My chinchilla was the sweetest thing in the world. It made her day whenever she saw me and I loved her so much. I love all my pets equally but this girl was a true friend. Whenever I offered her treats she’d nibble my hand to let me know what she really wanted was my pets. I gave her a safe place and what she needed, and she knew it. She was my baby. I’d have done anything for her.
When something went wrong for with her health, I tried my best and I failed miserably. I made grave mistakes, which I will talk about because I hope this doesn’t Happen to you. Yet I’m also posting this because I do need advice on what happened because hindsight is 20/20. I need to learn more from this because I can’t let my boy chinchilla down when it’s time for him to go.
Hopefully you can learn from this or if you
have had this experience, maybe you can help me learn from this.
It all started this past Monday when I had accidentally shut my cat in the room with them. I’d had them all together in the same house for years without problems, but this time I slipped up. It had been hours if not longer, and my girlfriend heard him and let him out. I didn’t even know this had happened yet.
At first when I was checking on her, I thought she just didn’t come out. But after a few days I started investigating more I noticed she made a crying sound that was a serious of soft squeaks when I touched her body. She loved the chin scritches. It had been days and I didn’t think she had been eating or drinking and I panicked. I took her to the emergency exotic vet.
They gave her buprenorphine, did an ultrasound, hand fed her, gave her iv fluids, and sent me home to come back in the morning for an X-ray and blood test. They offered to watch overnight, and I declined thinking it would she would feel safer with me.
I took her home, hand fed her, and slept in the chinchilla room with her. She had been lethargic. I stayed up all night watching her, and after she slept a little she seemed to be feeling better. My girlfriend told me what happened with the cat, and I immediately suspected Pasteurella not
Went to the vet, they hand fed her again, gave her iv fluids again, gave her buprenorphine again which I didn’t know they were going to do again. But they said she looked much better and said I could just take her home and keep hand feeding her until she ate and drank on her own. I was so hopeful. My baby was going to be okay.
On the way home, a block away, she flipped over on her back in the carrier. I stopped the car…I thought this was it. I didn’t know if I turned to Sharp or if she was having a seizure. She got back up.
I put her in her cage, and after about six hours she started moving around. She seemed to be doing good at first until I noticed she was going around to things she used to be interested in and starting to do something and then stopping. She checked out the hay in her bowl and stopped. She went to the water bottle but wouldn’t drink it. I put her old giant stuffed animal that she used to love, but I had taken it out because she chewed it open. I saw a spark in her eyes, she leaned up on it like she used to and groomed it. Yet she had no balance and had trouble moving. I had let her run around the room, and I’m really ashamed this happened, but I opened the door to get out and one the cats came in and started her. She fell over. I removed the cat immediately of course and watched her for hours trying to decide if I should hand feed her as recommended. she grazed a little hay out of my hand, like just a nibble. I almost didn’t do it. She had been showing good signs like the grazing and cleaning her whiskers. Then I saw her dried tiny poops and I panicked. I hand fed her.
This hand feeding felt so wrong, yet I believed that it had to be done to keep her going. It was probably 5ml. But towards the end she looked at me and cried like when she was a baby. It broke my heart. I was so scared I hurt her and applied pressure wrong.
She was different after that feeding. I let her out to see if she would feel better sleeping by me like last night, yet she went to the corner of the room and stayed there.
I stayed up all night watching her, and she kept resting through the morning. But I saw her struggling to move, wobbling side to side worse than before. I reached out to who I could, I looked online for help, I had no idea what to do. I was still scared it could be Pasteurella. She showed signs of being in pain, like grinding teeth and making a yawning like expression without yawning. This was wrong and I panicked took her back to the vet.
They said they heard something like a heart murmur, and recommended against doing an X-ray. They made it sound like she was doing good back there but when they brought her out she was still wobbling and off balance. They had hand fed her and gave her an antibiotic, smz/tmp.
I took my baby home and she died a painful death within hours. I loved her so much. Words can’t explain how broken I am. to put this precious being that truly loved me through so much suffering. I let her down and put her through stress until it killed her. It doesn’t help when people say I did my best, because I ****** up in the first place and I believe if I just left her alone she would have had a better chance at recovering. I don’t want to make my boy suffer when it’s his time to go. He’s an old boy.
When something went wrong for with her health, I tried my best and I failed miserably. I made grave mistakes, which I will talk about because I hope this doesn’t Happen to you. Yet I’m also posting this because I do need advice on what happened because hindsight is 20/20. I need to learn more from this because I can’t let my boy chinchilla down when it’s time for him to go.
Hopefully you can learn from this or if you
have had this experience, maybe you can help me learn from this.
It all started this past Monday when I had accidentally shut my cat in the room with them. I’d had them all together in the same house for years without problems, but this time I slipped up. It had been hours if not longer, and my girlfriend heard him and let him out. I didn’t even know this had happened yet.
At first when I was checking on her, I thought she just didn’t come out. But after a few days I started investigating more I noticed she made a crying sound that was a serious of soft squeaks when I touched her body. She loved the chin scritches. It had been days and I didn’t think she had been eating or drinking and I panicked. I took her to the emergency exotic vet.
They gave her buprenorphine, did an ultrasound, hand fed her, gave her iv fluids, and sent me home to come back in the morning for an X-ray and blood test. They offered to watch overnight, and I declined thinking it would she would feel safer with me.
I took her home, hand fed her, and slept in the chinchilla room with her. She had been lethargic. I stayed up all night watching her, and after she slept a little she seemed to be feeling better. My girlfriend told me what happened with the cat, and I immediately suspected Pasteurella not
Went to the vet, they hand fed her again, gave her iv fluids again, gave her buprenorphine again which I didn’t know they were going to do again. But they said she looked much better and said I could just take her home and keep hand feeding her until she ate and drank on her own. I was so hopeful. My baby was going to be okay.
On the way home, a block away, she flipped over on her back in the carrier. I stopped the car…I thought this was it. I didn’t know if I turned to Sharp or if she was having a seizure. She got back up.
I put her in her cage, and after about six hours she started moving around. She seemed to be doing good at first until I noticed she was going around to things she used to be interested in and starting to do something and then stopping. She checked out the hay in her bowl and stopped. She went to the water bottle but wouldn’t drink it. I put her old giant stuffed animal that she used to love, but I had taken it out because she chewed it open. I saw a spark in her eyes, she leaned up on it like she used to and groomed it. Yet she had no balance and had trouble moving. I had let her run around the room, and I’m really ashamed this happened, but I opened the door to get out and one the cats came in and started her. She fell over. I removed the cat immediately of course and watched her for hours trying to decide if I should hand feed her as recommended. she grazed a little hay out of my hand, like just a nibble. I almost didn’t do it. She had been showing good signs like the grazing and cleaning her whiskers. Then I saw her dried tiny poops and I panicked. I hand fed her.
This hand feeding felt so wrong, yet I believed that it had to be done to keep her going. It was probably 5ml. But towards the end she looked at me and cried like when she was a baby. It broke my heart. I was so scared I hurt her and applied pressure wrong.
She was different after that feeding. I let her out to see if she would feel better sleeping by me like last night, yet she went to the corner of the room and stayed there.
I stayed up all night watching her, and she kept resting through the morning. But I saw her struggling to move, wobbling side to side worse than before. I reached out to who I could, I looked online for help, I had no idea what to do. I was still scared it could be Pasteurella. She showed signs of being in pain, like grinding teeth and making a yawning like expression without yawning. This was wrong and I panicked took her back to the vet.
They said they heard something like a heart murmur, and recommended against doing an X-ray. They made it sound like she was doing good back there but when they brought her out she was still wobbling and off balance. They had hand fed her and gave her an antibiotic, smz/tmp.
I took my baby home and she died a painful death within hours. I loved her so much. Words can’t explain how broken I am. to put this precious being that truly loved me through so much suffering. I let her down and put her through stress until it killed her. It doesn’t help when people say I did my best, because I ****** up in the first place and I believe if I just left her alone she would have had a better chance at recovering. I don’t want to make my boy suffer when it’s his time to go. He’s an old boy.
