Not eating, can't figure out why. Please help!

[airicka88]

Hi All,

I am just curious if anyone might have any advice, because I am at a dead end with getting my chinchilla feeling better. So, here is my long story:

My chinchilla Lilly has recently not been eating. Because she hasn't been eating much of her normal food, I have been giving her critical care to maintain her weight. The vet has done abdominal X-rays, used a scope under anesthesia to look in her mouth and at her teeth, and done blood tests. Everything has come back normal.

The only thing that one vet noticed was that the opening to her uterus was slightly open, and her fur was very slightly stained yellow near her gentiles. He then figured she had a uterine infection, and possibly uterine disease, but not definite because he needed to do an ultrasound on her uterus to make sure. After everything else she went through and all the money I spent already, I decided not to do the ultrasound and just give her antibiotics. I was hoping that her eating habits would improve after the antibiotics, but they only improved a little, not back to normal anyways. She must be eating enough, as she has maintained her weight so far, but just isn't eating as much as she usually did before this episode.

During a phone conversation with the vet, I mentioned that there were tiny stains on the shelves in her cage that looked like urine, and for some reason she has been urinating in the hammock that she sleeps in. We thought her fur may have been yellow from uterine discharge, but I never saw any discharge. I was thinking that the yellow on her tail may be from her urinating in her hammock instead. He the mentioned that those small spots could be that she had a urinary infection but blew it off because she was already on antibiotics. So I am not sure if she even had a uterine infection to start with.

She also had two seizures just two days after stopping the antibiotics. The vet thinks she may be epileptic, as her previous test results didn't show any abnormalities that would have otherwise caused seizures. As background, she has had two seizures previously, but that was 4-5 years ago, and from heat (when I unfortunately didn't know any better about how warm she was). She has had a history of fluctuating her food intake during different seasons, and one vet chalked it up to being hormonal changes. So, she has always had digestive issues, but not anything this extreme.

I started giving her LifeLine to see if that would help, but it seemed to give her diarrhea, and the more I gave it to her the less she ate. I didn't expect this to happen, and was wondering if anyone else has experience issues with LifeLine?

So, after that long winded explanation, I was wondering if anyone has any advice on what the issue is and what I can do to help? I am curious to know if she might still have a lingering infection that didn't go completely away after the antibiotics, and if another round would help. I guess I am just grasping at any input to the situation, since we haven't found a solution yet. She has a very good vet, but they don't have any further recommendations for her treatment; somewhat at a dead end anyways.

Thanks for reading! I would love to hear any input!

Erica

 

[ticklechin]

Has the chin had a fecal float to check for parasites? What antibiotic as used? If it was baytril and this was my chin and I could not do the ultrasound I would opt for another antibiotic to be used with baytril such as flagyl but that said if there is a source of infection and its not removed there will never be a resolution by antibiotics unless its removed. I also don't like to use antibiotics unless there is a diagnosis or unless this is life threatening, I would really try however I could to get the ultrasound to check the GI tract and the uterus. The seizure bothers me also, what did the vet want to do for any treatment before or during? Epilepsy can be treated with the same drugs as humans.

 

[airicka88]

Thanks for your response. They did do a fecal float which came back negative. She was on Trimethoprim sulfa (TMS). Another reason I opted out of the ultrasounds was because she is a terrible fur chewer! Because of this, I figured that surgery is somewhat out of the question for her, since she would probably just rip her stitches apart. I am wondering if I would see the discharge if she really did have the uterine infection?

The only thing they said about the seizures was that I just need to keep her safe during them, and unless they see the seizures for themselves, they can't really diagnose what was going on. They did say there is epilepsy medication, but since she hasn't been having them very frequently, we decided to hold off on the medication. They did figure that she had a petit mal seizure instead of the more dangerous grand mal, because she never lost consciousness.

 

[Basket_of_Chinchillas]

You can make a cone for a chinchilla post-surgery to prevent them form pestering an incision, there are a couple of threads on here that tell you how to do it.

 

[ticklechin]

I could see using the TMS as a "guess" antibiotic since it usually does not cause digestive issues but its also not a big guns antibiotic, so its a $### if you do and @### if you don't use, since its not strong and won't touch some infections. I would if this was my chin move on to a big guns antibiotic but I also would not let chewing scare me off any treatment, the longer a infection stays the harder it is to treat, and if that means surgery so be it and deal with the aftermath I:E chewing with a cone. As far as the seizure, take a video next time since different seizures have different looks, and let the vet see that.

One last thing, infections in the uterus can be closed with no discharge.

 

[airicka88]

I had no idea a cone could be put on a chinchilla. I figured that would be difficult to do, so thank you for letting me know it is a possibility!

I have an appointment tomorrow at the vet and will ask for better antibiotics. Thanks a lot for the recommendations! I will let you know how things go.

 

[airicka88]

i just spoke with the vet, and he thinks that if we give another round of antibiotics, she will improve again for a short while and get worse again. He recommends doing the ultrasound for $150+ with anesthesia or drugs to calm her down. I would like to give her the antibiotics first to see if that cures her problem before resulting to ultrasound and subsequent surgery if needed, but that isn't entirely what the vet recommends. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to handle this? I hate to put her through the stress of the ultrasound when I could possibly just give her antibiotics again, but I also hate to possibly prolong the inevitable. Has anyone had experience with uterine infections clearing up with antibiotics, or is surgery the norm?

 

[Stackie]

In most pyometra cases it is best just to get the ovariohysterectomy done. If it was my chin I would do the surgery.

 

[Newt]

I've had 3 chins in all, and 2 have gone through the pyometra/emergency spay thing (though a few years apart thank goodness).
If your vet thinks it is pyometra, then I'd do the spay if I was you. I'm not going to lie, it is rough for the poor chins, but a uterine infection is very dangerous and difficult to treat with just antibiotics.

Both of my girls who had this had to wear cones, as they both chewed at their wounds and pulled stitches. The cone sucked: they hated it, and I had to syringe feed them every few hours as they couldn't eat normally.... but the cone was absolutely necessary to stop the wound chewing.

One thing though; has your vet done a cytological smear of the vaginal discharge? I ask, because in Poppy and Baby J's case, the clusters of bacterial cocci were very clearly visible, and that made the vet more sure of taking the surgical route.

If I was you I'd ask for swabs and cytological analysis, and I'd also do the ultrasound. If these tests both indicated pyometra, then I'd ask for the surgery ASAP.

It will be a tough couple of weeks on both you and your chinny, but it will be worth it to save her.
Both my girls came through their surgery and recovered well. I fed them lots of critical care with a syringe, added extra probiotics, and hand fed them individual strands of hay. I even slept by their cages, and set an alarm clock so I could give them feeds through the night!

Best wishes for you and Lilly.....sending positive vibes your way xxxxxx

 

[ticklechin]

Like I said in my first post, unless the source of the infection is removed, antibiotics will never clear it up, they may hold it at bay it but wont clear it completely. Better antibiotics and removal of the infection is what is needed.

 

[airicka88]

I've had 3 chins in all, and 2 have gone through the pyometra/emergency spay thing (though a few years apart thank goodness).
If your vet thinks it is pyometra, then I'd do the spay if I was you. I'm not going to lie, it is rough for the poor chins, but a uterine infection is very dangerous and difficult to treat with just antibiotics.

Both of my girls who had this had to wear cones, as they both chewed at their wounds and pulled stitches. The cone sucked: they hated it, and I had to syringe feed them every few hours as they couldn't eat normally.... but the cone was absolutely necessary to stop the wound chewing.

One thing though; has your vet done a cytological smear of the vaginal discharge? I ask, because in Poppy and Baby J's case, the clusters of bacterial cocci were very clearly visible, and that made the vet more sure of taking the surgical route.

If I was you I'd ask for swabs and cytological analysis, and I'd also do the ultrasound. If these tests both indicated pyometra, then I'd ask for the surgery ASAP.

It will be a tough couple of weeks on both you and your chinny, but it will be worth it to save her.
Both my girls came through their surgery and recovered well. I fed them lots of critical care with a syringe, added extra probiotics, and hand fed them individual strands of hay. I even slept by their cages, and set an alarm clock so I could give them feeds through the night!

Best wishes for you and Lilly.....sending positive vibes your way xxxxxx

Thanks for the responses. We never saw any discharge. The vet just assumed the discoloration on her fur was from discharge, but we never saw any actually being excreted from her uterus.