Sedative?

Ripleyd · Aug 25, 2011

For some reason in the veterinarian forum I couldn't post my question so hopefully someone can answer it here.

Tonight after having some fantastic thirty minutes or so of exercises running around and whatnot she began to grow restless. I finished off the night with her dust bath and put her in her cage, expecting she would probably be tired. I was very incorrect as she decided she was going to run around and climb up and down her cage. Unfortunately for poor Onyx, she isn't very light on her feet yet and was a bit uncoordinated. She fell a few times but onto her feet and she always sprang right back up. After ten minutes or so I looked over at her cage once more and saw her laid out on her side on the bottom level of her cage, sleeping.I figured she was hot and tired even with the ceiling fan on so I brought her chinchiller out and as I opened the cage I expected her to jump up like she normally does but she still laid there, barely moving. I scooched the chiller in and had to slide it under her chin because she wouldn't move. Finally after closing the cage, she stood and checked out the chiller and tried getting ontop of her shoebox (hidey house) and slipped, whimpering after she had done so. I stood up to look and see her do the same thing, slipping and whimpering. I worried and saw her limping slightly around her cage so I took her to an emergency vet. While waiting she was very lethargic and whimpering, she was not nearly as active as I'm used to with Onyx. The vet found nothing broken or fractured but injected a small dosage of pain medication since she was clearly in pain and I was just wondering if this would have something that would also put her to sleep. I know this may be a dumb question to ask but I wanted to check nonetheless. Thank you for reading this novel!

danilinn · Aug 26, 2011

do you have an exotic vet? if you don't, find one!
ours was wonderful with my little girl degu, who was just plain sickly most of her life. he uses traditional, herbal, and Chinese medicine on her, and she had a good, fairly active six months that she definitely wouldn't have had without his help.
i hope she's better this morning!

ticklechin · Aug 26, 2011

Did the vet check the gut for stasis? Any x-rays taken? Had the chin been eating and drinking up to this point? What was the temp in the room? How old is the chin? What sedative was used? What was the diagnosis that led the vet feel there was a injury?

tunes · Aug 26, 2011

The veterinarian forum is not for members to post questions and have a vet answer. It's for people to send me topics that they want discussed (not emergencies) and I forward the questions to a vet. I then post the answers. It's not open for discussion, it's more like reading an article.

As to your post, I second Dawn's questions. If you can give more information, that would be great.

Ripleyd · Aug 26, 2011

No she didn't do x-rays because nothing appeared wrong. Onyx appears to be better this morning. I'm monitoring her movement but there's not much limping or anything. She was eating and drinking her normal amount. The temp was probably low to mid sixties, she's approximately nine months. It wasn't a sedative I don't think as much as it was just a pain killer but Buprenex was what was used. After examining Onyx and finding nothing visibly broken she was concerned by her behavior and her not wanting to use her hind right foot so she wanted to give her a little dose of pain killer because there was obviously something wrong. I was just wondering if people had had a similar experience where the chin suddenly became more clumsy than usual or if it was normal for her to not want to move for a few hours at a time at night. Thank you

ticklechin · Aug 26, 2011

I have alot of experience with buprenex and its strong stuff, it causes them to act drunk and also causes nausea, it can cause stasis so motility drugs need to be if not on hand then a phone call away, its a drug of last resort IMO. I have had much better luck with metecam and tramadol used together for pain relief.