Chinchilla choke when eating - urgent

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.

roxana_ifrim

New member
Joined
Feb 18, 2013
Messages
3
Hello,

I'm writing from Romania, and here there are no vets specialized in chinchilla. The chinchilla products are also poor. For example, I can not find Critical Care.
So, I really need your help and advices, because I'm desperate.

I had 2 male chinchillas: Red (4.5 years old) and Blu (5 years old). They did not come from the same breeder.
Red died last year in November, cause still undetermined.
Red's symptoms were:
- when eating, he seemed to choke with food. Something like in this movie on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MUsa7SnIsY

- after a while, the fur under his mouth started to get wet and the saliva smelled bad
- then he could not eat by himself, and i started to syringe feed him...his appetite was ok, but he could not eat solid food
- the vet discovered a sort of afta on his palate, and treat him with injections to support his immune system, antibiotics and Vitamin C
- after a while, the afta seemed to disappear, but the problem of choking remained
- then we suspected the back teeth to be the problem, because the front teeth look ok and yellow. So I took him to X rays, but the doctors still could not tell what the problem was. I have attached it to this post.
- i kept to syringe feed him, but in about 2-3 months he died. He was loosing weight every day.

I asked my vet to do him a necropsy. All his organs were ok, except the intestines who didn't have any mucous. They looked like small transparent tubes. So the vet said the cause of death was starvation. He did not assimilate the food I was giving him.

So, I thought Red's problem was maybe a genetic one or something isolated....until now.
This week I saw that Blu started to choke sometimes when he eats. I really can't tell what the problem is, and it is very upsetting.
Blu is eating ok and in the last 3 weeks he had a constant weight of 700 gr. But I can tell that something is wrong and I don't have a good vet to go to.

I must tell that he is eating food from Versele-Laga Chinchilla Nature (best I can find here), fresh hay, he has rodent stones with calcium and drinks only bottled water.

What do you think about this case?
Please help, I don't want to lose Blu too!

Many thanks,
Roxana
 

Attachments

  • xray.jpg
    xray.jpg
    38.3 KB
The chin in the x-ray had severe malocclusion, advanced root elongation, periapical abscess and lots of gas. A death sentance even with feeding. The chin you are asking about has a key dental symptom, that chin should also have a x-ray because if it also has malo and elongation there is nothing you can do but supportive care.
 
The chin in the x-ray had severe malocclusion, advanced root elongation, periapical abscess and lots of gas. A death sentance even with feeding. The chin you are asking about has a key dental symptom, that chin should also have a x-ray because if it also has malo and elongation there is nothing you can do but supportive care.

Many thanks for your fast reply.
None of my vets saw anything else on this x-ray except malocclusion and gas... After I study the internet I was the one to come to the conclusion that it was also root elongation...
Can you please explain what "periapical abscess" means? I never heard of it and I can not find a corespondent word in Romanian.

I will take Blu as fast as i can to the vet for a x-ray. I will post it here too, maybe you can help.
I don't understand why is this happening after 3 months of Red's death. Same symptoms...
It is true that I bought them from sellers on the internet, because pet shops are even worse here. So maybe their parents were having problems that passed to the babies too.

It is frustrating not to have here a good vet that could treat chinchillas:(

Please excuse if my English is not so good. I hope I can make myself understood.
 
Upper rear molar you can see a dark circle at the base of the root, that is a periapical abscess-a pus pocket at the base of the tooth.
 
Do you think that all those problems revealed on the X ray can be from malnutrition? Improper food or something?
Is Verselle-Laga bad food? Did I do something wrong?
They always have things to chew on in the cage, so I can not understand why this is happening.
 
Malocclusion can be genetic or it can be enviromental or it can start from a injury, there is no way to tell for sure what causes it.
 
Back
Top