Please please help

Tajohnson13 · Feb 14, 2012

my chinchilla Josie is almost 4 months old. I bought HER from a pet store almost a month ago. a few days ago she had slight diarrhea but i cleaned it all up and made sure she ate something and then the next day it was gone. well today i come home from school and she didnt run to the door like she normally does. so i had to reach back in the cage and pick her up. she was breathing but wasnt moving around at all. so i flipped her on her back to see if her legs were hurt or anything and i realized she had a clump of poop on her privates. so i cleaned it off and then i realized that she was wet all from her mouth down to her front leg. (still wasn't moving away from me at all) i realized that SHE is acutally a HE and the pet store was wrong, so for the passed month i havent been cleaning her down there really because i didn't think that was necessary with girls... after cleaning her up i kept her of her back to watch her to see if he would move but he didnt. he pooped 2 times which i feel is good because maybe all of the poop was blocking him. i tried to get him to eat anything at all but he wouldnt and wouldn't drink anything at all either so i put a wet Q tip in his mouth. i have to be at work at 5 so my mom rushed her to the vet. Do you think that there is any chance of him being okay or is it too late?:cry3:

tunes · Feb 14, 2012

The symptoms you describe don't sound like they come from a hair ring. It's possible, I suppose, but not likely. I don't do hair ring checks regularly unless I notice someone being a little too persistent about cleaning themselves. It's also not all that frequent to have a severe hair ring on a chin who lives alone, and a 4 month old to boot, if it's actually a 4 month old. The pet store has absolutely no way of knowing.

Lethargy is deadly in chins, and you did the right thing by getting him to the vet. With a huge clump of poop on his bottom, I would have to wonder about some sort of bowel issue, i.e., constipation, bloat, stasis. If it is one of the above, hopefully your vet is experienced with chins and will be able to prescribe the proper course of treatment. At the very least he will need subcu fluids and hand feeding with either Critical Care or Essentials For Life (sold by Tanya on this forum).

Please let us know what the vet says as soon as you can so we can try and help you as much as possible.