enlarged heart

[soysauce]

I just recently found out that my little soy sauce has an enlarged heart. Poor little chinchers. We took her in because she had terrible wheezing and the vet informed us of her enlarged heart. He said it was fairly common and a genetic trait. I have tried to do research on it but i havent come up with anything useful.
My main concern is how long will she live with this condition? The vet started her on a medication that is supposed to help shrink it along with a lasik and antibiotic. Soy sauce is 6 months old and i want my chinchers to have a healthy long life but im a little worried about her.
If any of you know about this or could direct me toward some better information that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[tunes]

I can't answer you as to how long she will live, but I can tell you that this is not fairly common in chins. You're actually the first person I've heard of in my 9 years of having chins with this condition, without something else. I have heard of enlarged hearts when a chin was ill with a severe upper respiratory tract infection, but not standing on it's own. Heart murmurs are heard of a lot more frequently, and even those a lot of times are misdiagnosed.

 

[Stackie]

The wheezing leads me to believe she has a URI. I recently had a chin with a URI and the x-ray also showed an enlarged heart. Usually the enlarged heart is in response to an illness- in his case- the pneumonia. It sounds like your chin has exactly the same thing going on. Does she have any mucous discharge from her nose? What about her eyes?

If it is an URI I would begin treating the chin with baytril ASAP. URI's go downhill fast and chins can die from them quickly. The sooner you begin treatment, the better.

 

[soysauce]

No she never had any discharge from her nose or her eyes. Her wheezing has gotten better although she does make noise every time she breathes now but not a wheeze. Soy sauce does make a bit of a coughing or sneezing noise. She just finished taking her prescribed baytril.

 

[soysauce]

thanks guys btw for your help

 

[ticklechin]

Chinchillas that are in congestive heart failure have an enlarged heart. As the disease progresses, the normal triangular shape of the heart becomes rounded is very noticeable on an x-ray. Valvular defects such as what my chin had, his was the mitral valve, cause the heart to enlarge and blood to pool in the organs and lungs. Because enlarged, the failing heart allows fluid to back up into the lungs and also press on the wind pipe which causes the weezing. Other signs you may notice in chins are tiredness, rapid breathing, poor appetite, an enlarged tummy, pale or bluish gums and ears, and a rapid, weak pulse.

There is treatment, furosemide to remove pooled fluids and blood, once these fluids are removed from the chins weezing and the pot-belly should go away. Lisinopril is used to expand the blood vessels so the heart does not have to beat as hard to get circulation going, this should relieve the tiredness and increase the appetite. If this chin is healthy otherwise-meaning no other genetic issues such as malo like my chin had, I would ask the vet about the drugs, this chin could live a quality like relieved of the symptoms. The chin will need to be on a low protein and low fat diet, no treats and preferably timothy only pellets and hay. I discussed treatment with mine, but due to malo and the need to be put under to file the teeth, we decided that the medium to long term longevity was not possible and he was PTS.

 

[soysauce]

Thanks for the info. I was planning on taking her to the vet again anyways. I will mention the medication to him to see what he thinks. She is healthy otherwise. I'm sorry to hear about your chin.