I'd love to get a brainstorm going to see if I can figure out what's going on with Lady. I apologize but it's a complicated issue:
Winter 2011:
-Lady stopped drinking out of a water bottle, stopped eating oxbow pellets, stopped eating timothy hay. Became constipated, bloated, and went into stasis
-We pulled her out of stasis and treated the bloat. Oral exams, xrays, fecal tests, blood work, and ultrasound could not diagnose the root of the issue.
-We began testing different pellets, Lady either refused to eat them or they caused her to bloat.
-As a last ditch effort I switched her to Beaphar. She ate the food and did well on it.
2011-2014
-She'll go through periodic episodes of not eating, constipation, hard stomach. I treat her at home with simethicone, feeding hay only, adding alfalfa to the diet. It usually clears up in 2-3 days.
August 2014
-We move from Ohio to South Carolina
-food stays the same, water is a different 'brand' but it's still manufactured by Nestle Waters
-Housing conditions are as close to what they were in Ohio as I can make them, lighting, ventilation, sounds, etc... Humidity is 60% instead of 50%.
October 2014
-Lady goes off her feed again, gets very constipated. This time around pellets are crumbled and scattered throughout cage.
-Vet does thorough oral exam and xrays, everything checks out
-I've been treating with 10ml critical care 2x a day and .4ml metaclopromide 2x a day for the last month. She gets better on this regiment and starts to eat both hay and pellets (2 tbsp.) along with the critical care. Every time I start to slowly wean her off the critical care she starts to get constipated (and stops eating on her own). I can get her down to 5ml cc 1x per day and she's still on the metaclopromide 2x a day. Every time I go back to the vet they tell me to up the handfeeding and wean her at a slower rate (we've done this 3x with the same result).
On Saturday she developed a watery right eye, I've flushed it with artificial tears, but it's getting worse. Today her left eye started watering so I brought her back to the vet. They don't see any corneal abrasions and don't want to put her on antibiotics because they're concerned that antibiotics plus metaclopromide will cause more stomach issues. The vet down here doesn't see a lot of chinchillas so I called my old vet in Cincinnati. He reviewed the xrays and agrees that her teeth/roots look fine. He's recommending that I request sub-q fluids and a full body xray, which I will do. He also said if it doesn't clear up we should do fresh blood work and see if anything has changed in four years.
I know we still need to do some more testing, but I'm preparing myself for the fact that they may be inconclusive like they were four years ago. Last time around the only thing that worked was switching her to beaphar, now that she's not eating the beaphar I don't know what else we can try. Has anyone dealt with any less common conditions that we should consider if these tests come back normal? I remember that someone (Dawn maybe?) had chins with gluten or wheat issues? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!
Winter 2011:
-Lady stopped drinking out of a water bottle, stopped eating oxbow pellets, stopped eating timothy hay. Became constipated, bloated, and went into stasis
-We pulled her out of stasis and treated the bloat. Oral exams, xrays, fecal tests, blood work, and ultrasound could not diagnose the root of the issue.
-We began testing different pellets, Lady either refused to eat them or they caused her to bloat.
-As a last ditch effort I switched her to Beaphar. She ate the food and did well on it.
2011-2014
-She'll go through periodic episodes of not eating, constipation, hard stomach. I treat her at home with simethicone, feeding hay only, adding alfalfa to the diet. It usually clears up in 2-3 days.
August 2014
-We move from Ohio to South Carolina
-food stays the same, water is a different 'brand' but it's still manufactured by Nestle Waters
-Housing conditions are as close to what they were in Ohio as I can make them, lighting, ventilation, sounds, etc... Humidity is 60% instead of 50%.
October 2014
-Lady goes off her feed again, gets very constipated. This time around pellets are crumbled and scattered throughout cage.
-Vet does thorough oral exam and xrays, everything checks out
-I've been treating with 10ml critical care 2x a day and .4ml metaclopromide 2x a day for the last month. She gets better on this regiment and starts to eat both hay and pellets (2 tbsp.) along with the critical care. Every time I start to slowly wean her off the critical care she starts to get constipated (and stops eating on her own). I can get her down to 5ml cc 1x per day and she's still on the metaclopromide 2x a day. Every time I go back to the vet they tell me to up the handfeeding and wean her at a slower rate (we've done this 3x with the same result).
On Saturday she developed a watery right eye, I've flushed it with artificial tears, but it's getting worse. Today her left eye started watering so I brought her back to the vet. They don't see any corneal abrasions and don't want to put her on antibiotics because they're concerned that antibiotics plus metaclopromide will cause more stomach issues. The vet down here doesn't see a lot of chinchillas so I called my old vet in Cincinnati. He reviewed the xrays and agrees that her teeth/roots look fine. He's recommending that I request sub-q fluids and a full body xray, which I will do. He also said if it doesn't clear up we should do fresh blood work and see if anything has changed in four years.
I know we still need to do some more testing, but I'm preparing myself for the fact that they may be inconclusive like they were four years ago. Last time around the only thing that worked was switching her to beaphar, now that she's not eating the beaphar I don't know what else we can try. Has anyone dealt with any less common conditions that we should consider if these tests come back normal? I remember that someone (Dawn maybe?) had chins with gluten or wheat issues? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!
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