Dealing with chin's first medical experience.. Strange behavior.

[bealivia]

It's day two since I brought Lliam back from the vet..


On Monday I noticed that he had a huge hole in him that appeared out of no where, and is still a mystery. I made it just in time before the vet closed and left him there overnight. The vet reported that it may have been an abscess, caused by some type of trauma. The hole was located in his armpit, and was pretty deep with a good amount of blood.

So I took him home on tuesday, prescribed with a topical cream 2x a day, antibiotic 2x a day(ciprofloxacin), and pain medication once a day (metacam).

The medicine administering is a huge stressful ordeal, I've been using the burrito method, though he slips right out, like trying to grab a fish. He hates me now, he doesn't bite me but he scratches me. he eventually gets so tired from the struggle he just takes it easily.

I feel like this is an excessive amount of product to be giving him when he doesn't eat much.(I skipped out on the pain medication today, he doesn't seem to be in too much pain) He refuses to eat his pellets(and rose hips), but is all about his hay willow branches, and oats. The thing is, I had him on Mazuri the last year and a half. But i went out and bought Ox Bow last week (Petsmart graciously discontinued it), then this happened a few days later so i thought possibly it could be a food allergy.

The thing is that he is just rubbing his face in the pellets instead of eating them, as if it were a dust bath perhaps, or he is trying to rub off the ointment. I have no idea why.. I ordered some Mazuri offline. He is only eating and drinking a little, but poops are happening, so thats good.

I still can't figure out the definite cause of his wound. I had thought he chewed a hole in himself! the vet said she THINKS it could have been a ruptured abscess. I could attach pictures, but basically I'm just asking for any helpful advice to make this easier on him. I appreciate any help

 

[ticklechin]

Chin needs to be syringe fed if its not eating, its not just a matter of it being hungry, the digestive tract can slow down and die if it does not have food in it. I know that does not help with the diagnosis but it needs to happen.

 

[bealivia]

I thought I would try and wait until the Mazuri comes in the mail before i attempted critical care... He has been eating hay as normal. But if off Timothy hay can't sustain him for now I could go out and buy Critical Care. The fact that it is Ox Bow concerns me.. he doesn't want anything to do with Ox Bow.

I tried to trick him by rubbing a raison on a few ox bow pellets.. and it worked until the third pellets. (I don't feed him raisons now, i used to when i first got him, before i realized it was bad for him, which was over a year ago)

 

[Lillybabe]

I'm with Dawn. He needs to be handfed if he's having health issues I don't think hay is enough. With health stuff chins can drop tons of weight overnight. They need food and water working through their GI tract at a steady rate. I doubt that it's the Oxbow he hates. If he's in pain he probably doesn't want to eat any pellets let alone a new type he's never had before. Chinchillas have been known to snub new food when it's offered. Critical Care should be fed with a syringe like the meds. He needs to eat it whether he hates it or not. I've never heard of a chinchilla being allergic to a specific brand of food. The Mazuri is going to have most of the same things in it as the Oxbow. I'd recommend other forms of powder supplement foods but likely you can't get any of them locally and he needs to be handfed tonight. Not in a few days when you see if he'll eat the new Mazuri.

 

[melbur10]

i would not skip out on the pain meds.

and agree with every thing said previously.

borritos only go so far with chins and me.. i prefer to hold them with one hand around the chest , thier backs againt my chest and a hand either underneeth them, holding their tail, or giving the med. same with when i hand feed.

 

[Riven]

I guess a couple things jumped out at me, I'd inspect your cage really good for any place he could get caught. Usually abscesses don't bleed a lot because the tissue is so spread out and the infection is into the surrounding tissue. Not saying it can't happen, just saying that normally you can lance an abscess with very little or no blood.

Burrito works great if you do it right, kind of "fold" the towel a little and get it between the neck and shoulders snuggly, make sure the paws are in there. If they are, then they can't get out.

This is where I sound really heartless, it doesn't matter if he hates you. It matters that he gets better and the infection doesn't spread or the GI stops. As for the pain meds, would you be in a pain if you had a wound like that? Then he is too. They don't sit around and whine about every thing like humans do, if they do in the wild something eats them because they see that they are weaker than the others. It's a survival issue.

 

[bealivia]

I picked up some critical care ox bow and i'm going to give it to him soon, i haven't skipped out on the pain meds yet but just 1/3 less of the dose usually.. mostly because I was concerned about the amount of medicine in a lack of nutrients in his system...the wound isn't very big and he is acting almost normal.. He still runs in his wheel and jumps around!

The first suspect of the injury was this perch log thing I got from camphor chins, i thought it was possible he got caught in a faulty jump maybe? there wasn't a lot of blood but not that little either..

Ill have to work on the burrito-ing ordeal.. it's a complete nightmare. I tried using a smaller towel and it seemed to be easier to manage. I am just thankful he hasn't resorted to biting me, hahaha.

 

[Lillybabe]

Sometimes I wonder if us humans would be better off if there was something around to eat us when we whined.... *grins*

Burrito or don't burrito but you've got to get the food and meds in the chinchilla. At first my little guy was extra skittish, hid from me more, barked and jittered at me, but he got over it. He'd have died the first 6 months I had him instead of 5 years later if I hadn't made him hate me for a little bit. They get over it. I usually gave a dustbath or a shreddie or some scritches to show there were no hard feelings after. After a while it got easier and he'd eat the food off a plate. You're doing something weird to them and they don't get it. I cried through my first few dozen handfeedings. It broke my heart to see him ill and to see him fight me but I made sure he ate.

 

[bealivia]

Surprisingly, my small town had Ox Bow Critical Care on hand, and hand fed him tonight, on top of his other prescriptions. It is difficult but i'm trying my best to give him everything he needs. He goes through phases of being reluctant to the hand feeding, and accepting it, but over all it went pretty well. But I do think that I may have miscalculated the amount of food for his serving because there was more than i think was needed..

I had never completely cut out his pain medication, just cut back a bit on the dosage, because i thought that it would be a bit harsh for his system without his primary pellet food.

The vet told me not to allow allow dust baths until further notice, which concerns me because i feel that his fur is getting more oily with the amount of handling.. but he has managed to force himself into his dust bath regardless... the sore has forms a decent scab so i don't think its all that serious if he forcefully gives himself a dust bath..

I had a small syringe with the end cut off to give him his Critical Care food with, i cut off the end of it so it had a wider opening, but the washer fell down the drain.. and is now useless he wants nothing to do with a little saucer of it in his cage. Ill probably have to go buy another one. Thanks so much for all the assistance, I hope things make progress!

 

[ChinnyMom]

if he has an injury then i would remove his wheel. running around/exercise will slow the healing process.

 

[Lillybabe]

How is he forcefully giving himself a dustbath? If there is no dustbath in his cage he shouldn't be able to dustbath. I would worry about the dust getting in the spot and causing infection or slowing healing. Also that area is probably sore and doesn't need further dried out with dust.