Hello everyone,
I'm new to this site and to owning chinchillas. I'll be upfront in saying we bought our chins without knowing everything about them.
We bought Gizzmo about a month ago and Archie two weeks ago.
Gizzmo is great, active with a big personality and poops and drinks like a king
These two unfortunately do not get along but it will take time. And will probably ask for some help later on with that.
My issue right now is with Archie. When we bought him from the pet store (first mistake) he was so passive and clam that I just fell in love with him. We noticed right away that he didn't poop much and we thought nothing of it at first. A week later I got really concerned as he was not drinking or eating and was noticing that maybe it was not his personality and perhaps he was sick. We brought him to a clinic for exotic animals and was told he was hypothermic and had bacteria in his digestive track and had probably gotten into his bloodstream. He looked big, but as it turns out he was very skinny (416 grams)(he has longer fur than Gizzmo) and his stomach was bloated.
So the vet told us normal body temp was 101 -104F for a chinchilla and wanted to put him on heating pads in an incubator right away. Now I know I'm a newb but that just seemed very odd since 75 is the highest a room should be. Anyways she prescribed the following meds: metronidazole .04 cc, ovol 1cc, metacam .07cc and trimebutine .01cc all twice daily plus bene-bac .05 cc once per day. Also critical care 20cc/ day. And if he wasn't drinking to do half OJ half water and feed him via syringe. So we followed all the directions put him on heating pads and gave all the medication as prescribed. But we had issues with the heating ... it just didn't seem right. After further investigation the vet was wrong, body temp should be 97 - 100F. Had we followed her directions little Archie would be dead of heat stroke. His poop was smelling very bad and were far and few between however we did see some improvement in size and frequency. No discharges, they were about 1/8th what Gizzmos were and looked frail.
So a week later, now a poop expert, I took him to a different vet, took some X-rays and she recommended I continue with the meds until they run out, I haev almost 3 weeks of meds when the first vet said max 7 days, But to stop the OJ and water because of the sugars in OJ. I was out of the Ovol and she did not prescribe more as she did not have any at the clinic and could not find the human dosage equivalent. She replaced the metacam with .01 safe-guard (1 dose per day for 3 days) and added 1.6cc of sulfa/trim 160/32mg/ml (2 doses per day for 2 weeks). And added .1 of laxatone daily. The X-Rays did show some gas and constipation, the gas bubble was about the size of a quarter. This vet also told me he should have about a cup of diversified veggies per day including carrots, which I know to be harmful for him. So now I'm doubting her competencies as well.
800$ later and we've only had him for 2 weeks I can't afford to go to the vet every week. I just want him to get better and get the right answers the first time around. He's now eating on his own (still doing the critical care though and weening him off slowly) but it seems that his tummy is getting bloated again. So my question is: 1.6cc of sulfatrim is that too much? He'll take all his other meds but this one he spits out. I'm not sure if it's the taste or if he knows that it's bad for him. Please help as I do not want to administer drugs in dosages that could kill him. FYI he's 5 months old and weighs .97lbs.
We do not have other exotic vets in my city, both are giving wrong info.
I really appreciate any info you can provide.
Thank you!
I'm new to this site and to owning chinchillas. I'll be upfront in saying we bought our chins without knowing everything about them.
We bought Gizzmo about a month ago and Archie two weeks ago.
Gizzmo is great, active with a big personality and poops and drinks like a king
These two unfortunately do not get along but it will take time. And will probably ask for some help later on with that.
My issue right now is with Archie. When we bought him from the pet store (first mistake) he was so passive and clam that I just fell in love with him. We noticed right away that he didn't poop much and we thought nothing of it at first. A week later I got really concerned as he was not drinking or eating and was noticing that maybe it was not his personality and perhaps he was sick. We brought him to a clinic for exotic animals and was told he was hypothermic and had bacteria in his digestive track and had probably gotten into his bloodstream. He looked big, but as it turns out he was very skinny (416 grams)(he has longer fur than Gizzmo) and his stomach was bloated.
So the vet told us normal body temp was 101 -104F for a chinchilla and wanted to put him on heating pads in an incubator right away. Now I know I'm a newb but that just seemed very odd since 75 is the highest a room should be. Anyways she prescribed the following meds: metronidazole .04 cc, ovol 1cc, metacam .07cc and trimebutine .01cc all twice daily plus bene-bac .05 cc once per day. Also critical care 20cc/ day. And if he wasn't drinking to do half OJ half water and feed him via syringe. So we followed all the directions put him on heating pads and gave all the medication as prescribed. But we had issues with the heating ... it just didn't seem right. After further investigation the vet was wrong, body temp should be 97 - 100F. Had we followed her directions little Archie would be dead of heat stroke. His poop was smelling very bad and were far and few between however we did see some improvement in size and frequency. No discharges, they were about 1/8th what Gizzmos were and looked frail.
So a week later, now a poop expert, I took him to a different vet, took some X-rays and she recommended I continue with the meds until they run out, I haev almost 3 weeks of meds when the first vet said max 7 days, But to stop the OJ and water because of the sugars in OJ. I was out of the Ovol and she did not prescribe more as she did not have any at the clinic and could not find the human dosage equivalent. She replaced the metacam with .01 safe-guard (1 dose per day for 3 days) and added 1.6cc of sulfa/trim 160/32mg/ml (2 doses per day for 2 weeks). And added .1 of laxatone daily. The X-Rays did show some gas and constipation, the gas bubble was about the size of a quarter. This vet also told me he should have about a cup of diversified veggies per day including carrots, which I know to be harmful for him. So now I'm doubting her competencies as well.
800$ later and we've only had him for 2 weeks I can't afford to go to the vet every week. I just want him to get better and get the right answers the first time around. He's now eating on his own (still doing the critical care though and weening him off slowly) but it seems that his tummy is getting bloated again. So my question is: 1.6cc of sulfatrim is that too much? He'll take all his other meds but this one he spits out. I'm not sure if it's the taste or if he knows that it's bad for him. Please help as I do not want to administer drugs in dosages that could kill him. FYI he's 5 months old and weighs .97lbs.
We do not have other exotic vets in my city, both are giving wrong info.
I really appreciate any info you can provide.
Thank you!
