sneezing chin

[Pogie]

Hi i am a new chin owner. i have a 2 year old female chin named lucy. i have known her for a year and a half (was my friends sister) i have taken care of her for 6 months but have only owned her for about 1 month. For the past 6 months she has been sneezing a lot when she is awake(never when she is asleep). Up until recently i was not allowed to take her to a vet because she was not mine yet. She has always and still is active, she drinks and eats normally, her poops are normal. the vet gave us some medicine just in case it is a respiratory infection bet he said she seems normal besides her sneezing.

She took her meds for ten days as prescribed but nothing has really changed. She still sneezes about 10 times a day for about 10 seconds each. Her eyes are clear and she will have an occasional booger. i have tied changing her sub strait and dust bath multiple times. I also make sure to take her out for about 2 hours during the day and 1 hour before i go to bed.

If it is a respiratory infection wouldn't she possibly have died by now is there anything else it could be or is she just a sneezy chinchilla?

Thank you hopefully i can figure out what is going on.

 

[Amethyst]

Chins can have allergies, I personally have never had one with that issue, but others have. A couple common issues may be easily fixed, what are you using for litter? Pine shavings are a common allergy trigger for both chins and humans. Other options for litter if that is the case is to use aspen shavings or switch to using fleece liners for the cage if you can. Also, are you leaving the dust bath in the cage? if so that is not good, living in constant dust will make anyone sneeze. They should only have access to the bath for about 15 minutes or less a couple times a week, the rest of the time it shouldn't be in the cage.

 

[Pogie]

i am using a paper bedding Ive tried aspen before that didn't make it any better and i do not leave the bath in there she only gets it 2-3 times a week. and where do you get fleece liners?

 

[Shikiti]

What type of dust are you using? I found for my chinchilla she sneezed a lot when I had a bad brand of dust, switched it out and no more sneezing since.

 

[Godofgods]

side note; paper beddings like carefresh are dangerous. When a chin eats it (and they will at some point) it enteres there gut and mixes with the water and starts to expand. This can cause impaction with can lead to some painful medical problems for them (up to the worst)