Chinchilla head tilt ... HELP!

[Lulu123]

My 1 year old chinchilla, Lulu, was fine the other night! I checked on her at 530 AM the next morning and realized she was CLUNG to her cage door which Ive never seen before. I thought she was dead because when I said her name she didnt move at all. Finally she hopped down but just sat in the corner lethargically. She was barely moving, had no interest in taking a dust bath until I actually removed her from the cage (then she hopped in and rolled around) and she just layed in her bath house for two hours and didnt even try to escape her low-wall play pen ( SO unlike her. )

Anyways, I immediately made an appt. with an exotic pet specialist. 68 dollars later, he told me she looked VERY healthy besides for her small head tilt and favoring her right side. He said he COULD prescribe an anti inflammatory or antibiotic, but didnt see a reason to. He said she may have pulled a muscle.

Im concerned because I know that chinchillas are good at hiding illness. She does seem to have more energy, but definitely isnt hopping around unless its because Im trying to pick her up. She's usually all over the place.

Her hammock was broken when I saw her the first morning, so perhaps she took a tumble out of it? Im hoping that all Im waiting on is her to heal, but I dont want to risk it.

I was reading about head tilt, and she had no sort of ear infection. I was also reading about listeriosis in chins, however, she is VERY spoiled and I keep her very clean so (she is also alone, no other chins) so I dont see how she could have gotten a bacterial infection. ANY IDEAS? please give me some feedback, shes my baby!

Any way this little head tilt COULD just be from a muscle sprain??

 

[tunes]

I very, very highly doubt it. True head tilt comes with ear infections, respiratory infections, or neurological damage. You need to find a new vet and get a second opinion. Chins don't just have head tilt and head tilt in a chin is deadly if not treated swiftly. The lethargy is also very concerning. I'm wondering if your chin was hurt falling off of a shelf or during play time.

 

[Lulu123]

Like I said, I think she may have actually fallen out of her hammock. One of the corners was ripped. She doesn't seem lethargic anymore, but just seems a little more...calm, maybe due to her possibly having an injury?

As for a second opinion, I went to the most highly regarded exotic pet specialist around :/

 

[Lulu123]

PS- I used to breed rabbits and know what wry neck looks like. Lulus neck isnt tilted THAT much, more just off center I guess?

 

[AZChins]

Head tilt almost always has something to do with an ear issue. If I had Lulu here, it would drive me crazy knowing that she has a tilt to her head like that even if the vet said that nothing was really wrong. I really hate giving out antibiotics unless it's necessary...but in this case I would probably have asked the vet to give me something even if it was just in case.

Like Tunes said...head tilt is from infections or neurological issues. I've never seen a chin with a pulled muscle have this problem. It seems like a strange conclusion for the vet to come to, but I don't know what he was seeing.

How badly does her head tilt? Is she losing her balance at all when she moves around?

I'm thinking this chin either has an infection or has hit her head and has some damage that is more severe than just a pulled muscle. A chin that has a pulled muscle will act normally usually...maybe just move a little funny, it usually doesn't involve the chin not wanting to move.

Where are you located? We can try to find another vet for you to go to.

 

[Lulu123]

Thanks for your replies. Her head is barely tilted...I mean barely. It took the vet a while to notice on his own. She is kind of favoring her right side, and rather than it being "rotated," it almost looks as if shes turning her head HORIZONTALLY a little bit to the right. She's still eating, drinking, pooping, and hopping up on her toys. I went to give her a small piece of dried papaya yesterday, and where she usually RIPS it from my fingers, she simple gently pulled at it. She definitely wanted it, but it seemed like she didnt want to pull at it by using her neck, which also made me think it could be a muscle.

I live in Mass, and went to River Road Veterinary hospital in Andover. Dr. George seemed like he knew a lot about chins, and I was glad he didn't force any drugs on her just to get my money because like I said, I had rabbits and know that can potentially be a dangerous route for smaller animals.

I put her on the floor for the vet to look at her, she was running all around. She doesn't seem any SLOWER, but the slight tilt does affect her balance a little (ex- when she jumped up onto her igloo, she had to catch her balance).

She has been letting me pet her, but if I touch her head she kind of pulls it away and puts her front feet up to get her head away from me.

 

[EMSChins]

I have a hard time believing that a vet that only charged $68 for his services did all that much to investigate a cause for the tilt or even looked into the injury seriously.

I have a chin with head tilt and if you read my thread, you can see that it can get quite serious very quickly: http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23591&highlight=head+tilt

I would never take head tilt lightly. BTW - your chinchilla should not be given papaya, she is not a rabbit and fruits are not good for chins.

 

[Lulu123]

He said that he will call in a couple of days. If she seems to be doing worse, he wants to do blood work. He said that her ears looked really good. He watched her hop around and noticed her curiosity and pep (obviously more normal).

My problem is that I am going back to school tonight, but I will be home in the afternoon Thursday. Four days seems so long to leave her like this, but she really does seem fine. I dont want to overlook anything, though.

My mom will be here with her until then, and I will be calling every night to see how she is doing.

So besides the fact that I should get a second opinion or go back for bloodwork, what are ya'll thinking? He probably, with 14 years of experience with exotics, would have at least recognized an ear infection. So if it ISNT a muscle problem, perhaps she had a stroke or seizure (are those common?), or neurological??

My poor baby :temp:

 

[AZChins]

That's good to hear that she's feeling better! I think chins with a head tilt no matter how slight make us chin people freak out because of all the times we have seen or heard of chins having serious problems with ear infections and other issues. If one of my chins here had that problem, we'd email the vet and get an appointment right away. (That's because little problems blow up into big problems sometimes in the matter of a few hours with chins, they are just so delicate when it comes to things like this!)

You should watch her very closely over the next few days. If anything at all seems off, take her back to the vet. I do hope that it is just an injury that will heal up soon.

 

[ticklechin]

Is this chinchilla eating and drinking normally?

 

[RDZCRanch]

Very very slight head tilt can also be from twisting which is caused by bloat or other GI problems. I would also make sure she is eating and drinking normally and that her poop is a normal size. I am still trying to pull a baby through bloat/GI stasis and he was doing the very slight head tilt and losing his balance which was all caused by him being uncomfortable and stretching and twisting as much as he could.

 

[Lulu123]

She is eating and drinking normally...seems she's been preferring her hay over her pellet but that's pretty usual for her.

 

[Lulu123]

Very very slight head tilt can also be from twisting which is caused by bloat or other GI problems. I would also make sure she is eating and drinking normally and that her poop is a normal size. I am still trying to pull a baby through bloat/GI stasis and he was doing the very slight head tilt and losing his balance which was all caused by him being uncomfortable and stretching and twisting as much as he could.

that's very interesting! Like I said, she is eating/drinking normally.... eating her poop but she always has and I read that was pretty normal especially in younger chins. She's been pooping as much as usual.

 

[Lulu123]

So it's Thursday and I'm home to see Lulu, she seems SO much better!!! She is crazy as usual, TONS of energy. I still see a very, very slight crook in her neck, but it's hardly noticeable. Still wondering what it could be from.She's been rarely sleeping in her hammock, so I think that may have been the problem because I've noticed that now she tends to just lay on her levels of her cage instead of napping in her hammock, poor girl!