ever heard of this?

[bindithechinny]

im new to these forums but i had a question.

i lost one of my chinchillas yesterday. At night i went and did my usual goodnights and my chin bindi was completely fine. I woke up in the morning and she had given premature birth to her babies and was barely alive. I rushed her to the vet and me and him agreed surgery was a must thinking that there was another baby in there. She passed as soon as they gave her the anesthesia. My vet had offered to do a free autopsy because he himself was curious to what happened. He called me after and told me that what he discovered was way off from what we both thought. She had torn her caecium (dont know if i spelled that wrong) and the food she had eaten the night before was just sitting in her stomach unable to digest it. The stress of that caused her to give premature birth. He said even if he had gone in surgically there isnt much they can do for that. My question is, has this happened to anyone? have they heard of it? She hadnt been acting differently or eating/pooping any differently. The vet said they dont have many pain receptors their so its normal for them to act like nothings wrong.

 

[ticklechin]

If the chin had bloat and either it was not treated or the chin suffered a fall that struck the chest during bloat the cecum can rupture. The vet is wrong about the pain receptors, chins are prey animals, they will and do hide pain well until almost dead.

 

[saphire]

My! sorry for your loss.

 

[bindithechinny]

thank you.

if she had bloat, her poops would have been different/less. am i correct? which is making me think she fell because i cant tell you how much of my day i spend looking at chin poop!

 

[starleomach]

So much can go wrong with any life form it is a miracle things every go right. Once you have a chinchilla your world revolves around chinchilla poop.

 

[ticklechin]

With the ones I had, some produced normal poo, some produced large mucuosy poo, some produced hollow poo.

 

[bindithechinny]

So much can go wrong with any life form it is a miracle things every go right. Once you have a chinchilla your world revolves around chinchilla poop.

isn't that the truth!

If she had bloat for a while i feel like i would have caught it, but her poop was completely normal, and feeling her stomach really didnt work since she was pregnant it felt like a pregnant chin belly.

 

[RDZCRanch]

Did the vet JUST look at the cecum and then consider the autopsy done? I agree with Tickle that SOMETHING had to have made the cecum rupture. It's possibly she had an impaction or bloat combined with the pregnancy. Possibly the kit was sitting wrong and pushing on something that caused it? Either way it sounds like an isolated incident. Just some freak thing that can happen to chinchillas but isn't common. Like Kristy said...there are so many things that can go wrong, it's a wonder we all manage to keep chins alive for so long. I'm sorry you lost her and her baby.

 

[bindithechinny]

he had said that there was about a tablespoon of food sitting in her stomach that she wasn't able to digest, and that it looked like her digestive track was just starting to slow down. He said he thought it was either she had fell or laid down weird and caused the babies to push on it and tear it.

 

[Silverrose]

I have actually had a similar freak accident years ago with a chinchilla, although she was not pregnant at the time. My girl was not bloated, or in GI stasis, as she was eating fine and pooping and peeing. I even remember how mad I was for her peeing on my couch the night before she passed. Anyways, she was fine when I went to bed. Went to check on the chins the next morning, and all was still fine. So I went out for the day to run my errands, and came back late afternoon. I found her on her side, lethargic, barely moving, basically gasping for breath. Before I could even head out the door to the vet, she had already passed. I had a necropsy done, and the only thing abnormal found was blood in her caecum. There was no blockage in her GI tract, pathology was normal, and there were no parasites present. It was a mystery why she passed really, and it still is.

So, from my experience, I would probably say the pregnancy and premature labor had something to do with her caecum rupture, or vice versa. But it's possible that the two are separate, unrelated problems.

Sorry you had to join the forum on a not so happy note, but welcome anyways. Cherish the rest of your chinchillas, and rip to mom and baby.