Trip to the Vet

9th September 2008

Last Friday, I let Winnie out for about 30 minutes, then I put him back into his cage. Half an hour later, he started barking non-stop. I got worried & picked him up to see if he happened to be injured from his time outside of the cage. I didn’t see anything wrong, so I put him back. I noticed that his white fur had shed a little on my black shirt. So I thought he was probably spooked by something.

When I put him back, he continued barking. He continued doing this throughout the night & I suspected something else was wrong.

I noticed from that day onwards that his poop has gotten smaller & harder. He’s been eating less & he’s more high strung than usual. I couldn’t see what’s wrong with him physically. Afraid that it might be something internal, I decided to take him to the vet.

This was my first time taking a chinnie to the vet. When vet examined Winnie physically & felt his colon, he said that it’s empty. A healthy chinchilla should have a colon full of poops (chinchillas poop non-stop hehe). On a good note, vet said that Winnie’s heart beats calm for a chinchilla :-D

The next thing the vet did was to take some stool samples to see whether there’s anything wrong with his digestive system. Result showed that there’s an abnormally high number of ‘bad’ bacteria (he explained to me in great details, but I sort of blanked out) found in his poop. Everything comes down to poop & now we know that Winnie’s problem isn’t from teeth deformity (which is very common in chinchillas). He said that the ‘bad’ bacteria has always been in his system, but was in small numbers & kept under control by healthy immune system. But for some reason, maybe due to stress (which can compromise the immune system) or just dirty food (we don’t know how pellets & timothy hay were processed etc), the ‘bad’ bacteria’s number multiplied.

Winnie’s been prescribed 2 oral medications: an antibiotic (to kill the ‘bad’ bacteria) for 1 week & some yellow gooey stuff (Bene-Bac Pet .. which is the ‘good’ bacteria to be added into his system) for 2 weeks. In the meantime, I have to keep an eye on him & make sure that he’s eating normally. If he doesn’t want to eat for the next 24-36 hours, vet said I might have to force-feed him. This was my first time taking a chin to the vet & I’m glad I got to see a vet who seems to know what he’s talking about.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Chinchilla care, Chinchilla health | Comments (8)

8 Responses to “Trip to the Vet”

  1. furrybutts Says:
    September 10th, 2008 at 4:57 am

    Get well soon, Winnie! Benebac is good for rabbits too. I have a tube at home, just in case any bun goes through GI stasis (touchwood!). Tried giving a little to Hans when I first got his, as he had a bit of excess cecals (soft stool).. he HATED it, lol! Luckily the excess cecals stopped after a couple of days.

  2. admin Says:
    September 10th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    Thank you.
    Now, I’m just trying to figure out the easiest way to give oral medications to Winnie.
    He’s fussy!

  3. Carlton Jamal Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 1:02 am

    Get well soon Winnie, eat up!! Hope your colon gets full up with healthy poop soon! x

  4. admin Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 2:14 am

    Thanks Carlton!

  5. Paige Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    I do hope that little Winnie gets well real soon and stays well!

  6. admin Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    Thanks Paige.
    I’ll relay the best wishes to Winnie :-)

  7. Ian Says:
    August 29th, 2009 at 1:45 am

    I really need to know this turn out ok for you.
    I have one fuzzy that has a big slightly firm stomach
    And one that stomach has gotten small the both seem ok. But I know they are good at hiding pain. I found the telltale small poop. One of them is not in good shape I am going to separate them to find out which. I will sleep at night if your tiny fuzz is ok.

  8. admin Says:
    August 30th, 2009 at 10:42 pm

    This was an old post.
    It took Winnie about 3 months to recover, even with all the medications he was taking.
    All it took was patience & persistence.

Leave a Reply