I lost my sweet Luna..need advice

[jrosler04]

Ok, So i sadly must start this thread with the sad news that I lost my gorgeous little snuggle bug Luna. She was one of the first chinchillas that I got, and I just loved her cuddly personality, she would climb out of the cage & sit with me for quite awhile munching on a shreddy or snuggled up on a pillow watching tv. She was rather young, only a few years (exact age is unknown)

I would like to post what happened & see if I can get some insight on what happened to my girl. I feel like i did something wrong... and if so, I want to change it for the health of my other chinchillas.

I was late evening (probably 7pm or so) and I was cleaning cages & dusting chinchillas as my usual ritual.

I take them out 1 at a time, put them in the dustbox which is in a cage of it's own. And While they dust, I clean cages, this particular evening, my younger brother was helping me install the shelves I had worked SO hard on into the new cages, so they each got about 20 minutes in the dust.

Luna dusted perfectly fine as usual, and had a blast jumping & Playing around, she went second, (same order as always, as I go by the order of the cages) and I put her back in her house, and finished everyone up, she was fine, having a BLAST playin on her new ledges & shelves (all made out of pear wood from my front yard, NO CHEMICALS EVER, scrubbed, boiled, and baked by me)

I finished & took all the fleecies outside to shake them out, and I came back & offered everyone a shreddie (as I do everytime I clean) and Luna kind of staggered to me when she came to get it. I was like "what the heck?" and she took it & just fell over onto her side.

She acted as though she was "drunk" or something, staggering & stumbling about.

I called into our vet's pager, and of course, they had to be away, so I called a different exotic vet (2 hours away & alerted them I was on my way) I very carefully put her in the carrier, and within 10 minutes, she had passed away.

She just lay on her side & stopped breathing. I brought her home & buried, her & opted to NOT do a necropsy..

She was the snuggliest chinny I have ever known. definately my "favorite" personality-wise... I am totally shocked & just crushed. My dad thinks maybe she was jumping from the ledges & injured her spine? She is in a Marchioro Guinea pig cage So the ledges are NOT high from the floor, and there are double fleece blankets on the floor of the cage..so it would be a soft landing..

I am at a total loss..if anyone has any insight or ideas, it would be greatly appreciated..I am so shocked. I just lost my grandmother a week ago, and Luna passed the evening after my grandma's funeral, so I have been hit with a double whammy...

 

[CJR]

That is really terrible... I don't even know what to say. Perhaps she had a seizure? I don't know, I have no clue. I'm so sorry.

 

[starleomach]

sometimes it just happens..how old was she?

 

[momenteller]

I'm so sorry to hear about your Luna. What a shock that must be for you! Is it hot where you live right now? Perhaps she was overheated after having an extra long playtime?

 

[aznmexaggie]

I'm sorry for your loss.

Was it warm in the house - perhaps she overheated while dusting and jumping about in her cage?

Or she may have injured herself while jumping around on the new ledges. She may have misjudged a jump with the new ledge arrangement and landed awkwardly.

I would speculate that it may have just been a freak accident.

 

[Jenn]

I have no idea what may have happened, but want to offer my condolences to you. What a terrible loss and I'm so sorry you're in pain. Hopefully you can find some answers.

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

I'm so sorry for your loss. :flowers4:

Although it's difficult to make the decision to do so, having a necropsy done can usually give you some peace of mind by at least confirming the cause of death.

 

[cindyv3737]

I am so sorry for your loss. Big hugs from me to you.

 

[ticklechin]

Chinchillas can have heart attacks and strokes just like humans, I would guess it was something along those lines and not anthing you did. Sorry for your loss.

 

[jrosler04]

Thanks everyone, that does make me feel much better.
It wasn't hot in my room that day, about 70 or 72...

I have worried that maybe I handled her roughly, but I KNOW I didn't...I guess it's just natural instinct to try to figure out what happened. I know a necropsy would have helped figure it out, I just decided not to do one, we had family staying with us from out of state due to my grandmother's funeral the day before, and it was just a physically & emotionally exhausting week before I lost my litle girl.... My grandmother had a stroke the week before & was in the hospital for a week until she passed, we would go in at 8 am when ICU opened, and come home at 9pm when it closed... some nights we stayed in the waiting room..so the whole week had just been rough!

Thakns for the support... it means a lot....

 

[caiti]

I am so sorry that happened to you. You seem to be handling it much better than I ever would, so I'm sure I don't have any advice on coping with your loss. Although I wish I did.

It honestly sounds like it may have been something you didn't cause. Couldn't have been chemicals in the wood because she didn't even have enough time to digest it, and none of your other chinnies had her symptoms. Possibly she fell and had head trauma or something but you would have probably heard her fall that hard unless the room was loud at the time. She could have had blood sugar issues and died from complications of that. My cat was diagnosed with diabetes the day he died from it...we had no idea. He was an outdoor cat so we didn't notice his drinking/urinating behaviour. But looking back, I can see the signs, although no one in my family ever noticed them unfortunately. Or it could have been some other random disease.

Without a necropsy you'll never know. And of course even if you did have one, it may have not given you answers anyways. I understand not having one and that was your decision. I can relate to the feeling of needing a resolution and what it comes down to is: you didn't overtly do anything that would have endangered your chin's health, so as sad as this event is, you have no need to feel guilty and hopefully one day you won't.

 

[lauralynne]

So very sorry for your loss.

 

[ruoc]

I'm so sorry for your loss, both your Grandmother, and your chin.