Vet visit tomorrow - Paw Talk

Becki · #1 03-08-2002, 09:21 PM

Ricky has had soft poos off and on since I've had him, and I thought that maybe he just had a sensitive stomach(wishful thinking i guess), it usually happens when he gets bananna chips and/or raisins more than a day or two in a row and its quickly cured with a day or two of no treats and burnt toast. Anyhow, his son has come to live with him, and after one day the baby has soft poos too! I suspect Ricky may have giardia (sp?), so I'm taking him and the baby to the vet tomorrow. I should ask him to do a wet slide right? Is there anything else I should ask about, any medications I should request or turn down? Also, I put Ricky in with Lucy and the other baby to get aquainted before the move, their poos look fine, but do you think they may have been infected too?

One more problem, on a few occaisions I have found blood in Ricky's cage, little streaks like a foot or tail was bleeding and lesving smudges of blood. Every time (3 times now) I've checked him out thoroghly (no small task I assure you, lol) and found nothing wrong with him, no wounds, no sore spots, no blood anywhere on him! I will definetly discuss this with the vet, but has this happened with anyone else, any ideas what might be happening?

*Christi* · #2 03-08-2002, 10:17 PM

I agree, the blood may be related to the diarrhea - also, you will need to treat all of your chins just to be on the safe side - otherwise they'll just pass it back and forth. Also step up your sanitizing, maybe sterilize the cages more often and try to kill whatever is in there. Make sure you wash your hands between each chin.

Good luck and keep us posted!!

Sassy · #3 03-08-2002, 10:22 PM

I agree with Christi and Tenhogues the blood very well may be related to the diarrhea. Good luck at the vet...

Becki · #4 03-08-2002, 10:34 PM

I was afraid of that, but at least this will be a non life threatening vet visit, I can't remember the last one of those!
If it does turn out to be giardia, what medicine should I expect, should I ask for anything in particular? Thanks for the input everyone, you guys are great!

*Christi* · #5 03-08-2002, 10:38 PM

From www.cachins.com:

Giardia is a flagellate protozoan, that is it has a whip like tail. It also has a sucker like mouth and attaches itself to the surface of intestinal mucosa. The method of contamination is fecal-oral; this is when dirty paws or feces gets into feed, and other chins eat the food. Humans can catch the giardia by using unwashed hands to handle food, and pass it onto other animals by handling their food with unwashed hands. The eggs [oocysts] travel from the mouth, through the stomach and into the small intestine and there lodge and multiply. Chinchillas normally harbor giardia species in low numbers [Donnelly etal] which commonly causes no problems for the chinchilla. But, under stress, in the presence of a dirty environment, contaminated water supplies, or at times when the immune system is lowered in other illnesses or trauma the giardia can then cause disease. (If you don't think your water supply can possibly be contaminated, remember the levels that are safe for a human are higher than levels of the same organism that is safe for something as small as a chinchilla. Know too that the whole Sierra Nevada water system is contaminated with giardia, and the Rocky Mountain water system is fast becoming so.) The symptoms tend to be anything from increased appetite, to decreased activity, diarrhea [or constipation] and even collapse. The diarrhea tends to be large wet stools that shine with mucous, are very squashy and tend to be smeared on the house, perches, and other flat surfaces of the chinchilla cage. Diagnosis is best done on a fresh fecal smear-- take your sick chinchilla to a vet, let him/her get a piece of feces dropped within the past 2 minutes in the office, place it onto a slide and squash it, and put a couple drops normal saline onto the slide. The slide should show the giardia easily. Treatment is usually recommended to be metronidazol [flagyl] but we have found better success with albendazole or fenbendazole. Care of the animal consists of fluids to replace fluids lost in the diarrhea [see diarrhea], high energy foods [see food supplements] and cleaning the cage and environment of the chinchilla with good disinfectants such as 20% bleach, dettrol, lysol etc.

Becki · #6 03-09-2002, 12:27 AM

Thanks Christi, I'll take that to the vet's with me tomorrow. You rock!

*Christi* · #7 03-09-2002, 10:12 AM

I rock? Well, thank you!! You're pretty great yourself!

Sassy · #8 03-09-2002, 11:03 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by ChinTopia How did the vet visit go?!

I was gonna ask that same question...LOL

Becki · #9 03-10-2002, 01:43 AM

The diagnosis is that it may or may not be girardia (didn't test for it), but the vet said that the diarreah is really the problem, and girardia is fairly normal and not harmful in small amounts. The diareah is probably being caused by stressors like moving cages around, new cagemates, or the aggresive chin next door and when they have diareah there is a bigger better breeding environment for the girardia (or other bad bacteria), so then that gets up to risky levels. So, he gave me sulfatrim for Ricky and the baby to be given 2x daily and bene-bac to be given every other day to Ricky, Lucy and the babies (they had soft poo's this morning too) as well.
So it seems all is well, thank you guys very much for your help, it was nice to go in and know what I was talking about (I think the vet was impressed too, lol).

BTW Christi>> Don't worry, to rock is a good thing!