Chin has pneumonia

[tcraighenry]

This is rapidly becoming a Cinnamon sick blog.

She's still off her food. The vet gave us a probiotic and an appetite enhancer that seems to be working very well for hand feeding. She's now biting down on the syringe to get food but still not eating on her own. She is looking much better than Tuesday where she seemed kind of thin and ropey. She's also much stronger, which makes her harder to feed. She's down from 680 to 630 weight wise

 

[ticklechin]

If you are getting enough food in her she won't want to eat on her own yet, I personally hand feed until whatever illness is over and then work on weaning off hand feeding.

 

[tcraighenry]

Yeah, I was reading about that. I told my husband we should probably be prepared to do this for at least two weeks while she's on her meds. Probably three.

 

[ticklechin]

How is she doing?

 

[tcraighenry]

She's doing well! Still tired but that's likely the infection. But her ears are up and she's all chubby like she's supposed to be. Also poops. Smaller than normal but lots of poops. The vet said he saw some indication of muscle damage in the blood work (?) that he thinks is related but no cardiac problems or indications of cancer.

He also recommended getting her some loose hay (she normally eats hay cubes and pellets) that she's been getting in to. But! She did eat a few pellets last night by herself! She's still doing well with the hand feeding. We have another 5 days to go until she's done with the course.

The exotics vet said the emergency vet gave her too high of a dose originally. The probiotics and the appetite enhancers have been a god send. I honestly think without those two things we could have lost her.

Oh and the Lifeline arrived!

 

[tcraighenry]

Just a quickie update on Cinnamon. She's still on the antibiotics, the appetite enhancer and the probiotics. She's still pooping up a storm and very wriggly. We have 3 more days of meds.

The vet recommended loose hay to get her to eat something and it's working! She's grabbing stalks and chewing on them. I have hope she'll eat on her own come Saturday when she's off the medication. She's picking up energy wise as well. We found her in her tube on the second level of her cage this morning, which is more Cinnamon like behavior than just hanging out in her little house. She's also showing more signs of being inquisitive and bouncy.

I think next time we're just going to straight up ask for the other medications in addition to the baytril. White chinchilla seems fine so far but we're going to get her in for a check up after Cinnamon gets the all clear.

 

[ticklechin]

Good to hear she is doing well!

 

[tcraighenry]

Final update! Cinnamon came through. The vet gave her a clean bill of health. Blood work is normal, her appetite is normal, she's behaving like her pre-sick self. She's back to normal.

She did lose a bit of weight, which is somewhat worrying but her appetite is good.

 

[ticklechin]

YAY!

 

[Airyn]

That's great news! Happy to hear it!

 

[tcraighenry]

Thank you guys . I'm so grateful for this forum sometimes in situations like these! This is the first time we've really anything go wrong with either of these chins (except Vincenza had a cold when we adopted her but it passed.)

And I learned always get a second opinion if the vet isn't used to working with chins!

I honestly think we would have lost her had we not got her into the exotics vet. There was something about her blood work that he said was the equivalent of her dropping 10 feet straight down that's totally back to normal now, some indication of inflammation or infection from the pneumonia that looked so minor on an xray. She barely showed any symptoms it helps to be hyper vigilant with these little fuzzy butts. (At last my neuroticism pays off!)

Thank you again for the advice and support!

 

[SuperDuper ChinnieBaby]

Ive been told and have read raisins are not good and should be given not often at all or even never

 

[Alanson009]

May i ask how long did it take for the baytril to take affect?