bigpappatrader
chinchillin
I lost one of my two beloved chins last night. I am heartbroken. Here's a tale of warning, and what I learned so that it may benefit others and hopefully prevent the same from happening to one of your chins.
I went away for the weekend Friday night. I usually just check their food and water and make sure they have a block of timothy hay to chew on. My father goes in every night to check on them and do the same whether I am there or not. I know my father isn't reliable in other areas but he loved the chins almost as much as I do and almost never missed a night of doing the "chinchilla show" as he called it when they'd come running for their snack. When I came home Monday night the large water bottle was almost empty, he had obviously not been in there Saturday, Sunday, or Monday before or after work. I mentioned it and he said he wan't home Saturday night and was too busy Sunday and forgot to go in there. Had he gone in to give them their snack and feed and water them he would have seen that my brown chin's eye was severely infected. So there's plenty of lessons in there to be learned. Don't take for granted that you can leave the chins for a few days with enough food and water, whether without somebody to check on them or with somebody unreliable. Get a reliable friend (or hire somebody) to go in and do the following things:
When you get back (and pretty much every other day) most of the things on this list should be followed. If these steps had been in place my chin would probably still be here. When I got home Monday night my chin's left eye was grotesquely and unbelievably swollen shut with puss coagulated around the opening. He was extremely lethargic and only moving around a little bit. I took my chin to the "exocitc pet specialist" vet first thing Tuesday morning. Lesson 2:
I applied the eyedrops as prescribed twice Tuesday 8 hours apart and then twice yesterday. When I went to apply them the third time he wasn't breathing.
Yesterday during the second application I realized I couldn't say for sure when the last time was that he had ate or drank anything. I was gone for 3 days and the entire water bottle was nearly empty, and one chinchilla can't do that in a weekend, so I figured he must have been drinking. When I brought my chin to the vet on Tuesday morning he asked me if my chin was eating and I said I didn't know. I thought he took a peanut the previous night so I told the vet that I thought he ate a peanute last night, and the vet didn't ask any more questions. I didn't see him eat anything the day I took him to the vet but thought if he was hungry he would eat. I still didn't realize what a big problem it was, I just thought it was an infected eye. Yesterday he was moving much much slower and refused all treats and tasty drinks (sometimes I give him a tongue full of flavored water, which he went nuts for). I decided that if I didn't see him eat or drink anything that day he'd be going back to the vet the next day. I still thought it wasn't a life threatening issue that he was dealing with. It was a grotesque eye infection, but after all it was just an eye infection, not, in my or apparently the vet's opinion, a life threating one. So maybe there's another lesson:
You can think I'm stupid or negligent if you want. I feel maybe I deserve it. But I took these chinchillas from a home where they weren't played with or let out or given sticks and baths all the time and I did this for them and I made them comfortable and safe.
If you have something to say, please offer it as advice and please be kind as I am still grieving. I hope you've learned something from this as I have.
I went away for the weekend Friday night. I usually just check their food and water and make sure they have a block of timothy hay to chew on. My father goes in every night to check on them and do the same whether I am there or not. I know my father isn't reliable in other areas but he loved the chins almost as much as I do and almost never missed a night of doing the "chinchilla show" as he called it when they'd come running for their snack. When I came home Monday night the large water bottle was almost empty, he had obviously not been in there Saturday, Sunday, or Monday before or after work. I mentioned it and he said he wan't home Saturday night and was too busy Sunday and forgot to go in there. Had he gone in to give them their snack and feed and water them he would have seen that my brown chin's eye was severely infected. So there's plenty of lessons in there to be learned. Don't take for granted that you can leave the chins for a few days with enough food and water, whether without somebody to check on them or with somebody unreliable. Get a reliable friend (or hire somebody) to go in and do the following things:
- Teach your sitter what normal behavior for each of your chins is. Anything that is out of the norm should be a sign that something is wrong.
- Sitter needs to inspect all chinchillas for lethargy. Make sure your sitter and you know the difference between groggy and lethargic. When I wake my chins up during the day you can pet their heads very easily because they're not really fully awake yet. Once they're awake for long enough they won't sit still for you to pet their heads for more than a few seconds. If they don't reach this point in five minutes after waking up something is very wrong. Your sitter should hang around long enough after they wake up to see if they are behaving and moving around normally.
- Teach your sitter be aware if one of the chinchillas isn't eating. This is somewhat difficult but you can easily tell if the chinchilla won't take his favorite snack. If he won't take his favorite snack that is a HUGE red flag.
- Have your sitter contact you at the first thought that something might be wrong. Also call them daily to see if they noticed anything unusual.
- Have your sitter know all of these things well before you go anywhere. It takes a little while to learn a chinchilla's personality and what is normal for him or her. Have a backup sitter that is just as good.
- Have your sitter thoroughly inspect each chin. Have them inspect each of your chins' eyes for discharge or swelling. Depending on how friendly your chins are, have the sitter run his or her hand around the chin looking for any abrasions. This is probably best done when they first wake up and are still groggy. Make sure they hang around enough to determine if each chinchilla is pooping, and if its consistency is normal.
- Have your sitter look for any blockages in access to food or water. I came home one day and they had managed to jam their sleeping igloo into the top floor opening and they couldn't get to their food/water. It might be a good idea to have backups on each level of the cage.
- Have sitter check temprature, you should have a thermometer next to your cage anyway, and make sure they know acceptable temperature ranges.
- I would personally advise against having the sitter take them out and play with them, but that's up to you. I don't know anybody else (besides another chin lover and owner) who would be able to handle them with the care their little bodies need when picking them up and making them feel comfortable and safe outside of their cage.
- Have sitter make sure chin is peeing. My chins usually go within 10 minutes of first waking up. This is a good sign that they are drinking. Or maybe have them offer the chin a sweet beverage they like. I've given them tongue fulls of zero calorie flavored water and they love it. If they refuse it, something is seriously wrong.
When you get back (and pretty much every other day) most of the things on this list should be followed. If these steps had been in place my chin would probably still be here. When I got home Monday night my chin's left eye was grotesquely and unbelievably swollen shut with puss coagulated around the opening. He was extremely lethargic and only moving around a little bit. I took my chin to the "exocitc pet specialist" vet first thing Tuesday morning. Lesson 2:
- Do NOT use pine shavings. Throw them out right now. Apparently a small piece of pine shaving became lodged in his eye at some point over the weekend, which caused the infection. The vet recommended to switch to only paper based shavings. When the vet flushed my chin's eye out with some liquid solution a small piece of pine shaving came out.
- My personal opinion is that with the grotesque way the eye was swollen an antiobiotic eyedrop 3x a day was not nearly enough to save my chinchilla's life. The vet should have recommended something more drastic, I don't know what. I took many pictures of the eye if anybody thinks they might be able to offer an idea of what the vet should have done (I'm not going to post them publicly because it is a truly horrific sight). The lesson that I believe needs to be learned is: Get a second opninion from another vet any time your chin has a serious condition. Ask people on the internet if they've seen anything similar (but don't neglect the second vet opinion).
I applied the eyedrops as prescribed twice Tuesday 8 hours apart and then twice yesterday. When I went to apply them the third time he wasn't breathing.
Yesterday during the second application I realized I couldn't say for sure when the last time was that he had ate or drank anything. I was gone for 3 days and the entire water bottle was nearly empty, and one chinchilla can't do that in a weekend, so I figured he must have been drinking. When I brought my chin to the vet on Tuesday morning he asked me if my chin was eating and I said I didn't know. I thought he took a peanut the previous night so I told the vet that I thought he ate a peanute last night, and the vet didn't ask any more questions. I didn't see him eat anything the day I took him to the vet but thought if he was hungry he would eat. I still didn't realize what a big problem it was, I just thought it was an infected eye. Yesterday he was moving much much slower and refused all treats and tasty drinks (sometimes I give him a tongue full of flavored water, which he went nuts for). I decided that if I didn't see him eat or drink anything that day he'd be going back to the vet the next day. I still thought it wasn't a life threatening issue that he was dealing with. It was a grotesque eye infection, but after all it was just an eye infection, not, in my or apparently the vet's opinion, a life threating one. So maybe there's another lesson:
- Every injury is a life threatining injury to a chinchilla.
- Every change in behavior is an indication that an underlying life threatening issue may be present
You can think I'm stupid or negligent if you want. I feel maybe I deserve it. But I took these chinchillas from a home where they weren't played with or let out or given sticks and baths all the time and I did this for them and I made them comfortable and safe.
If you have something to say, please offer it as advice and please be kind as I am still grieving. I hope you've learned something from this as I have.
