Incontinence?

[lolanu]

I just woke up at 10 after falling asleep on the couch. I had been awake at 8 and checked on my chin Caboose, who was hiding behind her cold water bottle wrapped in a shirt. She seemed fine, so I gave her some scritches and took a nap. Now, she's constantly pawing at her mouth, which is wet, and obsessively cleaning her "downstairs", which is also pretty wet. She's eating and everything, she's just wet. I'm going to clean her with a wet towel right now and check again soon.

 

[Stackie]

I would get her to the vet asap. Females have been known to get pyometra, which is an infection of the uterus that can quickly turn deadly. Not sure why she would be pawing at the mouth- usually indicates teeth issues, but everything you have said has really raised up red flags and she needs to get to a vet.

Or, perhaps she got something stuck in her mouth, causing drooling and the pawing at the mouth.....

All we can do is speculate, she needs veterinary attention.

 

[lolanu]

I've made her an appointment at 4 with my vet. He is not an exotics specialist, but he knows what he is doing and will send me to someone else if he cannot fix it. I will let you know.

 

[lolanu]

I ended up taking her to a different vet that has had some experience with chinchillas, and she definitely has a uterine infection and has also given herself pneumonia by cleaning her infected genitals. She is on Baytril, I will stay up tonight with her to make sure her condition does not worsen. If necessary, we will have to consider surgery to completely spay her once her pneumonia clears. Thank you very much for telling me to take her in, I would not have guessed from what just seemed like incontinence to my inexperienced self.

 

[Twilight Chinchillas]

Poor baby, I will keep her in my thoughts!

 

[3CsMommy]

*crosses fingers* Poor darling. Don't forget to eat and stay hydrated yourself as all this goes on. You can't take care of her if you don't take care of you.

 

[lolanu]

I will. I should be sleeping more but I can catch up on that once she's more stable, I worry because she's so young. It will be a Ramen stakeout; she's enjoying the company, although I don't think I can take much more Black and White 2 today. I'll keep updates on her in the Chin Chat section, because it doesn't really fit in any other category any more.