Scooter died :(...not sure how.

[pbr87]

Scooter (my go's 3rd chinchilla), died half an hour ago in my lap. He was looking sick yesterday, and I was planning on taking him to the vet later today. My gf adopted him from a friend of hers about a month ago, and he was super fat-looking, but pretty healthy overall. I noticed he had a lump on the back of his neck (not a fur clump because I checked), but I thought nothing of it at the time... Im not sure what caused him to die, but I think it may be related to a lump on the back of his neck that seems to have gotten larger since we got him. He also had a lump in his lower abdomen today that he did not have when we got him...I thought maybe he had something lodged in his stomach, and when I tried massaging this lump very gently, he groaned...started twitching and died a few minutes later. My question is: what caused him to die? Was it this strange lump on his neck or something else?...it also occurred to me that he may have just been old and died of old age. Neither of us has any clue how old he is.

The good news: meatball and cupcake are still alive and well. Scooter will be missed. He was a good little fatty, even if we only had him for a month.

 

[ticklechin]

Only a necropsy would tell you what happened. Lumps are not caused by old age, without a vet visit with the chin alive for x-rays and the such or necropsy you won't know.

 

[pbr87]

Only a necropsy would tell you what happened. Lumps are not caused by old age, without a vet visit with the chin alive for x-rays and the such or necropsy you won't know.

Thanks for your input. An autopsy on a chinchilla just doesn't seem worth the time or expense...it won't bring him back.

 

[ChinnyMom]

if there are other chins being housed near the one that died, then a necropsy is very important to ensure that whatever caused the death of Scooter does not affect the other two chins.

 

[AZChins]

There's so much that that lump on his belly could have been. It could have been an abscess, gas in the intestinal tract, a hernia, a large obstruction, or maybe even fluid that pooled down there because he was in congestive heart failure.

It really isn't a waste to have a chinchilla necropsied. It's good to know what happened because you have other chins. This could have been something very contagious. Certain strains of bacteria can cause horrible abscesses as a chin is dying of an infection from the same bacteria getting into the upper respiratory tract or into the lungs. This is very very contagious and your other chins could be sick.

Please keep a close eye on the other chinchillas and make sure that your food and hay has no mold. I hope that you quarantined the new chin before he was introduced to the other two.

 

[ticklechin]

If chinchillas are not necropsied when the cause of death is uncertain, nothing is learned from the death and its a waste. If more people necropsied chinchillas, more vets would learn and more owners would learn. Its sad.

 

[tcraighenry]

@ticklechin The problem is it's extremely expensive. Especially when you're dealing with other vet bills.

 

[ticklechin]

I pay 60.00 for a gross necropsy and 177.10 for a full necropsy, its not alot of money as far as vet bills go. My vet does the gross, UC davis does the full.

 

[AZChins]

It's $95 for a necropsy with cultures and a full toxicology work up here. Normally it isn't too bad if you can go directly to the ag lab closest to you and not pay for someone to transport and need a cut for it.

I wouldn't say that it is extremely expensive...it's not that bad and definitely within reach of most people to prevent other chins from dying. If there were no other chins in the house in this case, I wouldn't even mention it.

Some vets will do a quick gross necropsy very inexpensively just to expand their own knowledge on chins.

 

[tcraighenry]

@ticklechin Ours was quoted at $200. When you already have $400 out, that's a lot of money.

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

I'm so sorry for your loss of Scooter. :flowers5:

When Baby died suddenly and unexpectedly, I was very interested to learn why. I had a necropsy performed for my own peace of mind.

 

[greychins]

Sorry for your loss...

As for the necropsy... I would contact other vets and see what they charge. We go to a vet over an hour away for our major chin problems, but if we're looking for something like a necropsy or having a chin PTS, the local vets work just fine and actually charge about 1/3 the price of our exotics-only vet.