Hi everybody,
(Short story: 10 year old Chinchilla isn't eating solid pellets or hay or chewing on any wood or chew toys. She will eat ground-up pellets mixed with water only. Also, she possibly has a runny nose. Vet says teeth look great, she had them trimmed recently. Antibiotics not helping.)
More Info: I've had my chinchilla Bambina for 10 years (we got her from a Petco originally so I don't know exactly how old she is, I'm guessing between 10.5 - 11 years). She's never had health problems till now.
A couple months ago, I noticed she stopped chewing on her wood and lava rocks in her cage, and also stopped eating her hay. I took her to a local exotics vet and it turns out she had spurs on her teeth, so they trimmed them down and gave me some pain killers as medication for her. While she was healing, they gave me Critical Care which she ate it readily. I also ground down her pellets and mixed them with water, she ate that too but nothing else.
Over a month later, she still wasn't eating her regular pellets, so I took her to a different vet (upon the previous vet's recommendation). I told them she had her teeth trimmed about 1.5 months prior, so they looked at her teeth and said they looked great, especially for a 10-year-old chinchilla. They gave me some antibiotics to give to her to see if that helped.
So far she's still only eating her mushy, ground-up pellet mixture. She won't touch her hay or pellets or attempt to chew on anything. Oh and it looks like she might be having a runny nose as well...
She's still drinking water and she's still fairly active, and she has regular bowel movements. Maybe not as much as before, but she still seems ok on that level. Her pellets are Manna Pro Rabbit Sho, and the hays I try to give her are timothy and orchard grass.
We're in Utah and it doesn't seem like there are any chinchilla specialists here that I can find - if you have any idea what might be happening to my chinchilla, please help!
Thank you!
(Short story: 10 year old Chinchilla isn't eating solid pellets or hay or chewing on any wood or chew toys. She will eat ground-up pellets mixed with water only. Also, she possibly has a runny nose. Vet says teeth look great, she had them trimmed recently. Antibiotics not helping.)
More Info: I've had my chinchilla Bambina for 10 years (we got her from a Petco originally so I don't know exactly how old she is, I'm guessing between 10.5 - 11 years). She's never had health problems till now.
A couple months ago, I noticed she stopped chewing on her wood and lava rocks in her cage, and also stopped eating her hay. I took her to a local exotics vet and it turns out she had spurs on her teeth, so they trimmed them down and gave me some pain killers as medication for her. While she was healing, they gave me Critical Care which she ate it readily. I also ground down her pellets and mixed them with water, she ate that too but nothing else.
Over a month later, she still wasn't eating her regular pellets, so I took her to a different vet (upon the previous vet's recommendation). I told them she had her teeth trimmed about 1.5 months prior, so they looked at her teeth and said they looked great, especially for a 10-year-old chinchilla. They gave me some antibiotics to give to her to see if that helped.
So far she's still only eating her mushy, ground-up pellet mixture. She won't touch her hay or pellets or attempt to chew on anything. Oh and it looks like she might be having a runny nose as well...
She's still drinking water and she's still fairly active, and she has regular bowel movements. Maybe not as much as before, but she still seems ok on that level. Her pellets are Manna Pro Rabbit Sho, and the hays I try to give her are timothy and orchard grass.
We're in Utah and it doesn't seem like there are any chinchilla specialists here that I can find - if you have any idea what might be happening to my chinchilla, please help!
Thank you!
