoyed with us for staring at her while she ate and tried to bark.

Or possibly a yawn while she was eating?

 

[menagerie]

Chins don't retch or vomit--is it possible she just started barking and kacking as when you watch them do this their body does make movement and could be confused with dry heaving.

What type of hay are you feeding? Usually there aren't seeds in hay.

While chins can't vomit, they can choke. If what they are eating is choking or irritating them, they can bring it back up if it hasn't reached the point of no return in their esophagus.

 

[ticklechin]

Malo chins also choke as a FYI, they do not chew their food enough and can choke on the unchewed parts.

 

[tcraighenry]

I thought about that. But no ground up pellets and she hasn't been digging at her mouth. I'm tempted to say it was a one off and she was eating too quickly. I haven't seen her do it since.

And dang does she eat!

 

[tcraighenry]

We're watching her very closely. My husband told me she took quite a bit of a fall during playtime in the bathroom when I wasn't with her. (About 3 feet) Nothing broken but she may have been a little bruised.

We're putting boxes and fleece down to make sure that doesn't happen again. Especially after someone shared a story about their gal breaking her leg!

 

[tcraighenry]

Gah, this is so frustrating! She's still doing it but it still doesn't appear there's anything wrong.

Normal poops, bouncing, no wheezing, no sneezing that I can tell, eating and drinking.

Tonight it changed to a little more irregular.

No more retching or weird little seed things.

We're going to call the vet tomorrow.

I do have a very stupid question. What exactly does a sneeze look like? The vet tried to point it out when we got her but we couldn't see it.

 

[ticklechin]

By any chance can you take a video of her doing it with sound? I have alot of experience with URIs and chins with allergies dealing with all these malo chins and can spot those issues a mile away.

 

[tcraighenry]

I took one last night! I'll upload it this evening . It's probably worth mentioning, she isn't breathing like Christopher was when he was in shock. And I found the sick chin video on YouTube, it's nowhere near that severe.

I hope I'm being crazy chin lady.

 

[tcraighenry]

Yay! The vet came back to us. He said it sounds like it's normal chinchilla behavior and she might just be excited to see us. It's less labored and more rapid breathing. We only notice it when we're near the cage....

We did mention that at her first visit she was sneezing a little bit but no other serious symptoms of disease.

They didn't seem to think it was serious but it could be indicative of a chronic condition, so keep an eye on it.

(This was another exotics specialist. I love our vet, the receptionist said the regular one was out so they gave us the name and number of another clinic and doctor to talk to!)

I did notice some recent behavior changes that were positive. She was peeping at me last night. I've been putting my ear up to the cage to try and listen to her breathing. All fine unless she was breathing through my ear! And she was peeping and nibbling.

I also went and peeked into her big house (daytime sleeping place!) and she came running out to sit and stare at me for a minute and then go back to bed. So this might be a non starter, I'll post the video tonight anyway to see what you think!

 

[tcraighenry]

:hair:

Aghh. I thought I had some video of the breathing but I can't seem to get it well enough. And she won't hold still

We're keeping an eye on her.

 

[tcraighenry]

Oh wait, I did get one! And she's sneezing a bit. She doesn't do it all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QObuMjN1VHM&context=C268ceADOEgsToPDskIzmziE-mShS-KY_0da2a8J

 

[ticklechin]

I don't see anything alarming, I have seen mine do that small kack noise. The chin appears bright eyed and bushy tailed, looks like it is focusing on something. The breathing looks fine. Looks like a alert cute chin. Sneezes are more dramatic and coughing accompanies a sick looking chin whose breathing is heaving, the chin does not look sick to me.

 

[tcraighenry]

I don't see anything alarming, I have seen mine do that small kack noise. The chin appears bright eyed and bushy tailed, looks like it is focusing on something. The breathing looks fine. Looks like a alert cute chin. Sneezes are more dramatic and coughing accompanies a sick looking chin whose breathing is heaving, the chin does not look sick to me.

<3 Thank you. It's nice to know I'm being overly cautious.

I worry about her a little too much. :crazy:

 

[caiti]

I hope your chin is just freaking you out. I'm no expert, but she seemed ok in the video. Sometimes it is hard to tell when they are breathing quickly because they are alert and excited or because it is difficult to breath, I know. My chin sneezes occasionally too, and she's completely healthy if that makes you feel any better. She did seem focused on the law & order playing on the tv, heh.

 

[tcraighenry]

I hope your chin is just freaking you out. I'm no expert, but she seemed ok in the video. Sometimes it is hard to tell when they are breathing quickly because they are alert and excited or because it is difficult to breath, I know. My chin sneezes occasionally too, and she's completely healthy if that makes you feel any better. She did seem focused on the law & order playing on the tv, heh.

She loves Mariska Hargitay!