dissapointing trip to the vets...

[Cookie]

So I just had to take one of my chinchillas to an emergency vet because it's late here and no where else is open inlcuding my usual vet. When I phoned ahead they told me I was in luck because their exotic specialist was the vet that night and I could come right in. Whats happened is last night Mika was making a wierd sound that I've never heard her or my other chinchilla make before, it was a very high pitched but not very loud kind of squeek or whine and sounded like she was hurt or in pain from something so I got up to check on her and she seemed ok and would stop for a bit before making the sound again. Overall the whole night she didnt seem to move around a whole lot (I usually hear it because they are in my bedroom) but I had to work both jobs today and she seemed better this morning. Well when I got home she seemed quite lethargic and was making that sound again whenever I woke her up and other than that was just sleeping with her sister. When her sister started moving around Mika still just lay around and just looked really off, she had her ears back more than usual and seems to be breathing way faster too. So considering it had been 24 hours since I first noticed her acting this way I checked her over and couldn't find anything but brought her to the emergency vet anyways because I was worried about her. Well the vet thinks shes skinny and bony because she only weighs 548g but shes always been a small chinchilla and same with her sister but ok I'll try to get her weight up a bit, thats fine. Then the vet asks if I feed fruit and veggies and I say no because I don't and Ive heard not to and she looked at me like i was crazy and told me to start giving her some. Then she went to the back and got something to give to her which I figured would be medicine or something but no she comes back and gives her a peice of a date and apple! Then tells me that the other chinchilla is probably bullying her and I should seperate them which I don't think is happening. Also to go to a petstore and buy a wheel which I hadn't done because they are plastic and too small but according to her "they are a good size and ok to use" Overall she just seemed quite rude in the way she spoke to me and didn't really seem all that knowledgable about chinchillas. She did take a sample of the couple poops Mika did in her travel cage to examine under the microscope which she'll get back to me later about but other than that Mika's still acting the same and I'm not sure what to do...any suggestions? Ive kept track of her weight and she hasnt been losing lately, her poops seem normal and she gets mauzuri and good quality hay as well as wood to chew on etc. The only treats they get are ones like organic rosehips, whole oats (not quick cook kinda, no preservatives), non sugared shreddies, alfalfa cubes and just stuff like that but only very occasionally. Sorry about how long this got I just wanted to make sure it's detailed enough so maybe someone here will be able to help. If I've left anything out just let me know. Thanks.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

I would find another experienced vet to take her to ASAP =D

 

[Cookie]

Yeah I'm going to try and get her into my regular vet as soon as I can but they don't open until the morning.

 

[Tagna]

Where are you located? That vet isn't one I'd ever go to. Aye aye aye.

 

[Cookie]

So just a an update, last night she was still making those sounds and then this morning I checked on her and she seemed the same and I picked her up to make sure everything was all ok and put her back in her cage again and she jumped up to her favorite shelf and then go this dazed look and literally just fell over and her legs/whole body just went all stiff and she stayed down for a few seconds and then sort of got up but then fell the other way and just had no control really of what happened and her legs twitched a bit and stuck straight out. So we called my usual vet but they're apparently closed on sundays so we went to an emergency clinic which was about 20 mins away but they couldn't find anything. The test that the other vet did last night came clear so they say its not anything in the intestines and we got bloodwork done today and just waiting for results on that. After she had this whole falling over thing she sat so still on my lap which she never does for about 10 minutes while we were calling around for a vet (we were not going back to the same one as last night!) and then slowely seemed to get back to moving around normally again. The vet doesn't want to give any antibiotics until she knows what she's treating but I'm pretty worried about her escpecially after what happened this morning. Has anyone heard of anything like this happening before or have any ideas whats going on? Is there anything I can do while we wait for test results to come in?

 

[Silverrose]

It sounds like you are describing some sort of seizure. I only have experience dealing with a chin with hypoglycemic seizures, but from your descriptions this does not seem like the reason your chin is having them. So I would think something neurological is going on. How old is the chin?

 

[Cookie]

She's only just over a year old

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Is she in with another chin? Is there any chance the other one could be beating up on her? We had a male that had a seizure fit after his girl beat up on him. We separated him, nursed him back and he lived a full life afterwards. That's my only experience with seizures in chins.

 

[AllieKatt]

Is there any up-dates?

 

[Vcchinchilla]

I hope everything is going well, please update us so we know how your doing